Page 170 of Unravel Me

“Shutup,” Carter whispers back, and I slap his hand away when he reaches for one of my Fruit Roll-Ups.

“What should I do?”

“Guess you just gotta wait and do a paternity test when the baby is born,” Emmett suggests.

“No way.” Jaxon jabs at the table. “Demand that shit now. There are tests they can do before.”

“I don’t even want to knowwhyyou know that, Jaxon,” Angie says with a sigh. “The boys are right, though, Adam. You have two options. You can see how much money she wants to go away, or—”

“Fuck that.” Sure, I can afford to pay her off, but I have a thousand better ways to spend that money. The summer camp I’m opening next year, Connor’s education, a garden full of peonies in the backyard, and an engagement ring that Rosie never wants to take off her finger, to name a few. “She’s not getting a cent.”

“Or,” Angie continues, “you request a paternity test. This all goes away one or another. I know it feels so much more complicated than this, but really, it’s that simple.”

She’s right about one thing: nothing about this feels simple. It’s a game of waiting, and I’ve done enough waiting in my life.

Life started the moment Rosie and Connor walked into it, and all I want to do is dive headfirst into the rest of it. I should’ve never been put in a position where I had to forget how to love myself, how to be proud of everything that makes me who I am, but it took finding them, letting them love me, to remember how.

And I won’t let Courtney steal that from me all over again.

“What’s he doing?” Garrett whispers.

“I don’t know,” Jaxon murmurs. “That’s, like, his fifth Fruit Roll-Up.”

“I don’t think he even realizes he’s been eating them this entire time,” Emmett adds.

“I’m worried about him,” Carter says quietly. “He’s not even doing the tongue tattoos. He’s just…eating them whole.”

I stick my hand in the box, frowning when I come up empty. “Did you get me more than one box?”

Without breaking eye contact, Garrett slowly slides another box across the table. “So, hey, big guy, we were thinking—”

“Emmett, get Cara on the phone. I need her advice.”

He leaps from his seat, dashing across the room to grab his phone. “She’s been preparing for this her entire life.”

* * *

It’s nearly one a.m. when I’m walking up my driveway two days later, desperate to crawl into bed after our road trip. It’s been too many days of missed calls, pictures sent from different time zones, and overanalyzing toneless text messages.

I miss Rosie so goddamn much, my alarm is already set for six a.m. so I can drive myself to Starbucks, fill up on everything that makes her warm and smiley, and show up at her door before she takes herself to school. If it wasn’t the middle of the night, I’d be at her door right now, begging to come in.

I fiddle with my keys at the front door, pausing when the porch light flicks on. The door opens, and Rosie stands there in nothing but my T-shirt and my thickest socks, and Jesus fuck, I’ve never been so happy to see pink.

“You’re here.”

“Where else would I be?”

My stomach dips, the weight on my shoulders easing. “You’re not going anywhere?”

“Why would we do that? Connor and I were a family before we found you, sure, but now…” She shakes her head, eyes shuttering at the thought of a future she doesn’t want, the same one I don’t want: one without each other. “Something would always be missing without you, Adam.”

She takes my hands, pulling me into the warmth of the house, the warmth radiating off her. Gentle fingers brush my curls off my forehead, and a tender smile touches her lips.

“We don’t only choose you when it’s convenient and easy and happy. We choose you through all the hard, challenging moments in between. That’s how families love each other, Adam. And Connor and me? We’ll always be by your side.”

She swipes at the lone tear running down my cheek before pressing her lips to mine.

“There’s no better view than right here beside you.”

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