Page 40 of Never Saw You Coming

He made two cups of herbal tea while Corinne finished tucking Hunter in. His confidence was at an all-time low. In only a few months, he’d be responsible for looking after two babies. They’d be completely dependent on him. If he couldn’t get it right when a kid was old enough to use his words, he didn’t know how he’d manage with babies. Like his own dad, he just wasn’t cut out for this.

“Everything okay?” Corinne’s voice jolted him out of his thoughts.

No. But he wasn’t going to say that. He pulled her into a hug. “Thank you so much for coming.”

“It wasn’t a problem. I just closed a little early.”

“You saved my ass.”

She smiled wryly. “You’re exaggerating. It wasn’t that bad.”

“It felt it.” He passed her a mug, then sat with his own and sipped. Corinne dropped onto the chair beside him. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” She looked surprised by the question. “Anything.”

“Were you surprised when Dad left?”

She frowned, clearly taken aback. “Do you mean when he left the country?”

“Yeah.” Had there been signs he’d abandon his children? It felt like it, in hindsight.

“Yes, and no.” She sighed. “Did I think he’d go overseas? No. But I wasn’t surprised, either. He was a free spirit. He hated feeling stuck.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Logan would phrase it less politely. He’d been a selfish, irresponsible jerk. “Do you know why he went?”

She cocked her head in thought. “Not really. Where is this going?”

“So, it wasn’t because of us?”

“No.” Her mouth dropped open, then snapped shut. “Absolutely not. I promise, it was never about you. It wasn’t even really about me. It was just what he felt like he had to do.”

And screw anyone else.

Logan looked down so she wouldn’t see his expression. He’d taken off, too. As soon as he’d been old enough, he’d saved his money and left to join the professional surfing circuit. Had doing that made him just like his father? He knew Corinne had missed him, and Kyle had been bullied at school while he was gone. Perhaps a better person would have stayed.

“It means he didn’t make any of us a priority though,” he said. Jonathan’s actions had indirectly told his ex-wife and children that they didn’t matter. Their happiness and wellbeing wasn’t important enough for him to bother trying to come up with a solution that enabled him to stay involved in their lives. Logan didn’t want to do the same to his children, but he worried he wouldn’t be any better at parenting than his dad had been.

“That says more about him than it does about us,” she said firmly.

Yeah, it did. But as the saying went, “like father, like son.”

“Do you ever have any regrets about him?” he asked.

“Of course not! Being with him gave me you and Kyle, and you’re the best things that ever happened to me. Jonathan and I were badly suited, but I like to think I did pretty well for us after he was gone.”

“You did.” He patted her hand. “We had everything we needed, and most of the things we wanted too. In hindsight, I realize how difficult it must have been to make that happen.”

She smiled. “But totally worth it.”

They lapsed into silence while they drank. Logan’s mind wandered back to his father. His memories of the man were fuzzy. He couldn’t even clearly remember what he’d looked like anymore, which felt wrong considering how much of an impact he’d had on Logan’s life. All Logan knew for sure was that he’d been told his whole life how much he resembled Jonathan Pride, and he wanted more than anything for that to be wrong, but after how he’d handled tonight, he wasn’t so sure it was.

15

Gabby setdown the paint roller and stretched. Her back ached, but she’d nearly finished painting the nursery. The walls were a creamy shade of yellow, and the ceiling was white, as were the windowsills and running board. She’d considered painting the ceiling dark blue and decorating it with glow-in-the-dark stars, but had decided it was more important for the room to be light than for it to have a feature ceiling. They could always add the stars anyway and nobody would be able to tell what color the paint was at night.

She heard a scratching at the door and sighed. She’d had to shut the animals out so they wouldn’t get themselves covered in paint or smear the neat job she’d done on the walls. She’d opened the windows wide to enable air circulation and it was through the open window that she saw a car come up the drive. She frowned. She’d been expecting Logan, but this wasn’t his vehicle. It was too new and shiny. Not to mention white. Only an idiot would drive a car like that in a semi-rural area like this if they wanted to keep it pristine. She squinted, trying to see through the windshield, but either the glass was tinted or the angle of the sun was causing too much reflectivity for her to make out who was inside.

The car pulled up a few yards from the window and the door opened. Henry stepped out. Her stomach flip-flopped sickeningly. Her head spun and she stumbled away from the window. He looked up and spotted her. He propped his sunglasses atop his head and raised a hand in greeting. His stride was confident as he approached the door.

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