Page 27 of Say You'll Stay

I lean back and think more about Jadon and ways to bond with him. He enjoys coloring and being outdoors, so that’s easy enough. I also consider ways to get under Allie’s skin and make up for time lost. She doesn’t need a man to take care of her, especially since she has one, but I wonder how things would have turned out had she told me she was pregnant. I’m trying not to be angry about it, since there’s no point, but she really didn’t give me a chance to show her I’m not really an asshole.

She would have trusted me more by now and Jadon would know who his father was. Like I told her, family is important to me, so every appointment? Fuck yeah. Cuss me out in the hospital and all that while she pushes a watermelon through a narrow opening? She missed her opportunity to call me every name in the book with that one.

I wouldn’t have missed the late-night feedings or diaper changes, I think. I probably could have been there for his first steps, or first words.

Wow, I’m such a dick. That’s one thing I’ll make sure Jadon knows: never treat a girl the way I treated his mother.Always get their name before you get in their pants. Not unless he wants to miss out on the stuff I did.

If I stayed, would Allie and I have ended up together? No, she hates me too much. Besides, she’s way out of my league.

I literally crushed her dreams in one night so I could get laid. What a dick move. Literally. No, we wouldn’t have ended up in some happy relationship. I lost my chance because I was too determined to get inside of her. She wanted to be an actual doctor and help people.

Yeah, I’ve got a lifetime of making it up to her ahead of me.

I can’t believe I was the guy to not even ask her name. I remember thinking about her after I met her and wondering if she was ever going to show up at another party.

“Oh babe, watch, this is my favorite part,” Kat pulls me from my thoughts to watch a cat fight. They rip out chunks of hair, fingernails break. It’s a damn trainwreck.

“Yeah, that’s great.”

I look through my phone at the messages from Allie and bite back a smile at the tenacity of this girl. Her last message to me was another threat telling me not to get Jadon any toys that make noise or else she’ll send a ridiculous pizza order to my house.

Yeah, well, I like pizza, so joke’s on her.

Chapter16

Allie

“Jadon, time to brush your teeth,” I say, trying to rush as I am running late,yet again. Jadon drags his feet, rubbing his eyes all the way to the bathroom, trying my patience as best he can. I know he’s four, and it isn’t his fault, but we have to get him settled in this place.

“Why do I have to be up so early? I’m tired.” He releases a yawn. The kind that is contagious. “Can’t I go to school tomorrow?”

“No, baby. We need to go today since your mommy and grandpa are both at work,” I say while propping him up on the counter, and we start our little routine. There’s a knock on the front door and my dad answers. I can faintly hear my dad talking to someone while I focus on finishing Jadon’s teeth before he spits his toothpaste out all over me.

Unless I want to smell like blue raspberry, I’ll need to change my outfit.

“Sorry Mommy, it was in there too long,” he says while wiping his face off with the back of his hand.

“It’s fine. Go get your shoes on and I’ll be down in a minute.” He jumps down and runs downstairs. Since I heard him yell hi to Lucas, I don’t have to guess who is downstairs.

Unless he renamed his imaginary friend, Bramble. Though I thought Bramble went to space or something last week. But no, I hear Lucas’ distinct voice and know that the second I get downstairs, I will be assaulted with that clean scent of his and whatever the man looks like when he’s fresh in the morning. When he’s unaffected by the scorching sun and all that—not that heat and sweat and hard work seem to make him look all that bad.

Not that I noticed.

And because of that, it takes four different shirt changes and an extra coat of mascara. Why? I have no clue, but it’s necessary even if I am running late.

When I make it downstairs, Jadon is telling the story of how he spit all over me. Lucas actively tries to stifle a laugh until he meets my icy glare. Only then do I notice his stupid dimpled cheek.

He could go off and be one of those models everyone recognizes with the two different eyes and the unnaturally beautiful freaking face and live off of his good looks for the rest of his natural life. And here I was, trying to make sure my lashes weren’t clumpy before the day even started.

“I thought we were meeting at the daycare,” I say to him.

“Yeah, but I figured we could drive together and stop for coffee on the way. Or smoothies, or whatever you drink in the mornings.”

“Ha! Good luck with little miss small business over there,” my dad laughs out loud, causing me to roll my eyes. “Her place takes forever.”

“Okay, first, shut it,” I say to my dad then turn to Lucas, “and second, why do you want to drive with us, and third, we arenotgetting in that two-door death trap you drive.”

And I’m not seating Jadon into the spot where he was made. No. Absolutely not.

---