Page 58 of Triplet Babies for My Billionaire Boss

When Rodney’s mom brought Tommy back, I met the woman for the first time. I liked her right away. She was warm and welcoming, easy to like and easy to open up to.

“It’s a nasty business, having your personal life put on display for the world to see,” Mrs. Jones said to me. “They have nothing better to do with their time.”

I didn’t know what to say about that. This was so much bigger than someone being bored.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Mrs. Jones said. “But I do know what’s going on. And I want you to know, I’m on your side.”

I blinked, unsure where this was coming from. Rodney’s mom didn’t know me at all. Unless Rodney had been speaking about me, but I doubted that.

“The world is very quick to judge, to point fingers, and say what should and shouldn’t be allowed. I have lived long enough to know that it doesn’t matter. Who you love should be based solely on who makes you happy and nothing else. Let the rest of them judge you. Let them have their opinions. People will always have something to say. But don’t let that affect you. If you’re happy, you know that where you are is the right place to be. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

I decided right away that I liked Rodney’s mom. It was rare to find someone who didn’t frown upon what we were doing, especially now that it was all over the media. It was great to know we were being accepted by at least one person. One person for now was enough. The rest would follow. I had Lisa in my corner, too.

“Dad?” Tommy asked when he came into the room with Rodney.

“What is it, big boy?” Rodney asked.

“Are you and Danielle together? The television says you are.”

I was shocked, looking up at Rodney. We hadn’t talked about how we would break this to Tommy, or how we would handle a relationship with a child involved. Everything had gone too fast. We had gone from flings and one-night stands to suddenly being a family, and I felt like we hadn’t bridged the gap in between.

“Yes, we are,” Rodney said to Tommy matter-of-factly. That Rodney was so straightforward with his son about it made my heart skip a beat, despite how terrible things were. Rodney was serious about this, I realized. As long as everything was secret, as long as there were no excuses and explanations to be made, it was easy to make promises. Now that everything had been thrown out into the open, it was harder to live up to it, but Rodney was doing everything a man should do. And telling Tommy that we were together, telling his son that his dad had a new girlfriend, was a major step.

“Well, I think I need to leave you to it,” Mrs. Jones said. “I still have an hour’s drive back.”

“Why don’t you stay, Mom?” Rodney asked. “It’s late. Have dinner with us and stay in the guest room.”

I nodded. I liked Mrs. Jones, and I wouldn’t mind spending more time with her. But Mrs. Jones shook her head.

“No, no. I’ll head home now. You be together and talk through what’s happened and how things are going to change.”

Maybe she was right. Tommy had heard things in the news evidently, and Rodney and I had to find out exactly what that was. We wanted to tell him about the pregnancy much later, but if he already knew, we had to figure this out now.

“Did you say goodbye and thank you to grandma?” Rodney asked Tommy.

Tommy nodded but hugged Mrs. Jones again.

“What a pleasure spending the weekend with you, Tommy. We’ll make a plan again soon.” She dropped a kiss on Tommy’s head before Rodney walked her out. I waited inside with Tommy. I was worried he would be upset about our new arrangement, but he was excited, bouncing around as if he’d had sugar all day. It was a good sign that he was in such a good mood.

“My mom really likes you,” Rodney said when he returned from outside. “You should take that as a compliment. Until now, she hasn’t met anyone she thought was suited to me.”

“You can’t possibly think I’m good enough?” I asked. “There are so many things wrong with our relationship.”

Rodney shook his head and put his hand on my cheek. “That’s just the thing, Danielle. You’re not paying attention to everything that’s right with our relationship. We will figure this out. We’ll make it work. Did you see how excited Tommy is? We’ve already cleared the first hurdle.”

Maybe Rodney was right. Maybe all we needed to do was focus on one problem at a time and only look at the next after we sorted it out. We could take them on together. If there had been any good coming from what my dad had done, it was that I had realized where I want to be. Where I felt I belonged.

And I belonged right here.

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