Page 34 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

Tyson chuckled and jogged with her to keep up. I trailed behind them, still not wanting to intrude. Tyson looked over his shoulder and grinned, waving me over.

“Come on and stop acting like you aren’t having a great time looking at the monkeys, too,” Tyson said, his tone teasing as he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer.

“Do you guys want a picture?” a woman asked as she appeared beside us. “You’re such a good-looking family.”

“Thank you,” Tyson said, handing the woman his phone as I started to protest.

“Smile!” the woman said.

I gave in, thinking it might be nice for Trinity to have one family photo. As I melted into Tyson’s side, I smiled at the camera, and for a moment, I could imagine that this was my life every day.

When the woman gave Tyson back his phone, he sent the picture to me before tucking the phone away.

As we walked around the zoo, Tyson stopped with Trinity for as long as she wanted. He read all the plaques to her, telling her about the animals and their names. Trinity looked like she was soaking it all in. The way she clutched to him at all times made waves of guilt wash over me again.

I kept this from her. I kept her father from her.

With the guilt, there was some jealousy mixed with it. For so long, I had been Trinity’s whole world. Now that Tyson was around, she couldn’t seem to get enough of him. She barely said anything to me, instead choosing him.

I didn’t want to feel horrible about it, but the green-eyed monster lurked.

When we got back to my house after a day of racing around from animal to animal, Trinity was barely awake. Tyson carried her to her room and put her down in her bed before joining me in the kitchen. He put down the backpack and sat on one of the barstools.

“Thank you for inviting me,” he said.

“Well, you were right about a lot of things. I need to give you a chance and start trusting you with her.”

I poured myself a glass of water and downed it before turning to face him. He smiled briefly before turning back to look down at his phone. After another second, he put the phone away.

“Sorry, just sending the picture of us to Leigh and my mom.” He ran a hand from his hair and sighed. “How are you feeling after all of this?”

“I don’t know. It’s not easy to have someone else in her life after I’ve done everything alone for so long. And then there’s the way she took to you so easily, and that’s not any easier on me.”

“Why not?”

“As much as I want her to have a relationship with you, I wanted it to be a little bit harder. I wanted you to have to work for it a little more than you did.”

Tyson smiled a little, and I was happy that he wasn’t angry with me for thinking like that.

“You know, all I could think about while she was on that pony was how I missed all of her other firsts,” Tyson said, the smile dropping. “I missed everything for years, Haley.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say to you about that right now. I did what I thought was best.”

“And I understand that, but it still hurts,” Tyson said.

I leaned on the counter and wondered if this was going to turn into another fight between us. I was tired of fighting with him. Instead of fighting, I would rather just be in a good place where we knew how we were going to co-parent our daughter.

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Tyson nodded. “I’m sorry for all the times I’ve hurt you over the years.”

“We haven’t been very kind to each other,” I said. “I think we should probably start changing that for the sake of our daughter.”

He nodded. “We should.”

There was something else that I needed to tell him, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to take it. Talking about the stalker was a touchy subject, but he needed to know, especially if I was going to give him any alone time with Trinity in the next few months.

“I’ve gotten a picture from whoever’s stalking me. It was taken when I was leaving your house last night.”

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