Page 23 of Wicked Little Secret

“Yeah. One of his customers went into labor. He was worried the ambulance might get stuck in the snow, so he took her himself.”

That sounded like something his son would do.

“Oh, wow. So, you’re doing his route?”

“Yeah. It worked out since the place I bartend decided not to open today.”

He made a mental note to talk to Derrick about hiring Chris.

“You need any coffee or anything?”

The younger man held up a stainless-steel thermos with a grin. “I’m all set.”

Maverick waved and headed back inside the house, dialing Nick’s phone the second the door closed.

After the third ring, he was greeted with an enthusiastic, “Hey Dad!”

“Hey buddy! Chris is here plowing my driveway. He said something about you playing ambulance driver?”

“Yeah, one of my customers is pregnant and she came out of her garage in a panic, asking me to hurry so she could get to the hospital because she was in labor. She was actually going to drive herself; can you believe that?”

“Where was her husband?”

“She’s not married. And then none of her family or friends could get here in time, so I stayed at the hospital with her. Now I’m an honorary uncle! I’m going to send you a picture! Mom says he looks just like me when I was a baby. Tell me what you think.”

Maverick’s phone dinged with the incoming text, and he put the call on speaker as he opened up Nick’s text message.

There was his son, posing next to the new mother in her hospital bed with the tiny baby, almost like a father would.

Except, Maverick should be the one in the picture.

His heart started beating out of his chest. Nick wasn’t the kid’s honorary uncle—he was his brother.

He coughed to try to steady his voice before asking, “What hospital are you at?”

“Boston General. I wanted to take her to Banner Hospital, since it was closer, but she insisted I bring her here. I guess this is where she works.”

It really is her.

“I’ll be there soon.”

He ended the call and sat down on the bench in his entryway with athunk.

His beautiful one-night stand, the one he hadn’t stopped thinking about for nine fucking months, just gave birth to his baby. He’d bet his life savings the kid was his. He looked just like his boys had when they were born, and the timing was right.

And his son was the one who drove her to the hospital. What kind of cosmic fuckery was that? He’d been looking for this woman for the last nine months, and Nick ended up being the one holding her hand when she gave birth.

That was some divine intervention if he’d ever seen it. And he wasn’t going to snub the universe giving him another chance. With her, or at being a dad.

His only question was—why hadn’t she told him?

Chapter Eight

Olivia

She stared down in awe at her son as he nestled against her chest. He was tiny perfection. It was scary how much she already loved him.

“He’s got a lot of hair,” Nick observed when he walked back in the room after taking a phone call.

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