Page 71 of Bad & Bossy

“What?” I asked. I was growing tired of her already. I could see why Dana complained about the company so often, but I also knew that Vee was her saving grace when it came to watching Drew. Sure, she had the nanny, but that wasn’t something she could afford twenty-four-seven, and she’d refused when I’d offered her bonuses for it.

Vee’s eyes drifted to the sleeping baby sprawled on my stomach before inching their way back up to my face. “You ever thought about how similar you look?”

I blinked.

Similar? I couldn’t help but look down at Drew. The ringing in my ears grew louder, cacophonous almost, as I stared at the faint, thin dark blonde hairs that had started sprouting from his head.

“His pacifier was under my bed.” Dana came around the corner, a pacifier in one hand and a blanket slung over her shoulder, but I could barely fucking hear her. He wasn’t mine—the chance was so small I’d already written it off when I first found out about him. Besides, Dana wouldn’t keep that from me. That is, if she even knew for sure that he was. There were too many differences, like the shape of his nose and his plump little lips.

I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t wish it was true, though.

“When did you get home?”

“A few minutes ago,” Vee shrugged. “Y’all were so snuggled up you didn’t even see me. You’d be fucked if a burglar came in, Dana.”

“Don’t joke about that,” Dana huffed. She slid in beside me and carefully plucked the giraffe from Drew’s mouth, thankfully without waking him, before replacing it with the pacifier. He didn’t even notice.

“I should head off,” I breathed, keeping my voice low enough that Vee wouldn’t hear.

Dana’s eyes met mine briefly, a little flash of something flickering in them before she nodded softly. “Okay.”

With precision and ease, she wrapped the little blanket around Drew, her fingers grazing my abdomen over the layers of fabric. She plucked him from me and he didn’t even flinch.

He was down and out in his bassinet within seconds, snoring away. I didn’t care that I had six-month-old snot on my shirt, didn’t care that I’d read one of my favorite, but most triggering, stories to the kid. It fell to the wayside when I watched her with him.

All of it.

I almost didn’t want to leave, but deep down, I knew it was better if I did. I needed to get a handle on myself—alone. If I could do that by myself, it would be ten times easier with her by my side.

She walked me out the door, her sister mumbling something about fantasy football as she stared at her phone. We walked in silence to my car, the unspoken words hanging in the air like a lit fucking firecracker about to explode. I wanted her to come with me. I wanted to ask her if there was any chance he was mine. I wanted to know if I was keeping her from him more than I should be.

I wanted to know if I still deserved her.

“I’m sorry about tonight,” I sighed, the breath of air forming a little cloud in front of my face in the cooling night air. The doors of my BMW unlocked automatically as I leaned against the side of it. “All of it.”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing to apologize for.” Her hands wrapped around each of her arms as she huddled in just a little for extra warmth. “I just wish you could stay.”

Taking the warm skin of her face into my hands, I pressed my lips to hers softly, just enough to touch. “Me too.”

————

The entire drive home was one massive, horrible temptation.

Trying to concentrate on driving when liquor store after liquor store passed me by, when I knew that the two people I hated most were somewhere in town, when I couldn’t stop the incessant thoughts that Vee had soured my head with. He did look a little like me. All of it was nearly impossible to shake. I could barely feel the tips of my fingers despite my heated steering wheel and just when I thought I’d have a moment of reprieve, my anxiety shot through the roof the moment the gates opened at the end of my driveway.

There was already a car there.

One I didn’t recognize, one that from the looks of it was a high-end rental. A black Audi S7, decked out and capable of carrying four.

I almost turned around and drove back to Dana’s.

Almost.

I should have.

My headlights illuminated the front of my garage as I turned with the driveway, a tall figure with his arms crossed coming into full focus.

I turned off the car.

---