Page 12 of Rule Breakers Fall Hardest

“Oh, yeah.” Rosie smiles at her. “Just give us a minute.”

“Take your time.” She backs away and eases the door shut, leaving us alone again.

“Think,” Rosie says to me, hands on her hips. “What is it you want that none of these places have?”

I grit my teeth and duck my head. “It’s stupid.”

“I’m sure it’s not. Tell me.”

I look away, muttering, “A playground.” But it comes out sounding more like a grunt than actual words.

“A what?” she asks, her voice pitched high. She’s clearly trying not to laugh at me at this point. Can’t say I blame her.

“A. Playground,” I carefully enunciate. “I want to go down a slide with him and push him in a swing.”

Fuck, it sounds so stupid coming out of my mouth, but I do.

She presses her lips together, fighting a smile, even as her eyes dance. “He’s a little young, don’t you think?”

“I mean when he’s a little bigger. They have those baby swings and stuff.” I scratch at the back of my head.

“We can have a playground installed at any of these places—does that make any of them more appealing to you?”

My chest tightens as I consider several we’ve looked at. “This one is nice, I guess. I like the kitchen.”

“Okay,” she says slowly. “Do you want to put in an offer?”

Do I?

How is it possible that proposing to Rosie was easier than committing to a house?

Probably because the marriage is entirely fake, while buying a house and being a father is all too real. I don’t know how to be a dad. Why the fuck do they not have classes for this shit? I don’t even know how to change a diaper.

“Why do you look like you’re panicking all over again?”

I cover my face with my hands. “Because I don’t even know how to change a diaper.”

“Oh.” She frowns, adjusting the strap of her purse. “I don’t know how either.” Quickly, she adds “We’ll take classes?” with an ease that surprises me.

“Wait, thereareclasses?”

“Not at school, if that’s what you mean, but thereareclasses at the hospital, or maybe a community center. I’ll look into it for us.”

My heart pounds out a quick rhythm in my chest. “Both of us?”

She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “I need to know how to do these things too.”

“Right,” I say, drawing out the word.

“What about a nanny? Are we going to need one of those? We still have to get through college.”

I run my fingers through my hair, jittery with agitation. “I… I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that out based on what kind of custody I get.”

“There’s something else that’s bothering you.” I hate that after all this time, after all the distance between us, she still knows my tells so well. “Spill, Hendricks.”

“It’s stupid.”

“You’restupid. Tell me something I don’t know.” She wipes beneath her eye with her middle finger.

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