Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 124451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
“There was no way you could have known. None of us did,” I tell her. “Jax is always so happy and shrugs off anything that comes his way. He never lets on if he’s hurting or struggling, just goes about his day as if it were like any other. But don’t worry, I don’t think this was a cry for help. I think Jax was just being a careless idiot, thinking he’s invincible like he always does. Only this time, he realized he’s only human, just like the rest of us.”
Bri lets out a heavy breath and scoots back in her seat before curling into my side and resting her head against my shoulder, watching as Ilaria gets up to try and chat with Arizona for the tenth time, only for Arizona to tell Ilaria to leave her alone again.
Riley and Hudson quietly talk between themselves, trying to include me in their conversation, but my gaze is locked on Mom, watching as she speaks to the nurses and tries to get some kind of answers out of them.
They talk for about ten minutes before Mom comes back, and the second she does, we are all on our feet. “It’s touch and go,” she tells us, not sugar coating anything. “Jax has lost a lot of blood, but they're confident he will be alright with enough blood transfusions. He should still be in surgery another few hours, and then Logan will be able to go and sit with him as he wakes.”
A weight drops from my shoulders, and for the first time all night, I feel as though I can finally breathe.
“Oh, thank fuck,” Logan says, dropping back onto his seat and pulling out his phone. “I should give Mom a call and let her know.”
“Good idea,” Mom says, reaching over to him and giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Let her know I’ll be staying here if she needs anything.”
Logan nods and gets busy with his call as Mom settles into a chair directly opposite me. “How was the game before Jax got hurt? Were you doing well?”
“Yeah, it was fine,” I tell her, giving her a tight smile and knowing it’s now or never. I have to come clean about the paternity test because waiting is only going to hurt her, but is now really the best time? I don’t want to drop another bomb on her while she’s already stressed and worried about Jax, but I need to get this out. I need her to tell me what the fuck I’m supposed to do. “I, umm … I got the paternity test results.”
Her back stiffens and she becomes impossibly still, her hands pausing midair as she gapes at me. “And?” she questions, a slight panic in her eyes.
I swallow over the lump in my throat. Why is it suddenly so hard to breathe again? Is the air getting thinner in here? “And, Rachael was right,” I tell her, feeling as though I’m stabbing her right in the back and twisting the knife. “I’m his father.”
I prepare for my mother to rain down hell over me, to tell me how stupid and careless I was to get some random girl pregnant, but instead, she just gives me a sad smile. “Oh, Tanner,” she coos, leaning forward in her seat and squeezing my knee. “It’s going to be okay.”
I shake my head. “How can you say that?” I ask her. “I missed the first year of my kid’s life.”
“Because I know you,” she insists. “And I know you will do everything in your power to make up for it and be the best father that baby could ever ask for.”
“I don’t know the first thing about being a father.”
Mom laughs. “Do you think I knew the first thing about being a mother when I had you?” she challenges. “I’d never felt so lost in my life, but when you hold your baby in your arms, something just clicks and you work it out. You’re going to be just fine, and if you need help or you’re struggling, you know I am always there to help. Though, I’m not going to lie, I’m far too young to be a grandmother. You know I’m only twenty-three!”
I laugh and roll my eyes. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
She smirks, always proud of herself whenever she gets away with shit like that. “So, I think first thing in the morning, after we know Jax is okay, we’ll contact our lawyer and see about getting a custody arrangement put in place, and I’m sure there will probably be some child support payments which will need to be sorted out,” she tells me. “Now, I haven’t had any experience with this myself, but I would expect this type of thing can take a little while to hammer out those finer details, so until then, we can work on putting together a nursery for him in the spare room.”