Page 26 of Stepping Up

“Are you sure? I can?—”

“Completely, my dude.” I stood from the chair and strode back toward the door, calling back a casual, “Back to the old grind!”

With that grade-A avoidance, I left Logan to his paperwork and headed out onto the floor to start my shift. Tying my apron around my waist made me feel a little more normal. But as I moved through the kitchen, slinging orders to my talented crew and cracking jokes with any servers who popped in while I cooked, my mind kept drifting back to Carly.

She was working today too. Of course she was. This place could hardly function without her. Every time I caught sight of her through the kitchen window, my heart skipped a beat. She was stunning as always, her smile lighting up the entire restaurant even when she was faking it in the face of a rude customer, a swingy black dress showing off her ample curves to their absolute best. But there was something different about her today, a tension that lingered beneath the surface. We hardly even talked, and she always made an effort to talk to me, just like I always made the effort to talk to her.

I couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with Logan. After all, things were bound to be a little awkward between them at work now. But as much as I wanted to ask her about it, this was a case where I knew better than to pry. For now, all I could do was focus on my job and hope that things would work themselves out in the end. Take a page out of Logan’s book, maybe.

At the end of my shift, Carly and I almost ran into each other in the hallway again, sharing a brief, tense laugh. We gathered our things from the break room and walked together to the parking lot, and I could hear the anxious wheels turning in her head even from a few feet away. So, before she could duck into her car and drive away, I stopped her in her tracks. I couldn’t help myself.

“You alright, Carl?” I asked her gently. “You’re… not your usual bright-eyed, bushy-tailed self.”

“Bushy-tailed?” She cocked one eyebrow, and I felt my cock twitch as if on cue. God, her sass was delicious. “Is that a joke about my ass being huge?”

How could anyone not be obsessed with this woman? I grinned wickedly. “You’ll hear no complaints from me about that. But way to dodge the question.”

Carly sighed. “Alright, you caught me. I’m… dealing with some heavy stuff at the moment.”

“You can share if you want,” I said. “You don’t have to, but I’m here for you.”

“You always are,” she agreed softly, her tone full of wonder. “We’re… close, right? Like, we’re good friends?”

“I like to think so,” I answered. That didn’t mean I didn’t want more. But either way, I liked being someone she could confide in, someone she could count on. Even if I was a little worried she was about to tell me she’d fucked my brother and liked it.

“Well… in that case, I have something kind of big to tell you. I’m not sure this is the time or the place, though.”

“Where’s Miss Ella this evening?” I asked, having an idea. “If you’re free from Mom duty, maybe you and me could go get a drink.”

“Ella’s at a sleepover,” Carly answered, and the softening of her expression told me she appreciated my asking about her daughter. I couldn’t say it wasn’t a little bit to please her, but I thought that kid was awesome, too, and I knew the two of them were a package deal. If anything, the idea of Carly becoming a more permanent fixture in my life was all the more appealing knowing that she came with a rad bonus mini I goof around with.

“So?” I asked, nudging her with my elbow as an excuse to touch her. “Drinks with ol’ Nate? What do you say?”

She mulled it over for only a second before her face broke into a grin. “I say hell yes. That sounds amazing.”

Amazing. It was good to hear that was what she thought about spending time with me. And after realizing with a zing of anticipation that this was our first ever one-on-one plans outside of work, I couldn’t help but agree.

16

CARLY

Nate stared at me from across the table we’d claimed at a local dive bar, his expression unchanged from normal besides the tiniest widening of his eyes. “Are you serious? Ben is Ella’s dad?”

I nodded, turning my gaze down to the screwdriver Nate had gotten for me for comfort. I took a big sip, enjoying the citrusy tang more than the sting of liquor behind it. We sat in the silence of this truth for a moment, and then Nate hummed.

“I guess I can see it, really. The eyes, for one. And their both being little nerds.” When I shot him a glare, he hurried to cover with, “Affectionately, of course!”

“Yeah, well, Bennett wasn’t a nerd when I met him,” I muttered. Nate waved a hand, asking me to continue, so I gave him the short version. “We met at a frat party. One thing led to another, and… well, Ella. I never saw him after that night. It was a big school, and I’d never seen him before, either, so I didn’t really think anything of it until I found out I was pregnant.”

“So he never knew,” Nate guessed.

“Never. I didn’t even know how to contact him when I found out.” Hell, I hadn’t even known his name.

“Christ. Makes me kind of wonder if I have any kids out there,” Nate mused aloud. Then his eyes widened and he hurried to say, “I definitely would have stepped up if that were the case! I’m not trying to be a deadbeat dad.”

“I know,” I reassured him. “You’d be a fantastic father. Just look how great you are with Ella.”

“Not hard to be great with a great kid,” he said, and my heart swelled.

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