Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
He was a smart man. By now, he had to have put two and two together. The reason why I hadn’t been able to commit to certain dates while doing his spread for HAUTESCENE. Why I’d kicked him unceremoniously out of my apartment after sex, even though I’d wanted nothing more than for him to stay and cuddle with me all night long.
I swallowed hard. Even worse was the thought that he imagined I’d been concealing something even bigger than a child. What if he thought that I was married? Or engaged? Or at least, seriously attached to someone?
This wasn’t the way I’d planned it at all – I’d wanted to approach this calmly and rationally, like an adult. But Nico had caught me in a bad moment: stressed and sleep-deprived and so concerned for Ada’s safety that I almost felt sicker than she was.
Finally, when Ada’s breathing became steadier and more relaxed, I allowed myself to sit down and bury my face in my hands. I had choices.
I could run, back to Boston and my dad, with my tail between my legs.
Or I could be an adult and woman up and tell Nico the truth: that Ada was his.
That since being with Nico years ago, I’d never been with anyone else.
And furthermore, that I didn’t want to be with anyone else.
I remembered years ago, when Nico had asked me to pretend to be his wife to fool his parents. He’d clearly been so opposed to marriage and fatherhood then.
I just hoped that things had changed, or at least that he’d be open to the possibility of raising Ada as his own. It might ruin our relationship, but I was finally coming around to the idea that perhaps my brother hadn’t been wrong. Ada needed a father.
The only problem was that I wasn’t sure if her father needed her.
I walked into the kitchen to pour myself a glass of wine. When I heard the sound of a knock at the door, I froze and my heart sank. It had only been twenty minutes since I’d gotten off the phone with Nico – how the hell had he made it out here from Manhattan in rush hour traffic?
I contemplated not answering it. I even contemplated going back into my bedroom, pulling the covers over my head, spooning Ada, and pretending like I’d been asleep for hours.
But that would be cowardly, I thought as my stomach churned anxiously. Taking a big sip – okay, more of a gulp – of wine, I squared my shoulders and walked to answer the front door.
My dad was standing on the other side, with a new stuffed bunny in his hand and a “Get Well Soon!” balloon.
“Oh my god,” I breathed and put a hand to my chest. “I’m sorry, Dad – I completely forgot that I texted you.”
My dad pulled me into a one-armed hug. “How’s the patient?”
“Sleeping, finally,” I said. I led my father inside and quietly closed the front door, then bolted it for good measure. Dad gave me a strange look as he set Ada’s presents down on the table.
“Good,” Dad said. He chuckled. “You look like hell, kiddo,” he said. He reached out to tousle my hair and I flinched. His smile faded and he pulled his arm back. “All kids get sick, hon,” he said in a gentler tone. “You’ve just gotta get used to it and play nurse as best you can.”
“Bronchitis,” I muttered. “The guy at urgent care said it was lucky that Ada didn’t have pneumonia.”
Dad nodded. “You know, you got that all the time when you were a kid,” he said. “Remember? You had to carry an inhaler for months?”
I nodded.
“You always said you hated it because it smelled like dead roses,” Dad said, and another small smile crept over his face. “But I think you liked it – it made you special. You had to take it to school and use it in front of all those kids who didn’t have inhalers.”
I flushed. The memory was quaint, if a bit embarrassing. I didn’t like to think of myself as ever having been that selfish or self-absorbed, but I knew that it was true. Kids were naturally selfish creatures.
The trick was just teaching them to care for others and to grow out of it.
“I’m really worried,” I said.
“You go take a hot shower,” Dad said. “I’ll watch over the patient, okay?”
I nodded. I was reluctant to leave Ada, but I trusted my dad to watch over her more than I trusted anyone else in the world and as soon as I was in the shower, I could feel some of the tension melting away from my neck and shoulders. It wasn’t a panacea – I still felt drained and worn when I emerged after the water turned cold – but I felt better than I had since first picking Ada up from Dawning City.