Sadie leaped on me as I opened the door to the bedroom where he’d stashed her. I hugged her close and buried my face in her thick, soft golden fur.
“There’s a girl. There’s a sweetheart. Daddy locked you up in here for no reason. You’re the best girl ever, aren’t you?”
Sadie swiped her big tongue all over my cheeks in silent agreement.
I closed my eyes at Jared’s heavy footsteps on the stairs. “We need to talk,” he said a moment later.
“You have a child to keep an eye on.”
There was hardly any accusation in my voice, I was almost sure.
“She’s a couple months old. Where can she go?”
His relentless calm made me want to kick him. “Couple months, huh? Got that nailed down.”
I’d surmised the same myself since I’d been babysitting since the age of thirteen and had taken care of kids of all ages. But hearing him admit it made me madder somehow.
It was ridiculous to feel betrayed. We were friends. He didn’t owe me full disclosure. I might’ve believed we’d told each other almost everything, but clearly, that was not the case and I’d just have to come to terms with it.
Maybe by the time his daughter turned eighteen.
“Well, considering I was only…with her mother for a couple of days last December, it wasn’t too hard to guess her age. She might have been premature, I guess, because she’s small—where are you going?”
With my hand on Sadie’s head at my side, I turned toward the door. “Downstairs.”
“With the dog?”
“The dog,” I enunciated carefully, “is smart and sweet. She will not injure the baby.”
But Jared didn’t move. Instead, he braced both hands on the doorjamb, reminding me just how big and broad he was. Not to mention how much larger he was than me, which secretly thrilled me when I was feeling especially female as we walked side by side down the street.
My thoughts were traitorous sometimes. Tonight, especially.
Sadie’s large plume of a tail swished against my leg as she let out a whimper in support. I glanced down at her and inwardly sighed at the pleading expression that usually meant she had to pee. “She has to go out. Speaking of that, have you changed your daughter’s diaper yet?”
It was surprisingly satisfying to watch Jared pale under his tan. “I don’t have any diapers.”
“I should hope not, unless you’ve been keeping other secrets from me.” I held up a hand. “Ones I do not need to know about, thanks.”
His jaw worked. “I wasn’t keeping a secret from you. I didn’t know she existed until tonight.”
Sympathy swam through me at the obvious pain in his voice. My first inclination was to wrap my arms around him and give him a rib-crushing Ramos hug. At least that was a concrete action I could take.
But the petty, small-minded woman inside me would not let the mothering side of me take control.
“I’m assuming you remembered the sex part though.”
He gave me a tight nod.
“And you recall that you did not tell me about that.”
“It was not pertinent.”
“Oh, no? I’d say it was extremely pertinent, considering the result’s dirty diaper is probably stinking up your living room.”
Even as I spoke, I felt bad. Judging from the scarce amount of information Jared had shared, his kid hadn’t had an easy go of it thus far. What kind of mother did she have to dump her off on Jared this way? And where exactly was she?
“Since we’re on the topic, what sort of woman did you get naked with, huh? Just wondering what kind of chick drops her infant on a clueless dude and takes off for what, a mental health vacay?”
“I’m not clueless. And she didn’t take off for a vacay.” He did air quotes. “She just took off, period.” His forehead pinched as he closed his eyes. “I don’t know her name. I don’t even know if she gave her one. She’s a couple of months old, and her own mother didn’t even care enough to tell me the kid’s name.”
Horror curled through me at the reality of just what he was describing. God, that poor sweet little girl.
“We’ll give her one.”
His eyes opened as I heard myself. But it was too late. I couldn’t take it back or remove myself safely from the situation so I couldn’t get any more hurt than I was already.
It didn’t matter if my reasons were stupid or if I didn’t have any right to have them. My chest hurt just the same.