Page 53 of Military Daddies' Nanny

“Listen, Nate,” Drew finally says after a long pause. “The kids have a right to get to know their mother. You saw them, didn’t you? I can’t kick her back outside now. So please…I need you—both of you—to be nice, because I intend to put everything that happened behind me for now.”

I gape at him with disbelief then turn to look at Karen, wondering if the world has turned on her head. I grab Drew’s arm, earning a snarl from him but he watches me silently with a raised brow.

“A word in private, Drew,” I spit out through a clenched jaw.

We walk outside together, and I catch the look in Karen’s eyes as I walk past. I snap my head back at her, but the expression is gone, replaced by one of worry. There’s something cunning and intelligent about her, and I can’t see myself ever trusting her.

We’re barely outside the house before I launch into Drew. “What the hell, man?” I say, shoving him off balance.

He stumbles but catches himself in time, his eyes wide with shock, and then dissolving into an angry expression. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Cut that out now!”

“I should be asking you, Drew! You’ve been talking crazy all evening. We have something fucking beautiful with Nancy. Look at the three of us. Look at them freaking kids. We have never been this strong as a unit before. She’s Michael Jordan, bro. And you’re about to throw all of that away, championships and all, forKaren…a first-pick bust. Drew…she’s been missing for the last six years!Don’t you fucking get it?”

I feel like I’ve been shouting the same damned thing over and over, and no one seems to be listening. What Karen did—ghosting her husband and little kids, disappearing off the face of the earth without a care for the people she left behind—there’s just no coming back from that.

“And where is Nancy?” I ask in a clipped tone. “What did you say to her and how did she react to all this?”

“I don’t know where she is,” he says, having the decency to be ashamed and avoid meeting my eyes. “She’s met Karen, Nathan. She was…upset.”

“You think?” my voice is sarcastic.

Drew sighs in exasperation. “I can’t do this now, Nathan. Look, none of this is what I wanted. I just need some time to smooth things out. Heck, I don’t even know why Karen suddenly showed up out of nowhere. She was already on the way to the house when she called me. I just need time.”

I don’t recognize the person I’m looking at. He should be angry, not deflated and resigned to everything happening around him. “Fuck you, Drew. You better hope to God that nothing has happened to Nancy, man. If she gets hurt, I’m blaming you.”

The blood rushing through my veins has me seeing red and it takes every bit of control I have to turn away from Drew. Just before I head back into the house, I stop and look at him.

“How long? How long do you plan to run away from your feelings for her? You’re making the wrong decision, and I hope it’s not too late when you eventually figure it out.”

Leaving Drew on the porch, I return to the house in search of Carlos. If any two men can find her in this city, it’s the two of us. That doesn’t stop me from having a really bad feeling in my gut that I’m trying and failing to ignore.

Chapter 20

Carlos

I pace the length of my workshop, barely registering the tools and half-finished projects littering every available surface. My mind is a maelstrom, churning with disbelief and simmering rage.

How could Drew do this? After everything we've been through together, everything we've built. He's just going to throw it all away? And for what? The woman who walked out on him without a backward glance?

The wrench I've been absently fiddling with clatters to the concrete as my grip spasms. I left Drew and Karen to their private conversation earlier, herding the kids upstairs before they could be subjected to any more of this mess. Now, with Jason and Bella sequestered in their rooms, the reality of the situation crashes over me anew.

Karen is back. And just like that, our careful construction of family and home feels ready to topple like a house of cards.

I drag a hand down my face, exhaling harshly. This can't be happening. Not now, when we were finally settling into something stable. Something real.

The soft shuffle of footsteps behind me barely registers until Nathan's hand lands on my shoulder, gripping tight. "Carlos."

I turn to face him, taking in the hard set of his jaw, the shadows lurking behind his eyes. "Hey, man. The kids okay?" he asks.

I nod jerkily. "As much as they can be, given the circumstances. Jason's reading, and I think Bella snuck her phone into her room to text her friends."

A ghost of a smile flickers across his lips. "Probably to tell them about how her long-lost mom decided to show up out of nowhere."

I snort humorlessly. Yeah, that tracks. Ever since Nancy came into our lives, Bella's been slowly emerging from her shell, finding her voice, and making connections. And now…

Now Karen steps back in, upending everything. Christ.

"I can't believe he's even considering this," I mutter, more to myself than Nathan. But he hears me anyway, fingers tightening incrementally around the neck of the bottle in his hand.

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