Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 802(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 802(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
“We must have dinner soon,” April says.
“I’d love that.”
“Time to go,” Dec says, collecting his sister and guiding her out. “You must be busy yourself,” he adds.
“Yes, yes, busy, busy, busy.” She shrugs him off and gives him a pointed look. “Blaine’s in the car. Stop being a grouch.” Then she flashes me another one of those wide smiles. “It was so lovely to meet you, Camryn.”
The door closes in the distance again, and every set of eyes, including mine, moves to the kitchen doorway as footsteps head this way. “Hello?” a man calls. “April?” A suited man appears, tall and unconventionally handsome.
With a child that’s bundled up in a bright blue coat with matching bobble hat and scarf sitting on his forearm. He’s four years old. I don’t even need to ask. He’s almost the exact same size Noah was. As cute too.
My stomach twists.
“Oh, hi,” the guy says when he sees me. “You must be . . . Camryn?”
I realise I’m staring at their child and rip my eyes away. I can’t fall apart every time I see a child around Noah’s age. I quickly go to him, holding out my hand. “Yes, Camryn.”
He gives my hand a firm shake. “And what’s your name?” I ask the little boy, forcing my smile.
“Albi!” he declares proudly.
Oh my heart. “That’s a real cute name.”
“My daddy chose it. Like his grandpa and my great grandpa.”
“Oh, so cool!” I laugh, smiling and backing off before I grab him and squeeze him half to death with the force of my cuddle. “He’s the cutest.” I take the glass on the counter, Dec’s glass, and drink his wine, feeling a flutter of panic. And judging by Dec’s pained face, he knows.
“I’m four!”
“I knew that.”
“How?” His little forehead furrows. “I didn’t tell you.”
“I just knew,” I say, feeling Dec’s worried gaze set on me.
Albi wriggles in Blaine’s hold, obviously trying to get down, but Blaine keeps hold of him, repositioning him higher on his forearm.
Dec looks so uncomfortable, and I feel terrible for that. I shake my head mildly at him, trying to silently tell him it’s okay, but his face. It tells me it’s not. “Dec never mentioned you have kids,” I go on.
April’s gaze darts to her brother’s. As does Blaine’s.
And a horrible icy chill glides down my spine, confirming it.
“They don’t,” Dec says quietly. “He’s—”
“Daddy!” Albi sings, giving Dec grabby hands. “Aunty April forgot my drink bottle!”
I gasp quietly. Daddy?
“Mine,” Dec murmurs. “He’s mine.”
For a moment, I’m completely lost. “Yours?” I ask over a little laugh.
“Okay, little fella.” Dec goes to Blaine and takes Albi, and then all eyes are on me as I stand before my audience like a fucking clueless idiot, my mind empty.
“He can’t be yours.” I look at Albi again and realise what I’ve just said is categorically incorrect. He’s the absolute spitting image of Dec. “Oh my God.” It’s said on a breath as I step back away from them. “You would have told me,” I murmur. “If you had a little boy, you would have told me.” He’s told me he loves me. He’s told me I’m his girlfriend.
“I didn’t know how,” Dec murmurs, not coming closer. Keeping a safe distance.
I look at April and Blaine, as I struggle to breathe. I feel like a freakshow standing here. Being judged. Being pitied.
He has a little boy.
He has a four-year-old little boy.
And I can’t stop staring at him.
“Daddy.” Albi’s little hands land on Dec’s cheeks, forcing him to look at him. “Who is that lady?”
Dec smiles, and it’s so uncomfortable, as he takes both of Albi’s little hands in one of his and pulls them away from his face. “She’s a special friend.”
“Like Petal’s my special friend?”
“Do you love Petal?”
“Yes.”
“Then she’s like Petal,” Dec says, flicking cautious eyes my way. Then he visibly gathers himself and puts Albi on his tiny feet. “Why don’t you go find me my cufflinks?”
“But you’re already wearing cufflinks, Daddy,” Albi says, shoving up the sleeve of Dec’s jacket to reveal one.
“Ah, but I put on the wrong ones.”
Albi bends, getting up close and personal with the cufflink. “These are your important ones.”
“And I meant to put on my really important ones. Do you think you could help Daddy out and go fetch them for me?”
“Yes!” He zooms off, excited, and the moment the little bundle of energy has gone, the kitchen is even heavier, all attention on my spaced-out form.
I look between them all, adrenaline making me shake violently under their scrutinizing, sympathetic gazes. “I have to go,” I blurt, feeling a full-blown meltdown on the horizon. I absolutely can’t control it, and I certainly don’t want Dec or his sister and her husband to see it.
“Camryn,” Dec breathes urgently as I grab my purse and hurry past them.
“It was nice to meet you,” I say to April and Blaine over my shoulder, feeling the walls closing in on me.