Page 78 of Lyrical

I felt for Candace, I really did. “Okay, Mike. I will speak to her, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t tell her to leave your sorry ass. You need to change your attitude and damn soon. I don’t care what is going through your head. You need to tell her how beautiful she is even if you feel you have to lie. Because she needs to hear it, every fucking day. No, twice a day. You need to make up for lost time. She needs to know that you’ll support her unconditionally. She may not be the first woman to go through it, but it’s a first for her, and that’s a major fucking deal, so stop being such an insensitive asshole and just be there for her.”

He raked his hands through his hair. “You’re right. I just never had to deal with this either, you know?”

I felt myself soften. But just a tad. Daniel’s mother was barely around while pregnant, disappearing for large chunks of time before taking off for good and leaving their son with Mike when he was just eighteen months old. If it weren’t for the paternity test, I would have seriously doubted he was even the father.

“Look,” I said, “I know when the baby comes you’ll be a good father. I saw that with Daniel. But what you need to realize is that you’re already a father to this baby now, and the best parenting you can do is to take care of the mother. Don’t let her go through this on her own.”

He nodded, and I prayed something was finally starting to sink in. I didn’t tell him that I really hoped this baby was another boy because he was frickin’ clueless when it came to women.

“Chase is waiting for me, so I’m going to talk to him first, and then I’ll go out and see Candace.”

“Thank you, Jillian.”

We walked back to the front entrance, and my heart leaped upon seeing Chase there, trying to reach him before my legs could. I walked over quickly and gave him a huge hug. “I’ll explain everything later, but I’m so sorry our night was ruined.”

He flicked his eyes over to Mike. “Are you done here now?” he asked.

“I said I’d talk to Candace a bit. Then I’m done. She’s waiting in the car. The baby’s fine and…. It’d be easier just to explain later.”

I took Chase’s hand. “Where’d you park, Mike?”

He pointed out the door. “Not too far from you.”

We pushed through the revolving door and into the night. The stars were just as I thought, perfectly visible all around us, but this was not how I envisioned seeing them.

After we got a few rows into the parking lot, I heard Mike say, “What the hell?”

“What’s the matter?”

“She… she left? Without me?”

I almost told him he also deserved to get run over in the process but held back because of that dejected look on his face.

“Ah, Jillian? Do you think you could give me a ride home?”

What? Hasn’t he ever heard of a cab? No, I’m not going to—

“I’ll give you a ride,” Chase said, shocking the shit out of me. “I have my car here too. In the back.”

Yeah, um… just a wild guess here, but probably not the best idea.I squeezed Chase’s hand, and he gave me a glance. “It’s no problem, Jillian. Didn’t you say that Daniel would be home around seven?”

“Well, yeah, but….” What did that have to do with anything? I’d already planned to be with Chase that night.

He handed me my purse. “You can get home and spend some time with him. Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

“Um….” He reached down and gave me a kiss. A long kiss. A deep kiss. A ‘don’t fuck with what’s mine’ kiss.

When he pulled his lips away, I was a bit dazed. Mike was completely silent. I was still figuring out which end was up when I got into my car. As they walked away, I wanted to yell out and stop them. It couldn’t have been good that Mike even agreed to go. What if they seriously got into it? But in the end, I stopped worrying. Chase could handle his own, and Mike… well, he could probably learn a lesson or two from a real man.

The traffic was light, and I made it home in record time. Daniel wasn’t there, but he was coming from Chicago and was hitting rush hour on top of construction. Or maybe he’d made a pit stop first. A tall, blonde one. I gave myself a pat on the back. I could’ve called her a flea-bitten ho-bag instead, but I’d refrained.

I went from the garage to basement as usual and was rounding the corner to go up the steps when I noticed the rec room light on. I detoured over to shut it off. I had to go into the room since it was the far switch, picking up an empty can of Diet Coke that was sitting in the corner. Daniel must’ve missed it when I asked him to clean up after his party last month.

Everything looked pretty tidy down there, but while I was at it, I figured it couldn’t hurt to check around and make sure there wasn’t any garbage to get rid of. I stuck my hands in the couch cushions and peeked underneath. All clear. Then I looked behind. I reached down to grab an empty cracker box.

On closer inspection in the light, it wasn’t a cracker box at all. It was a Kleenex box. And it wasn’t empty.

I’d found my missing condoms.

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