by Lucy Lennox
“Sorry, baby girl. I was busy staring at a fine man’s ass. One day you’ll understand,” I promised her under my breath. I settled down with her on the sofa and pulled a blanket over my legs. “You want to watch the game?” I called out, grabbing the remote.
West stopped dancing and gawped at me. “You watch football?”
I raised my eyebrows at him as he spluttered to cover his misstep. “No. I mean, yes. Cool. I’d love to. I just didn’t…”
“You didn’t think a queer from San Francisco enjoyed watching the Forty-Niners crush the Cowboys? Are you fucking nuts?”
West’s face changed from guilt to a shit-eating grin. “Let the record show, those aren’t my words, queer boy. They’re yours. And if you think for one minute your team is crushing mine, you’re in for a rude awakening. You’re talking about a low-ass ranked team beating a top-ten team.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh please. The Niners are just waiting for their time in the sun. Get ready for a pummeling. We’ve been holding back until it was the right time to strike.”
The sound of West’s rich laughter warmed the open space between us, and I felt myself relax farther into the sofa after clicking on the remote and finding the right channel. Pippa’s tiny blue-green eyes stared up at me, and I smiled down at her.
“Hey cutie-patootie. How was your sleep?” I murmured to her. She reached out a hand toward my nose, and her tiny fingers curled in an attempt to grab on. I gave her my index finger to grab instead. After propping my feet on the coffee table, I settled in to watch the game.
West joined me a couple of minutes later with two mugs of coffee and a couple of sandwiches he must have pulled together from stuff he found in the kitchen.
“This okay?” he asked, sitting down next to me and pulling part of the blanket onto his legs.
“Thank you. It’s perfect.”
We drank and ate in companionable silence, passing the baby between us as needed to keep the hot coffee away from her. West had been right, of course. The Dallas team crushed the San Francisco team. At least he was a good sport about it, only giving me a gentle elbow to the ribs every time his team scored.
Eventually I found myself dozing off against one of his shoulders while Pippa dozed on the other. Once again, I thought about how sticky sweet the scene was and wanted to scream from the irony of my life. If only Griff could have seen me then. Me and the perfect man curled up in our underwear watching Sunday football with a baby. It was ridiculous.
I felt him shift me off him at one point so he could put the baby on a play mat on the floor with hanging toys. When he settled back in beside me, I drifted off again.
“This is amazing, Nico,” he murmured after a while. When I cracked open my eyes and saw him flipping through a familiar spiral notebook, I jumped up and grabbed for it, accidentally elbowing him in the shoulder and falling over his lap in the process.
“Ow. What the hell?” He gasped, rubbing his shoulder.
“Give me that,” I said, grabbing the notebook out of his hands.
I stretched to put it on the other side of the sofa from where he sat so that he’d have to go through me to get to it again. How stupid of me to have left it on the coffee table. I hadn’t been thinking.
“You’re writing down memories of Adriana,” he said gently. “Is it for Pippa? To help her get to know her mom?”
A thick lump in my throat threatened to choke me, so I just nodded. West reached out and slid an arm around my waist, pulling me over until I was straddling his lap so he could pull me into a strong hug.
“I think that’s amazing. Why don’t you want me to see?”
I shrugged, tucking my face into his neck and taking comfort in the warm feel of his skin against my nose and cheek.
West continued, “I don’t mean to make you self-conscious about it, but the drawings are spectacular. You’re really talented. I’d love to see and read more sometime, but I understand if you’d rather me not look at it again. It’s your business. But just know it’s very thoughtful and loving. Pippa is lucky to have you.”
I squeezed my eyes closed and let out a breath. There was that L-word again. “Thanks.”
Large hands rubbed up and down my spine until his strong fingers threaded into my hair.
“Fuck this. Let’s pack up the Pipsqueak and go somewhere—maybe a walk down by the lake before I have to be on call again at the ER. What do you say?”
