Two Men and a Baby - Isla Olsen Page 0,14

stop them because of your stupid bias.”

“Maybe they should make new friends who like rugby,” Shay counters.

“I, for one, think it’s great the boys are playing football,” Brendan says, his head resting against his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Maybe they’ll meet the loves of their lives like Wade and I did.”

“Okay, they’re nine, Brendan—let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Bridie says.

It turns out my nephew was in a real hurry to get here and we don’t have long to wait before Alannah, who was in the delivery room as Cait’s coach, comes out to tell us he’s arrived safe and well.

A little while later we’re allowed into Cait’s room to meet the new little guy, who she’s named Dylan. And after we’ve all had plenty of time to fuss over him, Alannah kicks us out of the room so Cait can get some rest.

I’m on my way back from the restroom when I hear my name being called.

“Oh my god…Connor?”

I snap my head up, my eyes finding the source of the voice to be one of the nurses. She’s maybe a couple years older than me—late twenties, I’d guess—and she’s pretty, with dark hair and a smattering a freckles over her round face. It takes me a moment, but I manage to place her, a smile curving my lips as I recognize her as a girl I hooked up with when my flight home was delayed because of the bad weather the Christmas before last.

“Laura, right? Wow, it’s been…a while.”

“Thirteen and a half months, actually,” she says with a tight smile.

“Umm…that’s oddly specific.”

She glances around for a moment, her brow creased in confusion. “What are you doing—?” Her expression clears and she suddenly pins me with a lethal glare. What the fuck? “Oh my god. Are you having a baby right now? Did you get someone else pregnant?”

“My sister just had a baby,” I explain. But then her words actually penetrate my brain and I’m left staring at her, my mouth opening and closing soundlessly as I try to form the words. “What the hell do you mean ‘someone else’?”

She rubs her hands over her face, clearly distressed. “Oh god. This so wasn’t the way I planned to tell you if I ever saw you again.” Slowly, she lifts her gaze to mine and tells me, “You have a son.”

I stare at her for a long moment as my brain tries to compute what she’s just told me. “Um, not to sound like a dick, but are you sure he’s…” I point at my chest.

She rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over the front of her blue scrubs. “That does make you sound like a dick. And, yes, I’m sure. This might seem haird to believe considering what happened that day at the airport, but I don’t really sleep around.”

I nod. My whole body feels numb right now. I feel like I’m living in a movie or something, or hearing about a situation that’s happening to someone else, not me. It just all feels fucking surreal. I manage to gather myself for a moment and ask a pertinent question, “What’s his name?”

“Chase.”

My brows shoot up. “Chase? That’s not a name. It’s a verb. Or the name of a bank.”

Laura grifnds her jaw in obvious frustration. “Well, I like it. And you weren’t here to offer any other suggestions so you don’t get a say now.”

“I didn’t even know he existed!” I protest. “If I’d known I would’ve been here.” Even if it were just to stop her naming the kid Chase.

“Whatever,” she says with a shake of her head. “Look, I have to get back to work.”

“When can I meet him?”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

“My son,” I clarify, as if I’d been talking about someone else. “When can I meet him? And do you have a picture. I want to see a picture.”

She lets out a deep breath, shaking her head as if she’s completely baffled by my question. “Yeah, my phone’s in my locker, though. Just…let me finish my shift and we can talk then.”

Waiting for Laura to finish her shift is fucking excrutiating. It feels impossible to believe my entire life could change like that. In a matter of seconds. Part of me wants to believe she’s making the whole thing up, but what would be the point in doing that? It’s not like it would be hard to prove. And the expression on her face when I said I wanted to meet him—it was like she didn’t want me to