Page 69 of Falling in Love with Two

I love Ronnie with all my heart, and I want her to go through this whole thing right alongside me, but after hearing her talk about Liz, I don’t think I’m going to get that lucky.

So, I’ll ignore her for now. I’m in no mood for a fight tonight.

A text pops through before I put my phone on Do Not Disturb.

Ronnie: Something you want to tell me, Dyl?

Fuck, she knows.

Oh well. That’s a problem for tomorrow Dylan.

The movie isn’t quite over, but I figure it’s about time I head to bed. Before I go, I pick Leah up in my arms and carry her into her bed. My couch is comfortable enough to nap on, but I figure she probably doesn’t want to stay out here all night. She’s sleeping so hard that she doesn’t even seem to notice.

After I get her laid down and make sure everything is all locked up, I head for my own room—wishing Leah was lying next to me, but grateful that she’s just down the hall.

“Dylan! Dylan!” I manage to hear Jack yelling at me over the music blaring through my earbuds.

I take them out and look at him over my shoulder. “Sorry, boss. What’s up?”

He looks around to make sure none of the other guys in the shop are in ear shot. “Just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

The look in his eyes is different than normal. “Ah, Liz told you.”

“Yeah, she did. I don’t mean to pry or anything, but I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m okay,” I tell him, coming out from under the hood of the car I’m working on and wiping off my hands. “I don’t have a single clue what I’m doing, but at this point, I figure I’ll just wing it and hope for the best.”

“You want to know a secret?” He leans up against one of the tool benches.

“What’s that?”

“I’m doing the exact same thing.”

I laugh. “No shit?”

“Yeah. At first, I tried to control everything, but it didn’t take long to realize that way of thinking wasn’t going to get me anywhere…except in hot water with your sister. So, I’m just white knuckling it now and letting her tell me what it is that she needs.”

“Damn, man, I was really hoping you were going to give me the answer to all this.”

His loud laugh booms between us. “If you think that there is any one answer to this, you’re fucking nuts. But the way I see it is that Liz is the one who is doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to the baby right now, so my main goal is to make sure that she’s comfortable. It was to make sure that she’s happy, but I’m not sure she knows what makes her happy at this present moment, so I settle for comfortable.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do with Leah. It’s hard as fuck, though, when we don’t know each other all that well.”

“Eh, that’s alright. Just take what you do know and try to use it.”

His phone starts ringing. He pulls it out of his pocket and holds it up. “Speak of the devil. It’s your sister. Excuse me.”

He walks away to answer it, and I get ready to get back to work. Looking at the clock, I see that I only have a couple hours left before I’ll be done for the afternoon. Leah told me that she wouldn’t be home until about eight or so because of her appointments today. She was still asleep when I got up this morning, so I just left her a note to let me know if she needed anything. I thought about texting her just to check in, but I really don’t want to be that guy who is bugging the shit out of her.

As I get back to work, I think about what Jack said about trying to do things to make Leah happy. I still don’t have a great handle on that, but I think I’ve got enough to get me started. Maybe I need to ask someone who knows her better than I do.

“Jamie?” I call when I spot him a couple cars over.

He seems to have just finished whatever he was working on because he comes right away.

“Hey, fucker. What’s up?” I can tell by the way he’s talking that he has no idea about my current predicament.

“I need a favor.”

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