I thought about how easy it was to be in his company sometimes. How nice it felt to spend down time with someone like West—smart, kind, happy. I pictured us walking along the lakeside trail with Pippa in the stroller and how incongruous the image was with my real life. No city crowds or noise. Nothing but the clean, fresh air blowing off the water and through the trees and the light sounds of the water lapping along the shoreline. The quiet companionship of Dr. Sweetheart by my side.
“Yes please,” I said before reluctantly peeling myself out of his embrace.
The rest of the afternoon passed easily with the hot doctor whose bedside manner was beginning to settle around me like a healing balm. Spending time with West made being back in Hobie feel almost like a good diversion from my regular life. It made me wonder if perhaps I’d fallen into a rut back home of busting my ass at the shop and forgetting that there should be life outside of work. Friends and family. Fresh air and the late afternoon sun sparkling warmly off the lake water.
Spending time with Weston Wilde was supposed to have been temporary—like a stick-on tattoo at a child’s birthday party. But with every touch of his fingers in my hair and every brush of his lips over mine, I found myself wanting to cement those feelings into my skin forever with permanent ink.
I had to remember it was a delicate house of cards. And when Tuesday morning rolled around, all it took was one surprised phone call from Honovi Baptiste to send the whole thing tumbling down.
Chapter 26
West
After spending Sunday with Nico, I probably walked through my shift at the hospital that night with cartoon hearts floating around my head. I felt like a lovesick fool, but I didn’t care. I was content to enjoy the feeling as long as I could before he left and my life went back to normal.
Not only had we had hot sex on and off all weekend, but we’d also talked for hours. I felt like I finally had a glimpse into the person Adriana had implied he was. Nico was the guy who tried to protect his family in the only way he knew how—by leaving. And now here he was having to do it all over again. He had to spend this time bonding with Pippa, just to hand her over and walk away from Hobie for the second time.
I had grown up with nine siblings, armloads of aunts and uncles, and more cousins than I could count. Grandpa and Doc were like a second set of parents to me, and half the town was close enough to me to be considered family. And there was Nico—the complete opposite. After leaving Hobie, he’d had no family. None.
While he’d dozed on the sofa, I’d noticed the spiral notebook lying on the coffee table. It had Adriana’s name on it, so I reached to flip through it to see what was in it.
I’d been shocked to read page after page of Nico’s childhood memories of his sister. Funny things she’d said, crazy hijinks they’d gotten up to together, and even what her bedroom had looked like when she was younger with posters of her favorite bands and handwritten inspirational quotes by Maya Angelou stuck around her cheap vanity mirror.
He’d drawn cartoon versions of some of the things he described, and some of the drawings had even shown the funny crinkle of Adriana’s nose when she was frustrated with someone. The love he had for his older sister shone through those stories and drawings like hot beams from the sun. He must have spent all his waking hours on that book since he’d been there taking care of Pippa.
And I had to admit that after seeing it, I’d fallen just a tiny bit in love with Nico Salerno.
When my shift had finished, I’d stumbled back to my place for a few hours of sleep before the first patient appointment later
that morning. I showered, slept, and woke up for a quick bite and coffee before making my way downstairs to begin my day.
Mondays after weekend overnights at the hospital were never fun. The practice was slammed with patients who’d gotten sick or injured over the weekend but didn’t want to pay hospital rates to visit the emergency room.
I hit the ground running and didn’t stop until I poured myself into bed that evening. The next day, the craziness started all over again as soon as I got downstairs to work.
There were more cases of the flu that kept me so busy I didn’t even notice when Honovi arrived. Goldie pulled me aside to let me know she’d let him back to my office, so when I got a break between patients, I joined him there.
“Hey, West,” he said in his gentle timbre. “I need to talk to you about something pretty important. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Only a few. Things are crazy today. What can I do for you?”
“It’s about Pippa.” He seemed to speak with hesitation despite the fact we’d been friends for years. “Her birth certificate arrived this morning, and I… I didn’t realize you were listed as her father.”
