Page 68 of Second Chance Baby
“Oh, do you now?” I scratched my chin. “Hmm.”
“No ‘hmm’. No story here. You had like half a dozen flamingos with witch hats. I didn’t think you’d miss one. I’ll pay you back.”
I waved him off. “You can keep it for her. I assume it’s a her?”
He nodded, saying nothing more.
I shifted my feet. “Look, your life is your business.”
“Thank you. I just said the same to your…Bridget.”
“Why? What did she say to you?”
He shrugged.
“Are you keeping secrets for her now?”
“No, I tried to be a friend to her. Something I suspect she sorely needs. She loves you, you idiot.”
His words warmed my chest, and I caught myself smiling dopily until I managed to compose my face into sober lines. Then I figured why should I hide my feelings? I should share everything freely now if that was what I wanted from her.
And I loved that woman with my whole heart.
“I want to marry her and possibly have a half dozen more kids with her, if she’s on board. Do you have any thoughts on that you’d like to share? Maybe you’d like to warn me away and suggest I get my head examined?”
“Who said that to you?” He staked his flamingo beside him.
“No one yet. But just thinking ahead. I know everyone worries. And I get that. I’d worry too if I was on the outside, looking in. But she makes me so fucking happy, man.”
“Even with the risk you have to take?”
“Loving someone is the only risk worth taking.”
He cocked his head. “When did you get so wise?”
“Oh, I’m just faking it. Trying to keep up with my super smart kid.” I glanced behind me just to make sure we weren’t being overheard. “Who’s scaring the hell out of me by inferring things about sex she shouldn’t know yet. She’s not even eleven yet, man.”
He winced and shoved a hand through his hair before he twisted the band off his wrist to tie it back. “Not my department, dude.”
“Yeah, I know. How old were we, man? We couldn’t have known much at her age, right?”
“Males are born knowing about sex.”
“That is true, kinda. But kids her age know so damn much, it’s boggling. Freaking social media is a gateway drug to all knowledge.”
“Yet you want more of them?” He looked over his shoulder as if he was making sure he wasn’t being tracked too.
“So, who’s the chick?”
“Rita Savage,” he said, his eyes going wide as if he was surprised he’d fessed up.
He wasn’t the only one.
“No way. The woman you were rude to?” Then the reality dawned on me. “Mating dance? Sorry, off my game. She’s gorgeous though. Seems really nice too. Be careful with her.”
He started to blow me off and then he angled his head to study me more carefully. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I wasn’t as careful as I should’ve been and didn’t tell Bridget exactly how I felt enough so she got scared over everything and didn’t feel she could talk to me about it. She had her own stuff from her past, and it messed her all up. Which, of course, affected us too. And she blamed herself for everything when I didn’t do half of what I should have to make her feel loved and protected and like I put her first. Carrington too, of course,” I added hastily.