Page 24 of Christmas with the Baby Daddy

Dammit.I wanted to know now.

“Blake Myer?” someone asked to my right. I hadn’t realized someone had taken that vacant stool. And I wasn’t too pleased with who had.

Rory Francis had a reputation for being a partier back when we were younger, and whenever he got in trouble, his family got him out of any discipline or clapback. I never knew him directly, since he had to be about ten years younger than me. It didn’t matter. Whether it was Reagan or Rory, cousins, I seldom wanted anything to do with the Francis family. They were more trouble than they were worth. With the way Rory leaned over and faced me and Cole, it seemed he had been listening in.

“She’s my girlfriend,” Rory said.

Cole huffed.

I raised my brows. “Bullshit.” It wasn’t a censored reply, but it shot out of my mouth too quickly to stop it.

“No, seriously. Blake’s my girl.”

“That’s not what I heard,” Cole said wryly.

Rory smirked. “What you heard? Like you’d know.” He rolled his eyes.

“Iwouldknow,” Cole argued. “Considering Sara is Blake’s best friend.”

I faced him. “Sara?”

He nodded. “You saw her at the office. She’s the front office receptionist.”

Huh.

“That’s not true. Sara’s got it wrong,” Rory said. “Blake and I took a break, but that was nothing. She’s with me.”

“So, you’re the father of her child?” I asked. I couldn’t put pressure on Cole to give me that answer because of his position at the school, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t ask this dumbass. As I considered the idea of Blake with this loudmouthed clown, I held in a groan. I didn’t care for this connection. Not one bit. Not… Rory.

“No.” Rory held his hand up. “But yeah. I’ve always considered George my son.”

I blinked then widened my eyes. The short, nervous boy in the office? The one who stood up to Brent being a bully? “George?” I volleyed my gaze back to Cole, who winced. “George? That boy is Blake’s son?”

He nodded but didn’t stop furrowing his brow.

“He’s notmyson, but I think of him as mine.” Rory grinned. “Little tough guy there.”

I frowned. “Tough?” He couldn’t be talking about the same kid I saw. George looked short and thin, not unhealthily but just enough to suggest he might not be an athlete.

“Yeah. We play football together. He’s gonna be a pitcher, though. Baseball’s more his thing. I mean, when I can get him to stop playingGrand TheftAuto.”

That didn’t sound like George at all. I had no knowhow. I only sat next to the kid for a few minutes, but in that time, I got a read on him. Being in the military trained me to always size up people—a natural need to separate friends from foes.

George seemed like a quieter, calmer boy, not prone to aggressive things like contact sports and violent video games.

Confusion settled within me, and I frowned down at my drink. Blake and Rory… together? She’s the mom to that kid? The one I said sounded like a smart lady? Blake was smart. And… she was also a mother to a young boy. It blew my mind.

“I think I’ll propose to Blake on Valentine’s Day,” Rory said. “That’s how good we are together.”

Again, Cole laughed once, bitterly. “Yeah, right. She dumpedyou,” he reminded him.

“It’s just a break,” Rory protested. “She’s been talking about getting back together. We’re so good together. A perfect couple.”

I could not picture it. Blake was so soft spoken and polite. Calm and sweet, like a reassuring presence. She lit up a room and made others smile. Whereas Rory was loud and cocky, a typical “man’s man”.

But I also couldn’t picture Blake having a child. “WhoisGeorge’s father?” I asked it again, out loud, but more as a musing than expecting an answer. Rory seemed to want to claim George and Cole wouldn’t answer. I looked at him, though.

“Sara won’t even say,” he said, as though counting on me to press the question again.

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