her mind, we both have a fifty-fifty chance, and she’s willing to accept it either way.
“Do you love her?” I can feel his eyes burning into the side of my face, but I don’t pull my gaze from her window. “Because dating a mom is different than hooking up with any other chick.”
I finally manage to pull my hands from its relentless grip on the steering wheel only to run them over the top of my head.
“Everything is so fucking complicated right now. I do like her, but if that’s going to cause problems for you if you’re the father, then I’ll back away.” That’s the last fucking thing I want to do, but I’d expect the same from him if the tables were turned. “You’re my brother, and I won’t compromise that.”
He doesn’t tell me he’s taking me up on my offer. He doesn’t backpedal and tell me that he doesn’t expect that, and I understand his answer with his silence. He wants me to back down, and it makes me wonder if he has some sixth sense I don’t about the paternity. I can hope all day long that the baby is mine, but I haven’t convinced myself that I am.
Instead of speaking, he opens the passenger door. “Are you coming up?”
“Not tonight, man.”
I’m dying to see her, but I know if I go in that apartment, I’m going to end up crawling into her bed. I won’t be able to leave it at only that either. At minimum, I’ll want to hold her in my arms, but I’ll also want to touch her, to feel every inch of her body until she moans Callum in my ear and begs me to get inside of her.
No matter my recent confessions, if I go inside, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off of her. If there wasn’t a baby to complicate things, I’d go to her anyway. This situation is more complicated than just not knowing paternity because now my routine has changed with all of this. What I’d normally do right after getting back from a job would be to text her and see if she wanted to hook up. I can’t do that now.
“Go ahead,” I urge when he seems stuck half in the truck and half out. “Make sure she’s okay.”
He doesn’t tell me to go to her because he knows where my head is at. Telling him I’ll back away is easy now while I’m outside, but it would be an impossible feat if I can see her or smell the delicate scent of her skin.
“See you tomorrow?”
“Sure,” I grunt just as he closes the door and walks away.
I turn my eyes back up to her window, unable to watch my best friend walk into the apartment.
Systematically, the lights begin to turn off in the apartment, her bedroom one going off last, but I sit in the truck just looking up at her darkened window until the sun begins to rise behind me.
Chapter 18
Simone
I keep my eyes on my clasped hands as they rest in my lap. I know if I look up, I’m going to find several people staring at us. The people in the doctor’s office didn’t even attempt to be subtle when the three of us walked in. I should’ve come on my own, but of course Rocker and Jinx insisted on being here. I wanted to argue, but apparently you can’t do a paternity test on your two possible baby daddies without both of them tagging along.
They both rolled their eyes when I said we should all come in separately. Yeah, it was a stupid idea, but it would’ve put me more at ease since I knew we’d look like a gang of freaks coming in to do this together.
We’ve combined my scheduled visit with the blood draw and swabs, and even the woman at the front desk has judgment in her eyes when I gave her my name.
“You seem nervous,” Jinx says, nudging my shoulder with his own.
“Just ready to get this over with,” I mutter, ignoring the way Rocker’s mouth turns down even further into a frown.
He’s been scarce the last couple of days. He wasn’t the one to come to the apartment when they got back from wherever it was they disappeared to for a week. Jinx was the one who let himself into the apartment while I was snoring in the recliner.
Rocker has stopped by a couple of times, but it’s Jinx, alone, who has