Page 55 of The Regrettable Mistake

“I hate that he has to feel so guarded about our life. He shouldn’t be guarded at nearly 9-years-old.”

“I agree. That’s something I’m working on with him.”

“I will too. He was never told to keep anything a secret.” I felt as though there was something for me to prove, since I hadn’t realized that Den was keeping things from his father. “I didn’t even tell him not to tell you where the house was. I swear, Ollie, I would never put him in that position.”

“I never thought you did.” He patted my hand reassuringly but I couldn’t help wondering how much damage we’d each inflicted on Denmark as our relationship crashed and burned. I thought we’d hidden the worst of it, but of course, that had been impossible with all the media coverage. Den couldn’t go to school without hearing someone’s commentary on the matter, especially since his stepmom was suing the very school he attended for wrongful termination.

“What about that room?” Ollie asked as he indicated the master bedroom across the hallway.

“That’s mine.” I ignored his curious glances and instead walked further down the hallway. There was no way I could show him into my bedroom. It was my private space. “This is the nursery,” I stated when I came to the room next to mine. There was a door that joined the two, but I would make sure he didn’t open that door when I showed him.

Ollie moved into the space that was still unfinished. The crib sat off to the side, in pieces. I had attempted to put it together after Steve and Hutch dropped it off for me. Neither of them had the time to put it together that day. “Steve and Hutch are supposed to put it together for me, but they’ve been rather busy with work.”

“I can do it,” Ollie offered.

“Put a crib together?” I asked, not necessarily ready to trust his building skills, considering I’d never seen him put them to use in our four years we were together.

“Yeah, sure. I built Den’s. I was going to offer that up to you. I hadn’t realized you bought furniture for the nursery yet.”

“It’s okay. You should keep the other crib for wherever you’ll be living when the baby gets here.”

“I’ll just leave it at my mom’s.” He stated and then turned back to the crib parts. “Did you try to do it yourself?”

When I nodded. He turned a harsh glare my way. I took a step back from him. Not that I thought he would hurt me, but it was rare to see Ollie give me that look.

“You can’t do things like that Steph. I know you’re normally capable, but you’re pregnant right now.”

I sighed in understanding. “I know. That’s why it is all still sitting there in pieces. Just getting it all out of the box wore me out.”

Ollie snickered in response. “You shouldn’t have done that much.” He glanced around and then noticed my little tool kit off to the side. “This will have to do, I guess.” He scrunched his nose up at the pink bag full of pink-handled tools and it was my turn to laugh at his expense.

“They work just like red, blue, and black handled ones,” I teased.

He smirked, but tipped his head back toward the glider rocking chair in the corner. “Take a load off while I get this done. If you want to talk while I work, that’s fine. If not, we’ll just exist in the same space while I tick one more thing off your list.”

Ollie went to work as I sat in the chair and watched. True to his word, he didn’t say anything to me. The longer I watched him work, the more questions I had.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“Took the day off.”

“Oh.” Last I heard he had been struggling to salvage his company from the fallout, but I figured all was well enough, since there had been no news about his company going under. “Is everything okay with work?”

“We’re not where we used to be, but I think everything will be okay eventually.” His back and shoulder muscles bunched, flexed, and then relaxed as he continued to piece together the crib.

“The trial coming up won’t hurt you all over again?”

Ollie stopped what he was doing and turned to look at me. “The only thing I worry about that fucking trial harming is you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.” He sighed and then turned so that he could crawl on his hands and knees to where I sat in the chair. “I don’t want anything that bitch might say to harm you. I don’t want that video getting out to the public, so that other people might be able to throw it in your face. What I said. What I did. It was all inexcusable. None of that should come back on you.”

“I’ve already seen it. It’s not like it would be new material.”

“It would be new to the public, and they have a way of stoking the fires when it comes to things like that. Caleb has already warned me that there have been some hefty offers for anyone who might get their hands on that tape.”

“You said you still have my old cell phone?” I asked.

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