My racing heart slows as my mind realizes that it’s Trevin in my apartment with our daughter. Peeking around the corner, I see him sitting on the couch with Hazel in his arms. He’s shirtless, wearing nothing but his boxer briefs, with a burp cloth tossed over his toned shoulder.
“Daddy’s not too good at this yet, pumpkin. You need to bear with me. I promise I’ll learn how to take care of you. I watched Mommy do this yesterday and I think I’ve got it.” He tests a small drop of the bottle on his wrist. “I read this online last night that I should test the temperature here. I guess if Mommy was feeding you, we wouldn’t have to worry about that.”
He offers Hazel her bottle, and she takes it without issue. I can hear her gulps from here. Trevin smiles down at her, and there is nothing but love in his eyes.
“Morning, beautiful,” he says, looking up at me. “You going to come and join us?” He nods to the empty cushion next to them on the couch.
I don’t waste any time walking further into the room to take the offered seat. “Hey, sweet girl.” I lean over and kiss my daughter on the forehead. I expect her to want me, but she just grins around her bottle and goes back to eating.
“I think she likes me.” Trevin smiles.
“I’d say she more than likes you. You’re her daddy. I think she knows that.”
“Really?” The insecurity in that one single word has me reassuring him.
“Absolutely. Babies are smart, and it helps that you treat her like she’s your world.”
“She is.” He looks over at me. “You both are.”
“Trev—” I start, but he stops me.
“No. Let me finish. That night, I wanted to wake up with you the next day and tell you I wanted to see you again. I knew that the one night was never enough. I didn’t know how we were going to make it happen, just that I wanted to. Sitting here with the two of you…the last twenty-four hours have been more than I could have hoped for. I want you in my life. I want to be in her life and in yours. I know it’s soon, but I feel it deep.”
“Sounds like a fairy tale.”
“It is, baby. It’s our fairy tale. I want to live it out with you.” He looks down at Hazel. “Regardless of what happens between us, I have some changes I need to make. I need to find a job and put my place on the market, find a new place here.”
“What? You’re just uprooting your life?”
“You’re here. She’s here. My family is here.”
“But your job, your life is in Lexington.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. My life is in the apartment. My girls.” He leans over and places a kiss on my temple. My heart skips a beat as I will his words to be true.
Before I can reply, there’s a knock at the door. Standing, I go to answer it. “Hey,” I greet Thea. I’m nervous standing before my best friend. How will my relationship with her brother affect our friendship? How will she react to actually being Hazel’s aunt, not just an honorary title we’ve given her?
She looks at Trevin’s shirt I’m wearing, that thankfully comes to just above my knees. “I see things went well,” she states.
“We’re a work in progress,” I tell her. That’s not exactly true, but this is his sister, and I don’t know what he wants her to know and not know. It’s difficult because she’s become one of my closest friends.
“We’re a family,” Trevin says from behind me.
I turn to look at him, and he’s standing with Hazel pressed against his chest and shoulder, rubbing her back.
“Come on, Trev, I don’t need to see all that.” Thea pretends to gag and shield her eyes from her brother. However, I didn’t miss the soft expression in her eyes at seeing him holding his daughter. Our daughter.
“Then don’t come knocking on my girl’s door first thing in the morning,” he fires back.
“Your girl, huh?” she asks, amused.
“My girls,” he corrects. He steps closer to me, and slides the arm not holding Hazel around my waist. I step into his embrace, loving the feel of being in his arms. Loving that we’re his girls.
“What are the two of you doing later? I thought we could maybe take the kids to the aquarium.”
“Babe?” Trevin looks to me.
“Um… yeah, if you want.”
“What time?” Trevin asks his sister.
“Around noon? That will be after morning naps, and both kids will have full bellies,” she comments.
“Good point,” I agree with her.
“We’ll meet you there,” Trevin says. “Now, let me get back to my family, and you need to get back to yours.”
“You do remember that I’m your sister, right?”
“Yes. And I love you, but I just got them, Thea.”
Tears well in Thea’s eyes. “I love you.” She leans in for a hug. “And you,” she says, turning to look at me once she’s released him. “How have I gone all this time and not realized it was my big brother?”
I too have tears in my eyes. “Because I didn’t have a name. I didn’t know where he was from, just that he was visiting.”
“But Hazel Eyes. I should have connected the dots.”
“Why would you? There are millions of men with hazel eyes.”
“Yeah,” she concedes. “You good?” From the soft tone of her voice, I know she’s not asking as my daughter’s aunt, but as my friend.
“We’re good.”
She turns and points at her brother. “Don’t be late.”
“Then leave so I can finish feeding my daughter and work on feeding her mother.” He wags his eyebrows, and Thea, although laughing, pretends to gag.
“I could have gone without that,” she says, opening the door and stepping into the hall.
“Love you, little sister,” Trevin says, closing the door. “I have to give her hell because she’s my little sister, but I’m so fucking glad that she was the one watching Hazel.”
“She’s amazing, and she’s been a huge help to me with Hazel. She was there for me while I was pregnant and during and after delivery. She and my best friend, Shelby. I couldn’t have done any of this without them.”
“I doubt that. You’re an amazing mother.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Bullshit. I see how happy Hazel is. She’s healthy, and you came right away yesterday. You’re the best momma this little angel could ask for. Her daddy too.”
“You got her?” I ask, changing the subject. I still feel a mound of guilt resting on my shoulders, that due to my actions, Hazel lost time with her daddy. Sure, she’ll never remember, but one day she’s going to ask why he was never in any of my pregnancy photos, or photos of her the first three months of her life. I’m going to have to answer for that. “I’m going to make us some breakfast.”
“I wanted to have you for breakfast.” He smirks.
“No condoms,” I remind him.
“Don’t need them for what I have planned.” The devilish smile tilting his lips tells me exactly what that is.
A shiver of anticipation races down my spine. “Real food first, and then we’ll see.”