Suddenly I got that warm tingly rush that usually hits before fainting, but I stayed steady and just blinked at him instead.
Hon cleared his throat. “Yeah, so anyway. Needless to say, this changes things. Legally, Pippa is yours, not Nico’s. So, ah… depending on what your intentions are, the adoption process would need to shift to—”
As he spoke, I must have tuned him out. All I could think about was Adriana listing me as the baby’s father. Why hadn’t she told me? She’d done it months before her death. Why? Not only did I wonder why she hadn’t told me, but I also wondered why she’d done it in the first place. If it was for easy custody transfer in case of emergency, why list Nico as Pippa’s guardian in her will?
Suddenly I realized what this meant. Nico was going to hate me. He was going to lose his ever-loving shit. “Hon, have you told Nico yet?”
Hon’s eyes widened as he looked up from the stack of paperwork in his lap. “Well, yes. When I couldn’t get in touch with you first thing, I went over to the house—”
“Shit. Shit, shit. I gotta go,” I blurted. “I’m sorry. Can I call you later?”
Before he had a chance to respond, I rushed out the office door to the reception counter out front. Our receptionist was in the process of handing out a sticker to the little girl I’d just given vaccines to.
“Morgan, I have to go out for about an hour. Goldie can cover me until I get back. Tell her to call me only if it’s critical, okay?”
She nodded in surprise, and I sent up a prayer of thanks that Goldie was a certified nurse practitioner who could handle most things without me when needed.
I bolted out the door and drove as quickly to Adriana’s as I could. When I pulled down the driveway, I noticed an unfamiliar rental car parked next to Nico’s, and movement by the front door drew my attention.
There stood Nico, completely engulfed in another man’s embrace. He was crying into the man’s shoulder, and the stranger’s hands were rubbing Nico’s back and hair in an effort to comfort him. I could tell by the body language between the two of them, it was a touch born of years of familiarity.
My entire body seemed to fold in on itself. My heart jammed into my throat, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. Who the hell had his hands all over Nico? Who the fuck was comforting Nico?
I wanted to rage—to scream and yell and claim Nico like some kind of caveman. But of course, it wasn’t my place. Nico wasn’t mine, and he wasn’t staying. I had no claim on him, and after the news about the birth certificate, I’d be lucky if he even spoke to me again.
After stepping out of the car, I closed it with a loud enough noise to get their attention. They jumped apart, and Nico turned puffy red eyes on me. My heart lurched at the sight of him—the sadness, disappointment, and anger were palpable.
Before I could even step toward the house, he was racing out to the driveway, screaming at me to leave. The stranger on the porch stood frozen in shock, as if he’d never seen the fiery Troll doll between us.
“You’re Pippa’s father?” he screamed. I heard a faint gasp from behind me and saw our local mail deliverer, Mrs. Parnell, at the top of the driveway, leaning out of her vehicle to put mail in Nico’s box. I opened my mouth to contradict his words, but she zoomed off before I could get the words out.
I turned to Nico, feeling my anger surface. Now the whole town was going to think Pippa was mine.
“Nico,” I said, but he cut me off.
“Leave, you jackass!” he snarled. “I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming a million miles away. You’re a liar. And a coward. Probably a seducer and a… a…”
I held out my arms in the global gesture of Stop, please and began walking toward him. “Wait, Nico. Let me explain.”
He reached me with pummeling fists and flying tears of rage. “I don’t need your fucking lies. I’m not going to believe a word you say anyway. No wonder you didn’t tell me who the father was. No wonder you were so attached to her.” Nico sucked in a breath on a sob, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight enough that he would stop hitting me.
“Stop, stop. Just let me talk to you. Please. She’s not mine.”
“Liar,” he spat. “You’re a fucking coward who doesn’t even have the balls to claim her. I never took you for a coward, West.”
“Nico, you’re wrong.”
