Page 63 of Secret Baby With My Brother's Best Friend

"You are okay. Right?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"How about Harper?" Carl raised a brow, and I could already guess where this was going. "How is she?"

"She's fine," I answered.

Carl smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. Anyways, how did you get her to come back here? Last I remembered, she was quite adamant on leaving, so…" his eyes were curious, and he grinned sheepishly, resting his chin on his hand. "What happened? How did you change her mind?"

I didn't answer. Instead, I focused my eyes on my palms, entangling my fingers slowly. My mind continued to wander off, and I got lost in my thoughts. A part of me was thinking about how amazing this conversation would have been a couple of hours ago before we walked into the hotel. I would have loved to tell him all the fun that happened at the motel with Harper but not now. I wasn't in the mood to talk about that.

"Logan," Carl called after some minutes, pulling me back to reality, and I met his gaze. "Are you okay?"

"I have a kid," I blurted, completely out of the blue.

"What?" Carl widened his gaze. "What do you mean…" there was a brief pause. "... you have a kid?" Carl asked, his expression puzzled.

"Exactly what the statement means. I have a kid," I mumbled. "It's crazy, isn't it?" I chuckled.

"I can't even wrap my head around it. H-how? How is that even possible?"

"How?" I repeated, curling a brow. "Harper and I were intimate a few years back, turns out—"

"Harper?" Carl interjected, taken aback. His eyes flickered upward, and he straightened up in his seat. "Wait. Let me get this straight. You have a kid with Harper? You two have a child," he was literally rambling at this point.

"Yeah, turns out I do."

"Wow! That's crazy. When did you find out about this?"

"Yesterday. I saw the kid in the lobby."

"You saw the kid in the lobby?" he enunciated every word with wide eyes, raising his voice a little. "How did…is it a girl or a boy?"

"A girl. A very pretty girl. She looks just like Harper," I told him proudly.

"How old is the kid?"

"She's six years old."

"Six years!" he almost screamed—half screamed. "Wow! That's quite a number."

"It is."

"How did she get here?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think she came with someone. There was some lady there with her. Harper was surprised to see her, though, so I don't think she knew they were coming."

Carl was silent for a minute. I could tell he was taking my words in. He broke the silence a second later. "Help me out here. I'm a little confused. How did you not know about any of this all this time?"

"Because two months after we were together. I left and never saw her again until that day at the airport."

"Oh! I can see why she always seemed so mad at you. She must have felt abandoned."

"Yeah, she must have," I whispered to myself.

"So, why did you leave?" Carl asked, and I darted my eyes in his direction. "Was it because of the promise you mentioned once?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I made a promise to her brother that I'd never—"

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