Page 34 of Triplet Babies for Pucking Christmas

He walks over, and before I can even process it, he leans down and kisses my forehead. “I’ll see you later,” he murmurs, his lips lingering just a second too long.

I swallow hard. “Okay.”

Jared gives Jamie a quick nod before heading out, and as soon as the door shuts, Jamie turns to me, grinning. “So…what the hell did I walk into?”

I turn, busying myself with the noodles, pretending my face isn’t probably fifty shades of red. “Me and Jared…we have a past…kind of.”

Jamie chuckles, clearly entertained. “I can see that.”

I pull out a pot, filling it with water, doing everything I can not to look him in the eye. “Need me to spell it out?”

“No, no. Just…didn’t know you had it in you, is all.” He winks, and I roll my eyes.

I pull out a pack of noodles and start breaking them up to put in the pot. “Wait, where’s the puppy you were supposed to pick up?”

“Oh!” Jamie slaps a hand to his forehead, laughing. “Turns out he needs one more vaccine, so I’m picking him up tomorrow.”

“Right,” I mutter, tossing the noodles into the pot.

There’s a quiet moment before Jamie speaks again. “How’s Troy handling all this? Really?”

I open my mouth to answer, but just then, the door opens, and in walks Troy, arms full of bags. He stumbles over the threshold, practically dropping everything on the floor.

“Need help there?” Jamie calls out, grinning.

Troy just groans, unloading his arms. “Back in a sec.” He heads out again, returning with another load of bags before he finally comes over to where Jamie and I are standing.

He looks a little taken aback, surprised. “Jamie…you’re here?”

Jamie gives him a wide grin. “Yeah, buddy. Guess who I just met? Our son.”

Troy’s eyes narrow. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s not a joke,” Jamie says, the grin slipping from his face. “We need to talk about what to do with Noah.”

The room’s so tense, I can practically see the sparks flying between Troy and Jamie.

Troy's face is all scrunched up as he looks at Jamie, waiting for him to explain what he meant by “do with Noah”.

I busy myself with making a bottle for the baby, trying to ignore the tight feeling in my stomach.

“What do you mean, ‘do with Noah’?” Troy asks, his voice low.

The silence in the room is thick.

Troy shifts, running a hand over his face. “Look, I’ve thought about it, okay? And… I think the best option might be adoption. Find him a good home, y’know?”

Jamie’s expression shifts from confusion to anger in about two seconds flat. “Are you serious right now?”

Troy doesn’t answer, but the way he looks at Jamie says everything.

Jamie’s jaw clenches. “He’s my kid too, all right? I get a say in this.”

Troy lets out a sigh. “Jamie, come on. We don’t even know for sure if he’s ours. We have careers, lives that don’t include…this.”

Jamie’s getting redder by the second. “Then we do a test. You don’t just throw a baby away.”

Troy bristles. “I’m not throwing him away.”

---