Page 44 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

“One family.”

It felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs. “You’re sure about that?”

“We need to take things slow, but I think that I want to try being one family,” Haley said, her voice shaking. “I’m scared, Ty. What if we don’t work?”

“We’re going to work on things together. We’re going to figure it out. Let’s take things day by day.”

Haley nodded. “One day at a time.”

She looked back at the house where Bret had appeared in the window. I started laughing as Bret turned around and pretended to make out with himself.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” I kissed her forehead. “It seems like somebody else is looking for some attention.”

“I still need to find him someone that will be able to put up with him for the long term.”

“Good luck with that.”

She laughed and shook her head as she stepped back from the truck. “Night, Ty.”

“Night, Hales.”

I waited until she was in the house before I backed out of the driveway. There was nothing more either of us could do tonight, but I was feeling better about where we were than I had been in weeks.

Somehow, we were going to work through this together.

17

HALEY

Sundaymorningstartedwithan emergency call from the clinic, and it only went downhill from there.

I called both Bret and my dad, looking for someone who could watch Trinity while I went in and performed emergency surgery on one of the dogs. Dad and Kirstie were out of town for the weekend, and Bret was at work.

It was then that I started wishing I had more people in my life that I could trust with Trinity. I was supposed to be at the clinic in half an hour, and I still had no clue who was going to watch Trinity.

I could always drop her off at Tyson’s and ask him to watch her, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that step. Especially when he had an entire part of his home dedicated to her, and she still didn’t know who he was.

Still, I called Tyson and hopped around my bedroom, trying to get dressed while the phone rang.

“Hey, Tyson,” I said as soon as the call connected. “I know it’s really early in the morning, but I need a huge favor.”

“Anything,” he said immediately, sounding more alert than I thought he would have before seven a.m.

“I need you to come to the clinic and watch Trinity. I just got a call to perform an emergency surgery on one of the dogs that has an obstruction in her bowels. I have to go in since none of my vet techs are qualified to do it, but I have nobody to watch her.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to just come over there?”

I froze mid-hop while pulling my jeans on. “No. I’ll just meet you at the clinic.”

The truth was, I didn’t want him to have full access to my private space, and I didn’t want him alone with Trinity, where I couldn’t check on her. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him. I had just never left them alone together before.

Even in surgery, I wouldn’t be able to check on her whenever I wanted, but I would feel better having them both close in case something came up that he didn’t know how to handle.

“Okay. I’ll get dressed, and then I’ll be on my way. Do you want me to stop and get her something to eat for breakfast?”

“Actually, that would be great. If you can grab some pancakes or something from the diner and meet me there, I would really appreciate it.”

“See you there, Hales.”

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