Page 23 of Jasper
“And what happens when the baby is born? Will she try to keep your child?”
I rub the back of my neck. “No. I’ll raise it. The kid’s mine, legally and biologically. And I… I never thought I’d get thechance to have a family. Not with the life I live. But now I’ve got one shot. I’m not letting it slip away.”
For a long moment, no one says anything. My old man’s eyes stay locked on mine, steady and hard.
“You sure you can do this, Jasper? Raise a child all by yourself?”
“How hard can it be?” I ask. “The two of you managed to have four of us. I can always hire a nanny if I need to.”
Looking from one to the other of them, I point out, “What choice do I have, short of asking her to terminate the pregnancy or putting my kid up for adoption?”
My old man responds harshly, “No one is suggesting you terminate the pregnancy or give our grandson away.”
I lift my chin. “What’s done is done, and I’m not sorry it happened.”
Ma’s eyes go glassy with tears, and she reaches out across the table, palm up, like she did when I was a kid. I take her hand without thinking because she’s my mom and I care about her.
She tells me quietly, “I’m proud of you for stepping up, Jasper. You’re not doing this alone. We’ll all help however we can. I just felt blindsided when Silver came to me with this news. I expected to hear it from you, that’s all.”
“I was getting to it, I didn’t tell Silver, I don’t even know how she found out,” I tell her, squeezing her hand. That is something I’m gonna look into. It’s bad enough having a troublemaker for a club girl, but if she’s snooping around, then that’s gotta stop right here. Right now. “It’s not what any of us expected, but I’m not gonna pretend like I didn’t jump at the chance.”
My old man gives a small grunt, like he’s exhaling something hard. “Well, son,” he says, “if you think having kids isn’t hard, I’m gonna enjoy watchin’ you run in circles.”
Ma adds, “Welcome to the chaos of parenthood.”
I nod, the lump in my throat difficult to swallow. “Guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
Gazing at my ma, I tell her, “This woman didn’t want to carry my baby, but once she found out she was pregnant, she fought to continue the pregnancy. We’re still talking about what things will look like after the birth. She might stick around, and she might not. I don’t want us putting a bunch of pressure on her. She’s kind of skittish, so let’s don’t scare her off.”
“Heaven forbid,” she responds with a wink.
We both know that she can be a lot, especially when she gets really excited over something like her first grandkid.
“We’ve got plenty of time to worry about baby stuff.”
She nods. “Message received. Don’t scare her off.”
I shrug carelessly with one shoulder. “I’m gonna do some repairs on her house. I’ll see if I can get her to come to dinner sometime if you want?”
Her eyes light up. “I’d love that. I’m dying to meet her.”
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”
I pull out my phone and show her the photo Tessa sent me of her eating the pie.
She gives an approving nod, but instead of giving my phone back, she passes it around so everyone can see what the mother of my child looks like.
Slate, the turncoat that he is, speaks up. “Tell them the rest.”
I stretch my arms over my head and wiggle my torso until my back cracks. “I might or might not be interested in her,” I mutter, refusing to look at any of them.
They all know what that means. I’m gonna go after her like a dog with a fuckin’ bone because I have no finesse. Thankfully, they don’t break out in applause or anything over the top.
I come to my feet and make a clean getaway.
Heading up to my room, I get online and order a truckload of building supplies to be picked up in the morning. It takes me about an hour, but I can’t get to sleep afterward.
It’s late, but I can’t resist sending Tessa a text. I know she’s not my woman, and the prospects would have contacted me if anything popped off, but I have this overpowering need to see how she’s doing. I can’t help but feel protective of her.