“Why would she lie? It makes no sense. Did you really think this whole adoption thing was going to go through without people finding out? What, you’re too afraid to claim her and screw up your perfect reputation in your perfect fucking little town? Weston Wilde, beloved doctor and member of the perfect Wilde family knocks up a girl from the wrong side of the tracks? No wonder you were there for her delivery. No wonder you were—”
“Stop,” I growled in his face. “You’re pissed. I get it. But you’re spouting a bunch of bullshit you know nothing about. Calm the fuck down, Nico.”
He was hiccupping the way he’d done before when he’d lost it over Adriana in front of me, but he tried to get the words out between gulps of breath. “Why, why did I come here? I could have stayed at home and been happy. You could have made all these impossible decisions without me. I hate you.”
Hot tears soaked my shirt as they dropped onto it from his swollen face. I couldn’t help but lean in and press my cheek to his to try to soak them up without taking my hands off his back. He struggled against me, his hands now clutched in my button-down shirt.
“Shh, catch your breath, Nico. Slow your breathing down,” I murmured. I didn’t want him to hyperventilate.
“Leave me alone, West. Let me go for god’s sake. She’s all yours now. She’s all yours and”—he blew out a shaky breath—“I can finally put this all behind me.”
I knew he only spoke out of anger, but the words knifed me in the chest nonetheless.
“You don’t mean that,” I told him. “You’re pissed, and I get it. I would be too. But you’re going to catch your breath and calm down, and then we’re going to talk.”
He finally struggled out of my grasp with a final push and began walking back to the stranger on the porch. I was desperate to know who the stranger was, but it was clear he was a safe harbor for Nico. So I tried to let it go.
Impossible.
“Who are you?” I asked before I could help it.
Nico spun and shot me a look. “None of your fucking business. Someone who loves me and doesn’t lie to me. That’s all you need to know.”
The guy squeezed Nico’s hand as he walked past but outstretched his other to me in greeting.
“Griffin Marian. You must be West.”
He was adorable in a curly-haired, dimpled way. The kind of guy who looked like he kept everyone laughing in a crowd. He had a kind face, and there was sympathy behind his eyes as he studied me.
&n
bsp; “Yeah. Weston Wilde. It’s nice to meet you, Griffin.”
“Please call me Griff. Would you mind giving us some time to settle in and then maybe we can give you a call to talk about Pippa?”
I felt my jaw tighten hearing the baby’s name come out of this stranger’s mouth. Nico still glared at me defiantly, but I knew if he truly thought he was losing Pippa, he was going to break down the minute I left.
“I’m not taking her from you, Nico. I wouldn’t do that. Surely you know that even if you’re pissed at me right now.”
He rolled his eyes and turned to go into the house. Griff continued to study me before speaking.
“Nico’s been my best friend for almost fifteen years, West. I’ve only seen him cry once before today.”
My heart hammered as I thought of all the times Nico had cried with me since I’d met him. Was it all because of Adriana’s death? Or maybe the exhaustion of caring for a newborn?
“He’s lost a lot since he came back,” I said lamely.
“I’m not really sure what’s going on here, but I get the feeling it’s about more than the baby and his sister. You’re right. He’s lost a lot. I’m not so sure he hasn’t found something too.”
We studied each other for a moment, and I realized the man named Griff had a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. There was no point in trying to decipher the stranger’s thoughts. I let out a breath.
“I’ll leave you guys in peace so he can calm down.” I reached for my wallet to pull out a business card that had my cell number on it. After handing it over, I met his eyes again. “Will you call me if you need me?” Clearly he understood that what I’d really meant was for him to call me if Nico needed me.
His face softened into a kind grin. “Will do. We’ll be in touch.”
I slinked back to my office with a dark cloud hanging over my head—confusion over Adriana listing me as the baby’s father, frustration over Nico’s refusal to let me talk to him about it, and a lingering hint of nerves over who Griff Marian was to Nico besides friends. Which, of course, just led me to the depressed realization that it was none of my business.