Page 30 of Hung Up on the Hacker

Hadley stroked her hair. “I’ll play with you in a bit, okay? I think you still have some homework to do, and I need to talk to your dad.” It was a weird thing to say, though Holt had absolutely claimed Maddie as his, even before the adoption went through.

“Can I have another marker tattoo?” She folded her hands in prayer position and deployed The Eyes. Hadley recognized the tactic as one she’d used to great effect at that age.

“If there’s time before or after dinner.”

“There will be time!”

Smiling, Hadley headed for the door to the backyard, jerking her head at her brother. He and BB trailed her outside. The air was cooling with the onset of sundown, and Hadley crossed her arms, ranging herself next to her brother as they both watched the dog sniff the perimeter of the yard.

Do it fast. Like ripping off a Band-aid. “So, Cash said he talked to you.”

“Yeah.”

“How upset are you, really?” Maybe he hadn’t been honest about it with Cash.

“Are you happy?”

That made her look at him because it was a loaded question. He stood beside her, big arms folded across his chest, his blue eyes steady on hers. “With him?”

Holt jerked a nod.

“Yeah. We didn’t expect it to be like this. I wasn’t expecting this to turn into anything serious. I thought we’d satisfy our curiosity and be done. That’s not what happened.”

“Life often surprises us. My marriage is proof of that.”

“True enough.” After the last few days, she wasn’t sure she could handle any more surprises.

With one hand, he tweaked the ends of her hair in an old gesture of affection. “Why didn’t you want to tell me?”

“I legit thought you’d want to pound on him. You’ve always been so overly protective. It’s why I’ve never told you about anybody I’ve dated.”

“It was my job to protect you growing up, when you were too young to be able to do it yourself. I used to be a stupid teenage boy. I knew how they thought, so yeah, I was gonna look out for you. But I never would have worried about you with Cash. He’s not a man who plays with anybody. He certainly wouldn’t play with you. You both built this whole thing up in your heads for what I was gonna do, based on—I don’t know—assumptions or conventions or something. If he’d been sniffing around when you were eighteen, that would have been a very different conversation with the age gap. But you’re a grown adult now. I don’t have any right to interfere in your love life unless I find out that somebody is treating you poorly. I know he won’t.” He draped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “It seems like you make each other happy, so I’ve got no reason not to be happy for you.”

She shot him some side eye even as she leaned into his familiar comfort. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say about it?”

“Yeah. I know he’ll treat you well. I know everything he was prepared to give up for you, if I didn’t react well. It tells me he’s serious. Are you?”

She thought of the life growing inside her. “It would be hard not to be at this point.” Resting her head against his shoulder, she sighed. “He’s pretty amazing.”

“Yeah, he is. Big-picture-wise, I think you’ll be good for him. He can be too serious, too buttoned down. You’ll combat that just by being who you are.”

It was Hadley’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, I do a lot of that. He’s stable. So very stable—in a good way. That’s good for me, too.”

“I never would’ve imagined you two together, but the idea’s growing on me. Are you hanging out in serious see-where-it-goes territory or long-term potential?”

He really was being remarkably chill about this whole thing. She’d have laid odds on him making all kinds of assumptions and demands on how they ought to proceed from here. It was nice to be surprised and not have any more pressure on that front. It was a weighty decision either way.

She thought about the conversations she’d had with Cash since yesterday. He’d insisted he wanted her, no matter what. That he wouldn’t judge her, whichever way she chose. That he’d be there with her, by her side, supporting her. She believed him. And because she did, she admitted the truth. “Yeah, I think we’re thinking long term. We were already thinking about it, whether we admitted it or not, and now, it’ll be what’s best for the baby.”

The arm around her stiffened, and he pivoted to face her. “You’re pregnant?”

Faced with his complete and utter shock, all she could think was Oops.

Apparently, Cash hadn’t told him everything after all.

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