Page 86 of Set Me On Fire

A kid has one dad, Charlie wrote.Scared to find out who’s swimmers won?

No.That was an honest response, and I was about to drop more truth bombs.I can’t go through this with Millie wondering who the father is. Until she decides to find out, we step up, be the partners, the fathers of her child, she needs. All of us.

I watched my screen, needing a response, but as seconds passed by, nothing happened. Buster whined, making clear he’d like his evening meal, but I couldn’t move until I saw it. Dots forming, messages being composed, some sort of response.

I meant it when I said it,Noah replied.I want Millie. I want this baby, but I want her more. I’m taking her out on as many dates as she’ll let me.

I think I’m gonna wanna get in on that action too,Charlie added.Millie is smoking hot and I was trying to ask her out again when she blocked me.

They weren’t answering my question and I wanted to snap at them, demand one, but I didn’t.

Fighting over her is going to upset Millie, I wrote, willing them to see it. This was the only way forward.

So we do this as a team? Have regular meetings and KPIs we have to meet?I could see Charlie grinning in my mind’s eye.Someone will need to take the minutes.

We work together to make sure Millie has everything she needs?Noah wrote.Yeah, I’m down.

I felt a vicious surge of satisfaction.

Team Millie all the way, Charlie said finally.

Team Millie, that’s what counts, I agreed, then put my phone down and went to work, clearing the spare room out.

Chapter 41

Charlie

God-fucking-dammit, when did Noah get that kind of game? I walked into work the next morning, seeing him ask Millie out in front of me, still kicking myself for not doing the same thing. We had conversations, smart conversations, about doctor’s appointments and testing and shit, but all I saw was a missed opportunity. We were talking about Millie as a mother, but Noah was seeing her as a woman first.

I’d gotten up early this morning, looked at the kinds of things that helped with nausea in pregnant women, and then picked up some crackers and ginger ale on the way to work, along with something sweet to help her get through the day, but when I reached her office, Knox was there too. He looked at me, I looked at him, taking in the steaming to-go cup in his hand as well as a bag sporting the label of a prominent chain of chemists.

“What’re you doing here?” he snapped.

“Team Millie, remember?” I shot back before hoisting my bag up. “Ginger ale, dry biscuits, and some chocolate for Millie.”

His lips twisted into a sardonic smile.

“Hot ginger tea, some ginger lollies to suck on during the day, as well as an anti-nausea wristband.” He jiggled his bag at me. “If she’s feeling sick?—”

“So you’re good to keep working on the uniform swap?” Judy and Millie walked down the hall, looking up when they saw us. “And to what do we owe this pleasure?”

Judy walked up, and suddenly I wanted to hide my bag. Millie had made it clear she didn’t want people to know about us or the baby yet.

“Just dropping by to see if the boss approved that petty cash order?” I lied smoothly.

“Petty cash order?” Judy frowned. “It hasn’t come past me yet.”

“Must be stuck on his desk then,” I said, hastily backing away. “Millie, got that stuff you were after.”

I intended to talk to her, see how she was feeling, then feel her out about a potential date, but instead, I thrust the bag her way.

“The stuff… Oh, yeah, thanks.” Millie took it without even looking at it, having me cursing Judy internally. “I’ll get you some money for that.”

The hell she would. I was no deadbeat dad. I made clear that any expenses she incurred should come to me, right before Noah and Knox said the same.

“Is that ginger tea?” Judy sniffed the air. “Did you grab that for me? That’s sweet, but I don’t have to drink it anymore now that I’m in the third trimester.” She wrinkled her nose. “Gives me reflux, bad.”

“Ah, no, that’s mine.” Millie plucked the cup from Knox’s grip and I watched her take a sip. “I was bitching to Knox the other day about this stomach bug and how it's hanging around, and he told me he’d make me some tea his mum showed him how to make.”

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