Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,389

eyes widened. “Lachlan.”

I patted his bed. “Don’t worry about that now. Go get your belly sliced open. I bet it’s really gross.”

“Bet mine is grosser than yours,” Bast said.

“No doubt.”

The nurse took him away, and every bit of my heart went with him. I rubbed my face, but the admitting doctor offered a bit of encouragement.

“Don’t worry. Doctor Merriweather is very talented.”

I frowned. “Rory?”

“Oh, no. Her mother, Regan, is the chief of pediatrics. She’ll take excellent care of your brother…son.”

Great. By the end of the surgery, most of the hospital would probably assume I owned a banjo and that Elle was my sister-wife. Not what we needed.

A nurse guided us to a waiting room. I sunk into a chair, head in my hands. Mom patted my back.

“I need something to eat,” she said. “Today has been one stress after another. I’m glad I took his temperature when I did.”

“I should have been there.” I muttered. “I can’t keep missing all this stuff.”

“Relax, Lachlan. I’m going to get a sandwich. Are you hungry?”

“Not at all.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Elle said.

Mom gave me a nod and retreated to the cafeteria. How the hell could she eat? Anything that I put in my mouth would come right back up. Food. Drink. My fucking foot.

I stared at Elle. “What the hell did I do? I just told Bast he was my son.”

Elle pulled a chair close. “Charming, listen to me. They hopped that boy up on morphine. He won’t remember his own name, let alone what you said.”

“How can we be sure? What if he wakes up and asks me what the fuck I was talking about?”

“Well, for starters…we’ll put a dollar in the swear jar so he won’t be talking like you when school starts again.”

“Red, come on.”

“He’s six years old. All he needs to know is that you love him. That’s it.”

“But I’m gonna have to tell him at some point!” I couldn’t sit still. I paced the waiting room, hands on my head. “And how do I explain it? Yeah, you’re my son. No, I didn’t want to raise you.”

“You couldn’t raise him.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t have a good reason. I knocked a girl up. Anything I say will have to start with that. I have to tell him how he was made. No matter what I do, I’ll have to explain where babies come from.”

“Please don’t tell him where babies come from.”

“Thank Christ, because, honestly?” I held my arms out. “I’m still not entirely sure how it happens.”

Elle rolled her eyes. “Fantastic news…for both me and our year-old son. Remind me to show you how it works when we get home.”

I rubbed my temples. This was a nightmare.

“I’m not going to say anything,” I said. “When he wakes up, he’ll be groggy. He’ll probably want to sleep and he’ll forget everything.”

Elle pointed to the chair. “Sit, Lachlan. He’s going to be okay.”

“What if he’s not?”

“He’s your son.” She gave me a kiss. “He’s strong, like his dad. He’ll probably need a ridiculously overpowered sedative to settle his butt down. But everything is okay. I promise.”

Elle was reassuring when she wanted to be. But I couldn’t calm down. Not until the surgery was over. I bounced chair to chair, tossed every magazine up and down, and invented a basketball game with crinkled up papers and a garbage can across the room.

That passed five minutes.

I took a seat only when Elle threatened to order me a tranquilizer.

An hour passed before the doctor came to get us—a beautiful black woman who looked nothing like Rory despite sharing her name.

“Everything went fine,” she said. “He’s in his room, recovering. His appendix hadn’t burst, so it was a clean and easy procedure. He’ll be tender for a few days, but he should be fine.”

She didn’t appreciate a hug or that I high-jumped the chairs to race back to Bast’s room.

The kid was still out, but I pulled a chair close and waited while he slept. Mom and Elle joined me, watching TV on mute. It took another twenty minutes before he woke, but Bast looked me right in the eyes and smiled.

“Are you really my dad?”

Jesus Christ.

Mom raced to the bed, rubbing his cheek. “Are you okay, Bast?”

“Yeah.”

Elle pinched his toes. “You’re all better now.”

“Good.”

I swallowed. “You had me worried, little man.”

“Yeah, but Lachlan—”

I held up a hand. I knew where this was going. I glanced at Elle and Mom.

“Can you give me a minute?” I asked.

“Lachlan…” Mom shook her head. “Now might not