Page 89 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

I clenched my jaw. “He’s probably in bed by now. I’ll ask him tomorrow. He’s been very busy at work.”

It broke my heart to make excuses. The last thing I wanted was for Bran to feel like he had been abandoned. That was the whole reason I hadn’t told him who his father was in the first place!

I thought that I wasenoughfor him, but now it was clear he needed more than just me in his life.

When I crawled in bed each evening, I thought about that night at Lucas’s apartment. How muchfunwe’d had… and then telling him the truth about Bran. The way he’d paced around, squeezing his hair in his fists. Freaking out. It reminded me of the old Lucas, the one I’d known in high school. The one that I was certain wasn’t father material.

Lost in all of this was the confession he had made. He’d moved back to Vancouver forme. He wanted to try to start a real relationship… not just with me, but with Bran. He was willing to give it a try, even if he thought he wouldn’t be a good stepfather.

Lucas had changed so much from the teenager I had fallen in love with. He was a realmanin every definition of the word. His confession was everything I had wanted to hear.

And then it was gone, in the blink of an eye.

Deep down, I knew I had made the right decision to tell him. He deserved to know, especially before he spent anymoretime with the boy he didn’t know was his son. If I had put it off longer, the resulting explosion would have been even worse.

If Lucas couldn’t forgive me, then that’s just how it had to be.

After another week had passed, I was even more certain. I didn’t even want to text Lucas anymore. He’d made his choice clear.

I told myself I didn’t need him. I didn’t need Jordan or Shay, either. The weird little fling I’d had with the three of them was fun while it lasted, but it was time for me to move on.

I’d raised Bran alone for this long. I could keep doing it.

And if that meant I cried myself to sleep every night, then that was the price I had to pay.

44

Haley

“I still can’t believe he hasn’t reached out,” Sara complained one morning. “He found out that he has ason. And his response is to totally ghost you? That shows he was never father material in the first place.”

“I guess so,” I said. I had become numb to the whole thing.

“You should text him,” Sara insisted, resting her hands on her belly. She was close to popping at this point, and was going to be induced later this week if the twins didn’t come naturally. “Give him a piece of your mind, Hales.”

“I don’t think that would help anything.”

“What has gotten into you? The sister I know would show up at his office and call him a deadbeat dad in front of all his coworkers. But you seem… defeated.”

I sighed and turned toward my sister. “Ifeeldefeated, Sara. I got a glimpse of a life I could have had, and then it was torn away from me. I’m not angry anymore. I’m just tired.”

She pursed her lips, but said nothing as I finished getting ready for work.

I’d found comfort in my routines. Helping Bran get ready for school each morning, and putting him to bed every night. Practicing baseball with him in the afternoon, even though I had about as much hand-eye coordination as one of those wacky inflatable tubes outside of car dealerships. Having family dinners every night with Harper and Sara, enjoying the last few days of peace before the twins arrived and threw our lives into chaos. As soon as they were born, I would be too busy to worry about Lucas, Jordan, or Shay.

I threw myself into my work, too. My career was flourishing since the conference—I’d given two presentations for my colleagues on what I had learned, and my boss kept telling me how proud he was of me. He was even giving me more responsibility, including transferring more house showings to my workload.

That’s what I was focusing on today: an open house at a property that had been on the market formonthswithout selling. It was a huge opportunity for me, and I allowed it to occupy most of my mental energy. Better that than obsessing over Lucas, and his reaction to learning he was Bran’s dad.

I arrived at the home and did a walkthrough, ensuring everything was clean and staged. It was a bright sunny day, so I opened all the blinds to allow as much natural light in as possible. I set up a big tray of cookies, nibbling on one of them while walking around the neighborhood and planting signs at intersections with arrows pointing toward the home.

The last thing I did was rearrange two of the chairs in the study, giving it a more open feel. I had a pretty good eye for staging, and small changes like that often made a huge difference.

The open house technically began at noon, but I started getting a steady stream of people popping in before that. The house was near a popular street that got a lot of foot traffic, which certainly helped get people inside. I’d done hundreds of open houses before, and sometimes I sat there all day waiting for someone,anyoneto take a look. Fortunately, I didn’t have that problem today.

Unfortunately, there was another problem with the house: the living room. It was basically a wide hallway between the front door and the kitchen, not large enough to position both a couchanda television. That was undoubtedly the reason the house had gone so long without selling—people spent most of their time in the living room, after all.

I had my work cut out for me.

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