Page 21 of The Fall

I smile as she ends the call and my radio starts playing over my car speakers. Tess continued working as a waitress for several months after she and Dom moved in together, but he convinced her to quit since they were engaged and soon to be married. I’m happy for her; she busted her ass for years to support her family and she deserves to be the one being taken care of for once.

I thought I wanted that, too. To fall madly in love and maybe even have more kids with my dream man. Finishing my degree,starting my job and buying my house have changed me, though. Finally I’m in complete control of my life. I don’t need help supporting my boys.

Sure, affection would be nice, but I’ve pretty much forgotten about sex. Or I had, anyway, until Rowan kissed me.

He woke something up inside me. And I need it to go back to sleep. I like my stable, predictable life. Dreams don’t have to be grand and exciting. Sometimes, they’re simple—like being able to pay all your bills and having a garage to put your car in when it snows.

When I walkinto the work break room thirty minutes later, my coworker Nia is glaring at a box on the counter.

“Philip brought donuts in,” she says flatly.

“Ooh, any apple fritters in there?” I turn to walk over to the box.

“Not only are there no apple fritters, it’s just a few two-day-old glazed grocery store donuts leftover from his kid’s Friday night sleepover.”

She rolls her eyes and I laugh, ditching the donuts and heading for the coffeepot instead. Nia is also a paralegal at the firm, and she’s my closest work friend.

Walking over to me, she lowers her voice. “I don’t get how a partner who makes as much as he does won’t even spring for some fresh fucking donuts once every quarter.”

Philip McGill, one of the firm’s founding partners, is notoriously cheap. He has an iron and an ironing board in a room attached to his office, where he presses his own work shirts between meetings because he refuses to pay for dry-cleaning.

“How was your weekend?” I ask Nia.

“It was really good, actually. Derek and I had the first date night we’ve had in a long time. And Sunday, I got all the laundry done. Likeall. Every single thing.”

“Nice.”

“How about you?”

I wrinkle my nose and shrug. “Not the best weekend ever, but it was nice to sleep in. The boys brought me breakfast in bed on Sunday morning and my bed is full of crumbs now.”

Tom comes into the break room. Nia and I both do a double take when we see him.

“You don’t look like an extra forThe Walking Dead,” I say. “Did you finally get some sleep?”

He smiles, looking about ten years younger than he did on Friday. “Jeannie’s parents flew in on Saturday to help with the babies for a week. We both got seven continuous hours of sleep Saturday night and again last night. I feel like I could run a marathon right now.”

Nia, his paralegal, gives him a skeptical look. “Maybe you should climb Mount Workload first. We are so behind on the Fielding filing.”

“I’m on it, boss. Planning to work through lunch today and get it all done.”

“I’ll tell Andrew to order in sandwiches for us.”

Tom shakes his head. “You don’t have to work through lunch just because I am. I’m the one who’s massively behind.”

“And I’m the one who’s gonna help you catch up.”

Tom opens his arms like he’s about to hug her. Nia puts up a palm. She’s let us all know she’s not a fan of work hugs.

“You hug me and I’ll not only go out for lunch, I’ll take the afternoon off.”

Tom grins and drops his arms. “So no hug, then. I’d name our next baby after you, but I’m getting a double vasectomy in a few weeks.”

I furrow my brow. “A...double?”

He nods as he pours a cup of coffee. “I told the doctor to cut the stuff, burn it, tie it up, douse it with acid...whatever it takes to conclusively close down all the pipelines. If Jeannie got pregnant again while we have newborn triplets...” He shudders. “Let’s not even go there.”

I smile and walk toward the break room door. “Have a productive morning, guys.”

---