Page 24 of Heartbreaker

Her life was upended by the pregnancy, by the deadbeat asshole who skipped out on her.

We were there for her—me, Banks, Atlas, and Dash, of course, and hers and Dash’s parents are great. But she went from a college student to a mom.

And she was chronically independent (still is), didn’t want to ask for help unless she was desperate (still doesn’t), worked—works—hard to provide for herself, even though we would have all chipped in financially to take care of both of them (and still would).

It’s better now, but it got so bad there for a while that we had to almost bully her into accepting our help.

Thankfully, we got through the stubbornness, she moved out to California, and things have been better since.

We all have a solid family unit.

She gets regular breaks.

And I get to have my Frankie time.

“Ithinkit’s going to be a girl,” she says, finally done pondering my question. “Plus, Mom says that we donotneed another man in our family.”

I chuckle. “Why’s that?”

“She said…”

My gaze flicks to the rearview, and I see the scrunched up look of concentration. I give her time to remember, to find the words. She’s extremely verbal for her age, but sometimes she gets frustrated when she can’t get out the words she has in her head.

So, I give her that time as I back out of the stall and carefully navigate my way through the school’s parking lot—because tiny humans.

“She said it’s because of test tone!”

I pull to a stop at the signal, taking a moment to ferret that one out.

It’s Briar, so really, it could be anything—there’s a reason her nickname is Thorny.

But this…takes that moment.

“Testosterone?” I ask when the pieces eventually come together.

“Yup.” Another pop on her P, her legs swinging (and thus, kicking the back of my seat in a regular interval). “You guys have too much of it.”

I grin but change the subject before I say something that will no doubt get back to Briar and get me in trouble. “So who’d you play with at school today?”

“Felix and I did blocks. And then Ms. Mya pushed me on the swings before we did our letter of the day. Did you know that giraffe starts with G?”

“It does?” I tease.

A beleaguered sigh that’s far too old for her years. “UncleRoyal.”

I grin. “You know what else starts with G?”

“What?”

“Goose.”

A pause as she decides if that passes muster. “What else?”

“Why don’t you tellme?”

Another sigh. “Why don’t we take turns?”

Negotiating. She’s definitely Briar’s daughter through and through. There’s a reason Ms. Thorny has become Atlas’s right hand woman.

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