Page 17 of Accidental Baby Daddy

“I’m happy to see you, too,” I lied, allowing her to give me another big hug. Maybe I shouldn’t be so cruel to Gillian. After all, it wasn’t her fault that she was so favored and spoiled.

She finally pulled away and headed into the kitchen, returning with two glasses of white wine.

I took my glass and sipped it gratefully.

“So what are you going to do about Oliver?”

“I don’t want to talk about Oliver,” I muttered. “I just want to chug this wine and go to sleep. This couch seems comfy.”

“No way,” Gillian argued. “I have a perfectly good bed in the guest room. It’s only a twin, but?—”

“It sounds wonderful,” I interrupted her, finishing my wine in a couple of gulps and handing her the empty glass. She took it, smiling at me.

“I’m so glad you’re home, Lex.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I really wasn’t home, not for good, anyway. Truth be told, I didn’t know where home was anymore.

I thought I might struggle to fall asleep in an unfamiliar place, on a tiny, narrow bed, with feelings of guilt and shame choking me, but I found I could barely keep my eyes open as I snuggled under the covers.

As soon as I fell asleep, I instantly started to dream. Or should I call it a nightmare?

It was more like a memory.

“This isn’t working,” Oliver snapped. “We’re always fighting, and after you did what you did?—”

“I didn’t do anything, Oliver!” I pleaded, clutching at his shirt. He pushed me away, his lips curling into a sneer.

“Like hell you didn’t! I saw you and?—”

“You don’t know what you saw, Oliver. You flew off the handle like you always do, and now you’re blaming me for something I didn’t do!”

“You lied,” Oliver said, his voice low, almost a whisper, and the hurt on his face was palpable as he looked down at me. “Just go.”

“Oliver—”

“Go!” he yelled, his brown eyes filling with tears. I left, running full tilt across his parent’s yard and hopping the fence, sobbing like my heart was broken, because it was.

I woke with a start. I couldn’t stay here any longer than necessary. It was around six in the morning when I woke, and I knew that I had to get something going. I needed to go look for a job.

Gillian was thankfully still asleep when I woke, and I felt only a little bad about stealing a pantsuit from her clean laundry basket. She used to steal my clothes all the time when we were teens.

I was going job hunting. In a town like this, being a local meant a lot, and, well, technically I was a local. For now.

God, I had got to get the hell out of Wagontown.

Chapter 6

Oliver

Idecided to drop Trent off at his little preschool summer camp before heading to the Stop ‘n Go to replenish our groceries. I couldn’t handle him running around the store and remember to get what was on the list at the same time.

My grandmother spotted me in the meat section and grinned at me, walking out to give me a big hug.

“You haven’t been by in ages!”

I usually have Peter, my personal assistant, run errands like this but lately I’ve been feeling restless. Ever since Lexie and I hooked up I’ve been feeling stir-crazy, though I can’t say why.

Maybe it’s because I almost allowed myself to slip back into old feelings, allowing the potential of losing myself to happen all over again.

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