Page 74 of His Bittersweet Regret

“So, how is it you came to be here, with three of my brothers, two of whom you banished from your life?”

“They stopped to give me a ride when they saw me walking home.”

“Why in the hell were you walking home this late at night?”

“Bad date,” she said and turned her back to head toward the living room as I picked our son up to follow behind her. Bad date? Well, that certainly worked in my favor, and it appeared it worked in the twins’ favor as well, since she wasn’t sending them on their way. They all brought her here, instead of taking her straight home, and that was something to be encouraged by as well.

The minute Opal walked back into the room ahead of me, the hushed conversation my brothers had been having ceased. I was positive they were filling Jimmy in on why exactly Opal was with them instead of on a date with Joe. While that was information I also wanted to know the answer to, it didn’t seem like the most important aspect of the night.

The twins appeared to be holding their breath while both sets of their eyes were glued to my son.

“Brixton and Bastion, this is your nephew, Austin Jason Kennedy.” Opal informed them. They both stood there in awe of my little boy, yet afraid to make a move toward him. “Who wants to hold him first?” Opal finally asked.

I don’t know whether he did it to break the ice or because he genuinely wasn’t going to let the twins hold Austin before he got the chance, but Jimmy jumped in and took him from Opal’s arms.

“I’m your Uncle Jimmy. We’ll forgive your mom for her rudeness at not introducing me too because she didn’t know you were asleep the whole time I’ve been here.”

Opal blushed profusely. “Sorry, Jimmy. I didn’t realize.”

Brix had legit tears falling from his eyes as he pushed forward and grabbed hold of Opal. “I’m so fucking sorry for everything. You have always been a far better person than any of us deserved. What we did was unforgivable.”

Bastion took over with the hug after shoving our brother away. “He’s right about everything. Thank you for this. It means the world to us, especially because we never deserved your kindness.”

Before Bas let go of Opal, Brix was already claiming Austin from Jimmy. Having been informed about what a momentous occasion this was for the twins, Jimmy relented his hold on his nephew. Brix took Austin in his arms and moved to go sit on the couch.

“Hey, little man, I’m your favorite uncle.”

“Nope. He already knows it’s me. Besides Opal’s doctor, I was the first to see that he was a boy,” Ryker boasted.

“How was that possible?” Jimmy asked.

“He came with me to my doctor appointments,” Opal explained. My other three brothers watched for my reaction.

“And I’m thankful that he was there for her when I couldn’t be.” Everyone left it alone, but I knew there would be more questions later. I’d filled Jimmy in earlier, but there were probably some things that got left out in the telling. Some of that was simply because I didn’t know all the details about what happened between our youngest brother and Opal to put them on the path where Ryker ended up being her protector.

I stood back and watched as my brothers all cooed and baby talked my son, who was eating up all the attention.

“Sorry to show up unannounced,” Opal said as she made her way over to me.

“Don’t ever apologize for showing up here, Opal.”

She glanced at my brothers and then up at the picture of us hanging on the wall above where they sat on the couch. “Why haven’t you taken them down yet?” Her question was whispered in an obvious attempt to not have my brothers overhear.

“Because I still have hope,” I explained. Opal nodded her head and then moved to my kitchen.

“Where do you keep your glasses?” She asked when I followed behind her. “I need some water.”

I reached above her and pulled a glass free from the cabinet and then filled it with cold, filtered water from the fridge. “Why were you walking home tonight?”

Once she pulled the glass away from her mouth, her eyes met mine. “I told you, bad date.”

“So bad that you had to walk home?”

“Apparently, Joe had been seeing someone when he asked me out again. She happened to be our waitress after we left mini golf to go to dinner.”

“He was cheating, and made you the other woman?” My eyebrows had to be solidly in my hairline. “Jesus, what the fuck was that idiot thinking?”

Opal shrugged her shoulders. “I think it was a bit more complicated than that. He had broken things off with her before our date, but that didn’t erase the fact that he asked me out again while he was still seeing her.” She shrugged again. “Joe claimed it was never anything serious between them. He even agreed that she was a placeholder, something to do, while waiting on me to recover from having Austin.”

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