Page 73 of Tuck & Roll

Race waited for his eyes to connect with his. “Do you love her?”

“I love her so fucking much I thought I was going to die when I thought she was pregnant with Darren’s kid.”

One side of Race’s mouth kicked up. “So now that you know you’re going to be a dad, for real this time, what are going to do to win your baby momma?”

“With the track record I have right now? I have no fucking idea.” They sat in silence for a moment before Tuck said, “I fucked up so bad.”

“Yeah. You did. But I blame Taylor for this mess.” Race leaned back in his chair, his gaze steady as he allowed Tuck the time to work through everything.

“Shit. I’m going to be a dad.” A slow smile spread across his face. “For real. Kylie’s having my baby.” And he wanted to be there for all of it. He wanted to be there when the baby started kicking. He wanted to be there when or if she had morning sickness. Was it too soon for her to be having morning sickness now? He wanted to go to doctor appointments with her and to help pick out a name. He wanted to be there when she found out the sex of the baby. He even wanted to learn how to change a diaper. If Jackson could do it, it couldn’t be that hard, right?

“Yeah,” Race smiled back. “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thanks. I feel kind of excited and scared all at the same time.”

“That feeling never goes away no matter how old they get. Especially with daughters,” Race chuckled.

Before he could get too excited at the prospect of being a dad, the weight of what happened between himself and Kylie only minutes ago hit him like a two-by-four.

“Fuck.” He dropped his head into his hands, his elbows to his knees. “What the hell am I going to do? How am I going to get Kylie to talk to me? I want to be a part of everything. I don’t want to miss out on a single thing.” He wanted to do all those things Taylor had been trying to get him to participate in, but refused because he didn’t think the baby was his. With Kylie, he didn’t question whether or not he was the father once she told him how it happened. She would never lie about something like that or try to pass another man’s child off as his.

“Give her today and tonight, then stop by Darren’s tomorrow and try to talk to her without an audience,” Race suggested.

“Yeah. You’re right. I’ll give her until tomorrow, then I’ll try to talk to her. I’ve got to get in there sooner rather than later before she gets a wild hair and decides to go house hunting. I want her and the baby to live with me. If I can ever get Taylor out of there.”

“How much longer does she have?”

“Four weeks.” Half joking, he added, “Maybe I should see if one of the brothers would want to fuck her so the baby comes sooner.”

“You’d wish that on one of your brothers?”

“No. I couldn’t do that.”

“Have you ever reached out to her parents to see if what Taylor’s been telling you is true?” Race asked.

“No. I’ve been meaning to but every time I think I’ll try to do it, something major comes up.” He needed to get on that ASAP. If he could get her out of his house sooner, he was all for it.

“Don’t worry about the new digs Kylie might be looking at. I’ll get Bellamy and the old ladies on it. They’ll talk her out of anything she has her eye on. In the meantime, you’re going to have to do some serious begging and groveling to get back in there with Kylie. That woman was crushed when she left here.”

Yeah, he was the one who caused it and Darren was going to be the one to take her home and give her a shoulder to cry on. Part of him wanted to put the blame squarely on Taylor, but if he was completely honest with himself, he had to admit a lot of the pain Kylie was in right now was because of his stupid ass.

Resigned to having to wait until tomorrow, he thanked Race for lending an ear and decided to go for a ride to clear his head, then head home. His grass needed cut again and his flower beds needed weeding. Usually, he’d get one of the prospects on it, but he’d taken to doing it himself as a way to spend less time with Taylor.

He hopped on his bike and pointed it toward some back country roads. As he made a left at the corner, he couldn’t fight the huge smile the thought of being a father put on his face. He’d wanted Kylie to move in before, but now that he knew she carried his child and despite the fact that he’d broken her heart, she was never getting away from him again.

Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough to suit Tuck. Tomorrow he planned to beg Kylie Jo’s forgiveness, then tell her how much he loved her and how excited he was about the baby. With a little luck and a few prayers, maybe things would work out quickly.

Darren unlocked the front door, allowing Kylie to enter before him. She dropped her purse on the coffee table, took a seat on the couch and released a tortured groan with her hands covering her face. “I’m such a loser!” she exploded. “I can’t believe I aired my dirty laundry in front of all your friends.” Unable to sit still for even a moment, she popped up and started pacing in front of the television. “If Tuck wasn’t such a jackass, I could have eventually found a way to tell him about the baby after everything with Taylor was resolved. But, no, he had to go off on you in front of everybody.” She shook her head and growled.

Darren stood with his shoulder to the doorway separating the living room and kitchen, his arms and ankles crossed as he watched her wear a path in his carpet. “Yes, he was a jackass the way he let things go down. But keep in mind, in his mind, he’d just found out a week ago that the woman he’s in love with is pregnant and thought the baby belonged to another man.”

“I understand that, but the way he handled it hurt.” She slapped her hand to her chest above her heart. “It hurt a lot. I thought we were closer than that given our history. I would have thought he would have given me the benefit of the doubt and asked me questions instead of going off halfcocked and accusing the two of us of screwing around behind his back. I thought he knew me better than that. And I thought when he asked me to move in he had some kind of feelings for me. He said he wanted to see where things would go and at the first sign of trouble, it’s over and I’m a whore.”

“Hey, now, Kylie. He did not call you a whore.” From the way his mouth turned down, he didn’t like her calling herself a whore.

She frowned at him. “He implied it.”

“He might have implied it, but the man’s head is fucked up right now. He’s got an ex claiming to be carrying is child and given the kind of man he is, he’s not going to just throw her to the curb if there’s the slightest chance the baby could be his. It’s just not the kind of man he is and honestly, you wouldn’t want to be with him if he were. On top of that, he found out that the woman he wants to be with is pregnant and he doesn’t remember the night he knocked her up. He’s got to be feeling like shit, too, honey. Cut him some slack. He’s trying to get things sorted. Don’t give up on him.”

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