Page 85 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

“I get it,” Jordan said, staring at the iPad like the information might change if he focused hard enough. “You remember how Lucas was back then. He told anyone who would listen that he didn’t want kids. And he was a massive fuck-up. If I were in Haley’s position, I wouldn’t have told him, either.”

“It must have been hard,” I said, shaking my head. I was a pretty empathetic person—part of my job was putting myself in people’s shoes, making myself think like them. But I couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for Haley. Getting pregnant, choosing to keep the baby, then dropping out of college and diverting her entire life…

And doing it all alone.

“Whelp, now we know the truth,” Jordan said. “Here’s the tougher question: do we tell Lucas?”

“Assuming he doesn’t already know?”

Jordan shook his head emphatically. “There’s no fucking way he knows. He would’ve lost his shit and called me. Trust me, he’s still in the dark. Unless we tell him.”

“It’s not our place,” I said.

Jordan scoffed at me. “Not our place? Bro, he’s our best friend, and he has a fuckingsonthat he doesn’t know about. And worse, we’ve been hanging out with him.” He groaned. “I’d be fuckingfuriousif you guys knew there was a little Jordan Junior running around and didn’t tell me.”

“Thank God that’s not true,” I teased. “One of you is enough.”

Jordan threw up a middle finger, but he laughed.

“This is bad,” Jordan insisted. “I’ve been teaching him baseball. Fuckingbaseball.And he’s my best friend’s kid.”

“It’s not our place to tell him,” I said calmly. “The angle we should take is convincingHaleyto tell him. Lucas deserves to hear it from her, not us. He’ll probably take it better, too.”

“Damnit, you’re right,” Jordan whined. “Fuck!”

“I bet you have a really good bedside manner.”

“I’m sorry, is there a problem with my cursing? I’m extremely careful with my words when I’m around my patients. They’re kids. But right now it’s just you and me, alone in my apartment, so I’m going to fucking curse if I fucking want to.”

“I withdraw my complaint, your honor,” I joked.

Jordan shook his head, then looked directly at me. “I like her, man.”

“Haley?”

“Who else are we talking about? Yes, Haley. I like her a lot. I’m talking a massive fucking crush. I’ve dated alotof women, but I’ve never felt this way before. I know that’s, like cliché or whatever, but it’s the truth. I think about her literally every single day, counting down the minutes until I get to see her again.”

Wind swirled outside, sending rain pattering against the window. I slowly took another sip of my beer. If I was being completely honest with myself, I felt something similar to Jordan. No, not similar—identical. Haley had been a permanent resident in my mind since I met her last month, creating a complex knot of emotion and desire that would soon be too difficult to untangle.

I wasobsessedwith her.

But all I said was, “My feelings are not dissimilar to yours.”

“That’s a lawyer answer if I’ve ever heard one,” Jordan said. “So, what do we do about it?”

“There’s nothing wecando about it,” I said. “We had already agreed that Lucas deserved a chance with Haley first, since they had a history together. Now that we know Bran is his son, that’s more important than ever. We can’t get in the way of their potential to have a real family.”

“I hate it,” Jordan said, leaning forward and holding his head in his hands. “You’re right. I get it. But I hate it.”

“Me too.” I gulped down the rest of my beer. “Got anything stronger?”

Still hanging his head, Jordan pointed. “Cabinet to the right of the microwave. Pour me a glass, too.”

I went to the kitchen and opened the cabinet. “Which bottle?”

“The older whiskey,” Jordan said. “That was a gift when I got into med school. I save it for special occasions, but this feels like a good time.”

“Ice?”

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