Page 17 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

I didn’t know how any other man would ever top him in the sex department. There had been very few other men in the time that he and I had been apart, and none of them had ever been able to come close.

“I don’t love him. I just have some feelings that haven’t seemed to work themselves out yet. They’ve gotten amped up from good sex, but I can’t go back to him.”

“Why not?” Bret asked, rounding the kitchen island and taking a seat on one of the stools. I moved with my grilled cheese and sat beside him.

“There’s a child involved, first of all. Second, there’s a reason that he and I didn’t work out.”

Bret rolled his eyes. “You were kids back then. He was a different person back then too. And if I thought that Tyson hadn’t changed, I would be helping you keep him away from Trinity.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“He hasn’t given me a reason to think he’s still that person. Why would I sit there and judge him about the person he used to be when he marched here as soon as he found out he had a child and demanded to be a part of her life?”

I sighed and took a large bite of my grilled cheese. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

Bret wrapped his arm around me and rubbed my arm, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Honey, I’m on the side of whatever will be best for your little girl, even if that means telling you the things you don’t want to hear.”

I leaned my head against his and sighed. “Why are you such a good friend?”

“Because you need somebody to help drag you out of the shit hole life has put you in.”

I finished the last bite of my sandwich and mulled over what he said. Bret had always protected me, even when I was on the other side of the world. After high school, he was the only person I had who would travel to the other side of the world if I so much as called and told him that I needed him.

More than once, he had picked me up off the ground and put me back on my feet when we were younger. I was there for him just as much as he was there for me.

“You and Tyson could work now that you’ve both grown up and had some life experience under your belt, but acting like he’s still the same person he was back then isn’t fair to anyone. Not to you, or him, or Trinity.”

“I know it’s not fair,” I said, pushing my plate away and turning to look at him as he sat up. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t have a damn clue.”

“Momma, that’s a bad word,” Trinity said as she walked into the kitchen with her sippy cup.

I scooped her up and set her on my knee. “Sorry, baby.”

“It’s okay, Momma. More juice, please?”

“How about some water?” I asked as I took her sippy cup and set her on the ground.

“Okay.”

Once I had gotten up and filled her cup, she took it happily and wandered back to her movie. I sat down beside Bret, turning my chair around to watch Trinity. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Tyson acted like she would have been the best thing that ever happened to him, too, if I had given him a chance.

“I don’t know how to fix this,” I said as I crossed one leg over the other. “Tyson has this whole history following him around, and I don’t want that to haunt our daughter too.”

“Why would you think he’d let any of that happen to her? He was so protective of you in high school. He never let anyone say anything bad about you, even though you were the popular girl, and he was the burnout. That right there shows you he will not let anything happen to his daughter.”

“What happens when the cameras are around is out of his control,” I said.

“Look, I’m guessing this has a lot to do with whatever the hell you were going through with your mom and her fame growing up. I don’t want to be the one to rain on your parade, but you need to stop living in the past about that.”

Bret didn’t know everything that had happened with my mom; after all these years, I still hadn’t told him.

A lot had gone wrong in my relationship with her, beginning with her desertion and ending with cameras shoved in my own face at her funeral.

“Having a camera watching you is a lot for a kid. I don’t want Trinity splashed across social media pages for the world to judge. She should get to live and be a kid for as long as possible. The world is harsh enough without worrying about how strangers see you.”

“I get it, but I still think giving him a chance is worth it. He’s her dad.”

I sighed and shook my head. “I’ll think about it. He’s giving me no choice but to think about it either way. He’s threatened a family lawyer.”

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