Page 65 of Biker's Baby

Abe nodded again, and once more I wished there was a way I could read his thoughts.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked.

There was another pause, and though it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, it felt like an eternity before he shook his head.

“No, I’m not mad,” he said. “Just thinking.”

“What are you thinking?” I asked. I didn’t want to pry, but I also couldn’t stand being left out in the dark, either. I had to know what was going on in his head. I just had to.

“That little boy right there.” Abe gave Tristan a small nod. “He’s my son.”

“Yes, he is,” I said. “And you’re his dad.”

“His dad,” Abe said the words slowly, as though he was trying to get a feel for them. It was still hard for me to know just what was going through his head, but I was relieved that he wasn’t throwing a fit or telling me that I had to pack our things and get out of the house.

I was also grateful for the fact that I was the one who got to tell him, and it was just the two of us here when I did. I didn’t need to have an audience, even if Glenn had been the one to figure it out before Abe did. I just wanted this moment to be between the two of us so there wasn’t any more tension in the future.

“You know what that means?” Abe said as he turned slightly to look at me.

“What?” I asked.

“It means that it’s high time I really got my shit together,” he said. “If I’m a dad, then I can’t be living life like I’m the only one who matters anymore.”

“It’s not like you did that anyway,” I said with a soft scoff.

“I did a lot more than I would if I’d known that I was a father.” He shook his head.

I took a chance and reached up, wrapping my arms around his neck. I wasn’t sure how he would respond to the gesture, and I braced myself emotionally to be pushed away. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he didn’t want me to touch him, or if he just needed to have the space to digest what he’d just learned.

But, to my surprise, he put his arm around me and pulled me into him.

I laid my head against his chest, listening to the surprisingly calm beating of his heart. He wasn’t the slightest bit agitated, and with the way he was running his thumb over my shoulder, I didn’t feel like he had put any barriers up between us, either.

There was total acceptance over the fact that he was a father, and I felt almost stupid for waiting so long to tell him the truth. He was a good man. I knew he was. He was the one person in the world I had always felt safe being with. I knew he would take care of me no matter what. He would take care of us.

To think that he would have thrown us out seemed absurd now, but I wasn’t going to let myself head in that direction. I wasn’t going to beat myself up over it. I had done the best that I could with what I had to work with at the time, and now it was time we both moved on from it.

Abe knew the truth, and Tris now had a father figure in his life. I didn’t know what that meant for Abe and me, but I did know that it meant Tris wasn’t ever going to have to grow up wondering who is father was, and Abe clearly wanted to be involved.

It was a good feeling to know that I had that level of support, and perhaps even more.

But those were things that we could talk about later. For now, I wanted to focus on the fact that we were together – that we were together in this. Neither of us had planned on becoming parents that night, but it happened all the same.

Now to know that he was willing to be part of this – that we could make a family of ourselves in some way after all, meant more than the world itself to me.

As he held me close and I watched Tristan play, I realized this was what I needed from him more than anything else. Not just protection, not just a place to stay. Not just the sex when we felt like we wanted intimacy with another person.

I needed this side of him.

I needed all of him.

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