Page 67 of Sven

Before long, he passed her a plate of eggs before he paced the kitchen.

“Do you want to try and lay her down?” she asked before taking a bite of her eggs.

Sven just shook his head. “No, she’s finally sleeping, and she hardly slept at all last night.”

“When I’m done, I’ll take her, and you can get some sleep.”

“It’s your day off,” he said with a shake of his head.

“Yesterday was my day off.”

“Yes, but I was just gone for a week. You deserve another day off.”

“Sydney is working, and I have no plans, really. It’s no problem. You look like you could use some sleep.”

He gave a rough chuckle. “I look that bad, huh?”

“Well, I’ll just say you don’t look fresh as a daisy.”

“That sounds like a Southern way of saying I look like shit on a cracker.”

“I would never say that about anyone,” she said, trying not to grin.

She had been so angry with him, but she was having trouble holding onto that anger.

As she finished eating her breakfast, Sven cleaned the kitchen to keep moving and to keep Winnie sleeping on his back.

When he took her plate and put it in the dishwasher, there was a knock at the door.

“Are you expecting anyone?”

He shook his head and checked the doorbell camera.

His face went white as a sheet and eyes went wide with panic. “Oh, fuck.”

“What is it? Is it Winnie’s mom? Is she back?” Natalie asked quickly.

“No. Worse,” he said as she started undoing Winnie’s sling. As gently as she could, he got her off his back as she gave sleepy groans of protest. “It’s my dad.”

“It’s your dad?”

“Yes, can you please take her. I haven’t told him about her yet. I just... Fuck. I can’t believe he just showed up.”

She had never seen him like this. He looked like he was about to have a panic attack.

“Hey,” she said as she took him by his shoulders. “Breathe.”

He listened, stopped, and took a breath.

“I’ll take Winnie,” she said. “We’ll hang out in the pool house until the coast is clear.”

“What about all this stuff?”

He tore apart the room, gathering baby stuff and shoving it into the pantry, when there was another knock at the door.

“Sven, you better not still be in bed,” his dad called in his Swedish accent.

He looked at her with pure panic.

---