“Yeah,” he said, a little gruffly. “Hell yeah.”
She nodded, his emphatic response bothering her more than she cared to admit, even to herself.
But it made sense. Nick was the kind of stable, protective guy who’d make an amazing father. Not to mention he had a great relationship with his family, and his own mother had had five kids. Sheesh. Taylor couldn’t even handle one for a single evening.
But it was a little reminder that she and Nick, whatever this thing they had going on right now, weren’t meant to be forever. He’d settle down with some nice girl who’d give him babies and make casseroles, and Taylor would be…
Well, like Karen, probably. Driven. Ambitious.
Alone.
He’d gotten his new phone all set up while she’d fed Hannah earlier, and now his phone buzzed. He glanced at it. “Kelsey just got off the train. She should be here in ten minutes.”
Taylor nodded. “Thank goodness. I need to get some sleep. Can I hand her off?”
“Sure, of course.”
Taylor meant to hand Hannah over immediately and retreat to her bedroom, where she could think about…things.
Instead she found herself rubbing a finger over the baby’s soft cheek. “Bye, baby,” she whispered. “Sorry we got off to a rough start.”
She carefully avoided Nick’s eyes as she gave him Hannah, who stirred only a little at being shifted from Taylor’s shoulder to Nick’s much broader one.
“See you in the morning,” she said softly to Nick.
He nodded but didn’t speak.
Taylor headed toward her room, unable to resist taking one last peek at the hot guy cradling the tiny baby.
Her heart ached for him. He’d shut her down when she’d tried to get more information, and she was dying to know how the heck Kelsey could have let Nick think a baby was his and then take it away from him.
How had he been able to bear it?
Taylor was in the bathroom brushing her teeth when she heard the quiet knock at the door, the soft voices.
The exchange didn’t take long. By the time she’d washed her face and come out of the bathroom, there was no sign of Hannah and Kelsey. No sign of Nick either.
Taylor changed into a pink nightgown and crawled into bed.
She knew the second her head touched the pillow that sleep was a long way off.
She tried to force it, but every time she closed her eyes she kept seeing Nick’s face when she’d asked if Hannah was his.
Kept hearing his response. Up until the time Hannah was three months old, I thought she was mine.
And tonight he’d had to relive that pain all over again.
Taylor flung back the covers and got out of bed. She might not be motherly.
But she was good at other things.
Nick’s door was closed, and no light came from underneath it. She opened it slowly. “Nick?”
He lay on his back, hands locked behind his head, gazing at the ceiling. The blankets were around his waist, his chest bare.
She couldn’t see his expression in the darkness, but she saw him turn his head in her direction. Knew he was awake.
“What, Carr?”
His voice was cool, the message clear: Go away.
But Taylor knew a little something about pushing people away when you were hurting. Knew that it rarely worked out as well as you hoped.
She also knew what it was like when someone pushed through the stubbornness. Held you through your pain anyway.
Nick had done that once for her, so…
Before she could chicken out, Taylor crossed to his bed and, uninvited, slipped beneath the covers.
“Really?” he muttered as she cuddled closer, resting her cheek on his chest, her arm curling around his waist.
She braced herself for him to pull away, kick her out. She wouldn’t blame him if he did.
Instead, after a moment of stillness, he moved his hand to the back of her head, and his fingers began idly playing with a strand of her hair.
“This is the part where I ask you if you want to talk, and you growl no, but tell me anyway,” she whispered.
Nick let out a small laugh. “Is it, now?”
Taylor nodded.
He turned his head slightly toward hers and sighed, his warm breath ruffling her hair.
“The story’s actually surprisingly short,” he said. “Kelsey and I were dating. It was serious, but not ring-shopping serious. At least until she told me she was pregnant. From the moment she told me, I was all in. But she said she didn’t want to get married just because she was pregnant. Said that we should wait, let it happen naturally. I reluctantly agreed, but we did everything else by the book—the crib shopping, the baby shower with her co-workers.”
He paused, his fingers still playing with her hair. “In hindsight, I should have realized that her insistence that I keep my own place was a warning sign, but I was so damn excited about that baby that I didn’t see it. Hannah was born, and…”
“You fell in love,” Taylor said with a little smile, her heart melting at the thought of him holding the newborn for the first time.
“Yeah,” he said a little gruffly. “I fell in love. Nothing mattered but Hannah. Not the fact that Kelsey wouldn’t marry me, or that she and I didn’t really talk beyond discussing baby formula or who needed to pick up diapers. That little munchkin was my entire world.”
“So what happened?” she asked.
He shifted beneath her. “About what you’re probably imagining. It was a Sunday morning and Kelsey had gone to brunch with her sisters. Then a guy shows up at the front door claiming that he was Hannah’s father.”
“No,” Taylor breathed. She’d known it was coming, but hearing it play out like a real-life soap opera hurt. For Nick’s sake.
“The shitty part of it was, I think I knew. My heart resisted it, because I loved the kid, but she looked like him. She never looked like me, not even a little bit. It also explained why Kelsey never held my gaze, why she hadn’t wanted to get married…”
“But babies sometimes don’t look like either parent. How can you—”
“We got a paternity test. Probably should’ve done that from the start, but until then I hadn’t thought it was necessary. I didn’t…didn’t realize Kelsey hadn’t been faithful. Nick Ballantine, zero. Shawn Key, the douchey personal trainer, one.”
Taylor looked up at him, her heart aching. “What did you do?”
He shrugged. “I moved out. He moved in.”
“They’re still together?”
“Getting married next month.” He gave a snort. “She invited me.”
“I’ll go with you,” Taylor said. “I’ll wear my sluttiest dress. No, better yet, I’ll wear white and slutty. It’s the ultimate revenge, trust me.”
“Tempting. But I’m doing my damnedest to put it all behind me.”
“You know that’s going to be hard, right?” Taylor said, propping herself up on an elbow to look down at him. “As long as Kelsey keeps bringing Hannah by whenever she’s in a pinch?”