Page 29 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

“You make it very clear,” I said before looking at my phone and seeing several missed messages from my dad and Joseph. “Dad has to get going for some meeting he has, and Joseph is on his way back, so I have to head home. We’ll have to find another time that we can talk. Maybe this time without getting interrupted.”

Tyson grinned. “How about you come over to my place tomorrow night, and we can start talking properly.”

His place—where there was a bed, a couch, and all kinds of other tempting places where I could put my hands on him as much as I liked.

“Tomorrow around seven?” I asked, already thinking about what Bret would say when I asked him to babysit.

“Tomorrow at seven.”

“Okay,” I said. “I have to meet with the police a little before then. I got another letter today, and Corey couldn’t make time in his schedule to take another report until tomorrow.”

“I’ll deal with him again,” Tyson said as we passed Joseph on our way out of the clinic. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear the last time I saw him.”

“Ty, tell me you’re not going around and trying to intimidate people for me.”

“I’m not. I merely offered him the resources he needed to protect the people of this town better, and he basically told me to shove it up my ass. That means that I’m going to pay him another visit.”

“Ty.”

“Don’t Ty me. I told you that I was going to do what I could to help you. Let me help you.”

“I don’t know why you would even want to after everything I’ve done to you.”

“Haley,” he said, stopping as we stood outside. “We’ve done a lot of shitty things to each other over the years. Never, for a second, think that it means that I care about you any less.”

I swallowed hard, not knowing what else to say. “I’ll see you tomorrow at seven?”

He nodded, stepping away from me. “Seven.”

As he walked away, I counted the steps he took, waiting to see if he would turn back and look at me. When he didn’t, I couldn’t help but think that I had made another mistake by not telling him how I felt about him.

Do I even really know how I feel about him?

Not yet.

12

TYSON

Severalyearsago,Ihad taken cooking classes while traveling around Europe. After having food abroad, I didn’t want to come back to New York and live off takeout.

I had spent time learning to cook, and now it was paying off.

Haley looked at the feast I had laid out on the table, her eyes wide and smile even wider. She handed me a book that had been tucked under her arm.

“These are all the pictures I have of Trinity from when she was born until her first birthday. I have more pictures at home in other albums, but I thought we could start with these.”

I didn’t know what to say to her. The only thing I could do was pull her in and kiss her.

“Thank you for this,” I said as I pulled away. “This means more to me than you could ever know.”

“If we’re going to make this work, we need to be on the same page. I know you missed much of her life, which was my fault. I thought that I could at least show you some of it.”

I sat in one of the seats, opening the album and looking through the pictures. There weren’t that many of Trinity in the hospital shortly after she was born, but once Haley took her home, it seemed like the pictures started, and they didn’t stop.

With a grin, I flipped through them, trying to commit each picture to memory. When I got to the last page, I set the book to the side and looked up at Haley.

“I’m going to look through that again later tonight if you don’t mind me keeping it for the night.”

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