Quinn steps aside. “Buh-bye.”
He leans against the truck and watches Jon pull away. His tires screech and he almost hits a woman coming out of the store. Quinn doesn’t move until the truck leaves the parking lot. He opens my door, still looking at the road.
“Wow,” I say.
“Sorry about that.”
“No. I mean, I am so hot for you right now. The way you stood up to him, a hardened criminal. I would take you right here in this truck if it weren’t for the baby in the back.”
He pulls me so I’m sitting on the edge of the seat, facing him. He spreads my legs and stands between them. “Tell me what you would do,” he whispers in my ear.
Josie squeals from the back. I guess she only likes being in the truck when it’s moving.
“She’s a little cockblocker, isn’t she?” Quinn says.
“I think all babies are.” I kiss his nose and scootch around him. “We’ll continue this later.”
“If I’m not dead from exhaustion.”
“Come on,” I say. “Let’s go get her things. I might even buy her a cute new outfit.”
“I don’t think you should bother.”
“Just because she might only be with you for a few days doesn’t mean we can’t spoil her, Quinn. All babies deserve to be spoiled.”
“Fine. But I draw the line at you getting anything that says daddy.”
I giggle. Then it really hits me. Quinn could be a daddy. The last twenty-four hours have been chaos. A comedy of errors. We’ve been playing house. Babysitting, essentially. But this could actually be his life. I stare at Josie as we snap her car seat onto the stroller. She looks like an angel. I feel sorry for her. She has no idea that her mother walked away and left her with strangers. She has no idea Quinn is only going along with this charade to appease me. She has no idea that if he finds out he’s not her father, she’ll be left alone once again. Maybe even if he is the father.
I turn to him. “What will you do if she’s your daughter?”
“She’s not.”
“Okay, but let’s pretend for a second that she is. What then?”
“I don’t know, Amber. I haven’t thought that far ahead. I guess I’d try to get Michelle to take her back.”
“So you’d only see Josie on birthdays and holidays, and she’d be back with a mom who doesn’t want her?”
“I don’t want her. I know that’s not what you want to hear, being who you are and all, but it’s the truth. I never wanted to be a dad. I come from a fucked-up family. Believe me, nobody around here wants to be a Thompson.”
“Who says you’d have to raise her here?”
“Can we just get this shopping excursion over with?” he asks. I nod sadly. He glances down at Josie, looking guilty. “Listen, I’m sure I could work something out if it turns out that way. Obviously, I have plenty of money to support her. But we don’t have to think about that right now. We’ll probably know by the weekend. You’ll see I was right, and then we can go back to normal.”
“Normal?”
“You, me, a quiet and empty apartment, and I’m thinking some kind of melted chocolate.”
I laugh as we walk toward the store. I laugh even though I know something has changed deep inside me. Something that, as crazy at is sounds, wants the chaos. Well, chaos and melted chocolate.
Chapter Twenty-one
Quinn
We get Josie situated in the baby swing. She seems to like it. I like it because it gives us a reprieve. “How in the hell do people ever get any work done with babies? There are two of us here and we can barely manage.”
“I guess it worked out that you don’t have an actual job to get to.”
“I have a job,” I say defensively. I turn to see her smiling. I chase her around the couch and then pin her to the wall. “Watch your mouth, sweetheart, or I might put something in it to shut you up.”
She wiggles against me. “Yes, please.”
My dick swells and I wonder how much time we have until the baby needs something. I’m about to get naked when my phone rings. “Damn. Lawyer.” I answer. “This is Quinn.”
“Mr. Thompson, this is Angela Nessman. Jason Truly referred you.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thanks for calling. Did he tell you why I need a lawyer?”
“He did. And I’ll be happy to meet with you, but there’s really no point until you get the paternity results. If the child isn’t yours, there will be nothing to discuss.”
“I suppose not.”
“My advice for now: keep records of everything. Conversations you had with the mother. Dates, times, anything you can remember. And make sure you use a reliable lab for the test. Any doctor should be able to do it for you.”
“I’ve got an appointment for Thursday.”
“Go ahead and send me whatever you have so I can get right on the case if need be. I’ll look forward to your call afterward.”
“If all goes well, I hope I don’t need to call you.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Thompson.”
I hang up. “I’ve got a lawyer on call. A doctor’s appointment. Is there anything else we need to do?”
She holds up her phone. “I don’t know about you, but I need to get some work done.”
“Work. But…” I glance at the wall she was pinned against a minute ago.
“Don’t worry, cowboy—we’ll pick that up later.”
I look at Josie. “What about her?”
“I said I’d help, Quinn, not do everything. I’ve got an important Zoom meeting I have to prepare for. I’ll be in the spare room. Please consider me unavailable unless there’s an emergency.”
“Like if she cries?”
“No, not like if she cries. Like if the house catches on fire, or if you fall and break your skull.” She picks up her laptop and goes down the hall.
As if right on cue, Josie starts squirming around and making noise. She’s tired of the swing already. I pick her up and sit on the couch, getting the Sports Illustrated I was reading earlier. “Look, Tom Brady made his six-hundredth touchdown pass. Incredible.” Josie’s hand brushes against the edge of the magazine and she cries. “Shit,” I say at the small sliver of blood that appears along her finger. “Amber!”
The door down the hall opens. “You seriously can’t go two minutes without me?”
“She’s bleeding.”
Amber runs into the room. “What happened? Did you drop her?”
I hold up Josie’s finger. “Paper cut.”
Amber shakes her head, rolls her eyes, and stomps back into the spare bedroom.
“Well, that didn’t go as planned.” I stand and take Josie out of the house and across the yard to Maddox and Andie’s. I knock once and enter. “Anyone home?”
Vivian toddles across the room. “Kin! Kin!”
“Where’s your mom?”
“I’m here!” Andie calls from the kitchen. She appears in the doorway, covered in flour. “Sorry, I’m trying to get these cookies made before Devyn gets here. I need to get over to The Double Duce and check on a pregnant mare.”