“We were all on your side when we didn’t have all the facts,” Liam said.
“I get that Jenn’s almost giving you a free pass,” Patrick chimed in, “but…come on. Do you really want to be the guy who kicks her when she’s down? Ultimately, she realized she screwed up and tried to make things right. She could have ended the pregnancy or she could have had Asher and never told you. Think about what would have happened if she tried to take care of him while postpartum depression was wreaking havoc on her. Instead, she brought him to you because she knew you would do the right thing. And you have.” He paused. “Until now.”
This so wasn’t going the way he expected.
“You know what? None of you understand because you’ve never been in this position.”
They all exchanged looks again before Patrick responded. “Yeah, we haven’t, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know what we’re talking about. I think I can speak for myself, Liam, Will, and Ryker and say that we’d definitely be pissed if this happened to us. But I’d like to think that we wouldn’t have a knee-jerk reaction and that we’d take some time to think things through.”
“A buddy of mine in the service came home from leave a few years ago and found out a woman he had an on-again, off-again relationship with had his baby,” Will said. “He completely freaked out. She told him she knew he wasn’t looking to be tied down and thought it was for the best that he didn’t know. They argued about it for…” He looked over at Liam. “How long was that? Remember Donny Finley?”
“Oh, yeah…it took them something like six months to get custody worked out.”
Will nodded. “Now they co-parent. Donny retired last year when Liam and I did, and he seems pretty happy. He’s engaged to someone else and so is the ex.” He paused. “No one’s saying you have to be Jenn’s best friend or even share custody 50/50 with her. I’m sure you can even put a temporary custody arrangement in place to see how things go. You’re a smart guy, Jamie. Don’t do something stupid in the heat of the moment.”
He wanted to tell Will to butt out since he wasn’t family, but…he kind of was.
“Okay, fine,” he said begrudgingly. “What am I supposed to do?”
“That depends,” Arianna replied.
“On?”
“You need to decide if you genuinely want to be a full-time father to Asher,” she told him. “All this time you were waiting to hear Jenn’s story, and now that you have and you know you have options, are you all in? Because if you’re not, then you need to give him the chance to be raised in a loving household.” She snuggled the baby close and Jamie swore he saw tears in her eyes.
“I would never give him up,” he said fiercely. “Never. I’m having a bad night and if we’re all honest, everyone has a time when they feel overwhelmed.”
“It was more than that, Jamie,” Ryleigh said quietly. “You chased Fallon off. She’s been dealing with your bullshit for years and this is the first time she ever ran away.”
Yeah…now that he was feeling slightly more like himself, he could admit how he took things out on her that he shouldn’t have. But he wasn’t the only one who behaved badly. She could have stayed and talked to him like she usually did. They never had a problem pushing each other’s buttons and then talking things out.
Until they started sleeping together.
Then it changed everything.
Duh…am I really surprised?
Collapsing back down in his chair, Jamie felt all the fight go out of him. Closing his eyes, he wished he could go back to this morning and just start the entire day over.
“I’ll talk to Fallon in the morning and we’ll work this out,” he murmured.
“I don’t think she’s coming back, Jamie,” Ryleigh told him soberly. “She was crying and…you should probably wait a few days before talking to her. And make sure you’re calmer when you do.”
“Any chance any of you are free to watch Asher tomorrow, then?” he asked wearily. “I don’t want to dump more responsibility on Uncle Ronan. He already covered for me because I took the morning off.”
Ryleigh volunteered. “My schedule is light for the next couple of days. I’ll bring my laptop with me and get some work done while Asher naps. You’ll just have to give me his schedule.”
He nodded and suddenly was too exhausted to speak. It felt like the weight of the world was on him and he had no idea what to do next. The thought of Fallon walking out of his life was too much to think about. In his mind, this was one of their fights and they should be fine in a day or two. He knew how much she loved Asher and couldn’t imagine her simply walking away.
Why not? Jenn did and she’s his biological mother…
He couldn’t afford to think like that and did his best to push that thought aside.
For several minutes everyone seemed to be talking, but Jamie couldn’t focus on any of it. He knew he could be a hothead, and now that he had time to talk to his siblings, he realized everyone was right. He needed time to think this all through. And while he did, his focus had to be his son. Asher meant the world to him and he couldn’t let his frustration with this situation influence how he cared for the baby.
No matter what, Asher was his top priority.
Hopefully Ryleigh could help him out for a couple of days and then…maybe…Fallon would talk to him. He knew she’d make him beg and grovel, and even though he was opposed to it right now, he’d cave and do it.
And just prayed it wouldn’t be too late.
Her childhood bed felt small and lumpy and ridiculously uncomfortable.
And lonely.
Yeah, as upset as she was, she desperately missed sleeping next to Jamie.
The rat bastard.
It had only been three hours since she walked out of his house, and she physically ached with missing him and Asher. She’d forced herself to get undressed and put pajamas on and crawl into bed to keep her from getting in her car and going back over there. Fallon knew Ryleigh and the rest of the Donovans would make sure Asher was okay and well taken care of, but she hated that she’d taken the coward's way out by leaving.
“Self-preservation,” she reminded herself. “It was for my own well-being.”
Still, she really wished Ryleigh would call her and let her know what was going on. The fact that she hadn’t called probably meant they were still working things out, but…it seemed to be taking a long time.
Staring at her phone where it sat on her bedside table, she willed it to ring.
But she ended up having to wait almost another hour before it finally did. Sagging with relief, she swiped the screen.
“Hey, Ry,” she said softly. “How’d everything go? How’s Asher?”
“He’s fine and currently sound asleep. I’m staying here tonight to make sure everyone’s okay.”
“Oh. That’s great. Thanks.”
“How are you doing? Are you okay?”
“I think so. I’m mad at myself for letting Jamie run me off like that, but in the moment, I knew I couldn’t stay. I hate that I let him get to me because I really thought we were over that part of our relationship.”