Page 15 of Mad Love

I didn’t tell my parents or Felicity about Sadie coming to the house or really many details other than the fact that Caleb’s here, he’s mine, and he’s healthy. I already know they will think Sadie staying with me is a terrible idea. They’re probably right, but she just lost her sister. I felt awful even talking about a lawsuit when she’s already lost so much.

I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my sisters. Olivia and I aren’t even very close, but it’d still be devastating. And Felicity—she’s been my best friend since the day she was born.

When I go back into the room, I can tell Sadie’s been crying again. She’s holding Caleb and she looks up when I walk in.

“They’re discharging him soon,” she says.

As she’s saying that, the nurse comes in and walks us through the discharge papers. When she leaves, we gather the few things from the room and then look at each other likenow what?

“I’ll follow you to your place,” I say. “We’ll get a few things and I can arrange for movers to get more tomorrow.”

“That’s not necessary. We don’t need to involve movers. I can get what I need and meet you at your house.”

“Okay, I’ll take Caleb with me.”

Her eyes flash, a frown deepening as she shakes her head. “No. He stays with me. You don’t even know what to do with him yet.”

“I’ll manage. You’ll have to forgive me for not trusting you to take him by yourself.” I lift my shoulder and she sighs.

“I’m not going to disappear with him,” she says softly.

“I don’t want to test out that theory.”

“Fine. You can follow me, but don’t judge us when you see our place.” She points at me.

“I won’t.”

She rolls her eyes and mutters something but carefully places Caleb in his car seat. An officer came in earlier to let Sadie know they’ll call when she can pick up any belongings from the wreck. When the hospital said we’d have to have a car seat before Caleb could go home, I thought I’d need to go buy one. I was surprised when Sadie said she had one in her car.

I’d like to think I’d be an awesome uncle and do whatever Felicity or Olivia needed, but I’m not sure I would ever think of keeping a backup car seat in my vehicle at all times.

I’ll be needing one for my SUV anyway.

And a ton of other baby things that I have no clue about….

How the hell am I going to do this?

I pick up the car seat and we walk out of the hospital room.

“Do you mind if we take the stairs?” I ask. “Less chance of photos being taken that way.”

“Okay.”

We’re quiet as we walk to the parking garage. Sadie gave me her address when we were still upstairs, and I can see my SUV just a few cars down from hers, so I’m not worried she’ll make a quick escape.

I set Caleb in my SUV and get the base out of Sadie’s car. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to figure out how to put it in my back seat, but I finally do. Sadie shows me how to click the car seat into the base and waits until I’m behind her to pull out. That small gesture gives me hope that we’ll be able to work together peaceably.

I second-guess everything the whole way to her apartment.

Do I really want Sadie staying with me? Not at all.

Do I want my son? Yes.

Should I be working so hard to keep Caleb’s aunt in his life full-time after she helped keep him a secret from me? I don’t know the answer to that.

My parents and sister Olivia own their own practice and the Law Offices of Shaw & Shaw have an impeccable record. My brother-in-law Sutton is a judge.

But the truth is, even if I didn’t have the best resources on my side, Sadie wouldn’t stand a chance in court if she ever tried to file for custody. Not only that, it wouldn’t take much for me to keep her from seeing my son.

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