Perfect Grump (Bad Chicago Bosses)

“You’re a different man now. Actually, you’re a man now. Period. All the trouble you found getting here won’t satisfy you anymore,” she muses, her eyes glowing like an oracle.

“Why are you really here?”

“If you won’t fix your career, I can’t make you. You’re an adult and I’m not technically part of the company anymore.” She sighs. “However, there’s a bigger loose end you can’t leave undone. You need to go home and take care of it, or we’re going to have problems, dear.”

Loose end? What the fuck does she mean?

“If you’re talking about Roland Osprey and his slime machine—or Carmen and her mess—I’m not interested.” I pause. “Grandma, I know you’ve kept Osprey from running stories about me. You need to stay out of it now. I’m a grown man. You can’t fight my battles, and even Osprey called and said there isn’t anything left to fight over.”

Tapping her foot, frustration hisses out of her.

“Grandma?” I take a step forward, unsure what her problem is.

“I’m talking about Reese Halle, you adorable doofus.” Grandma looks at me and swallows before she stabs me between the eyes. “She’s pregnant.”

What.

Pregnant?

Now?

Mine?

Shit!

“She’s—what?” I mutter, instantly winded.

“You heard me the first time.” She narrows her eyes. “She’s pregnant, and whoever the father is, he’s no longer in her life.”

Holy fuck. Pregnant?

I reach for the wall so I don’t fall on my face. No, it’s not the tequila. My world just flipped upside down.

“Why...why did she tell you and not me?” I grind out, trying to screw my head back on.

Grandma doesn’t say anything. She leans back against the couch, holding my gaze.

“Well, now that we’ve confirmed the obvious—”

“Grandma...I didn’t know. I can’t believe she told you before me,” I sputter.

“She didn’t tell me, dear. Paige did.”

My heart jolts for the tenth time.

“She told Paige? Does Ward know, too? Everyone knows except me?”

I have to fight the urge to strip off my shirt and go flying out the back door until I plunge headfirst into the ocean. It’s the only thing that might stop my mental circuits from catching fire.

“Paige asked her, and after the way you apparently stormed off during your last encounter...Paige came to us because she didn’t know what else to do.”

“Why would Paige randomly ask her if she’s pregnant?” I swallow. This doesn’t make sense.

Grandma rolls her eyes and makes a clucking sound with her tongue.

“You’re such a gentle bear, but a bear nonetheless. She was nauseous at Paige’s house a couple weeks ago. She also bought a pregnancy test, but tried to hide it. Paige didn’t ask until Reese threw up driving Ward to work one day. She almost caused a wreck. He had to send her home on medical leave.”

Holy fuck.

The last time I saw her, she drove me to the office. Didn’t she warn me she had news?

I never asked what, because it wouldn’t change what I decided to do, and the longer I talked with her only made it harder. Then I left her a smoldering ruin after a break up speech that still has my guts hanging out.

Goddamn. What have I done?

I’m stiff, numb with shock. If Paige or Ward came to deliver the news, I wouldn’t believe it.

There’s effectively zero chance Grandma’s playing.

Ward mentioned having to give Reese time off in his text. All the clues were there, and I missed every single damn one of them.

I pull a hand through my hair, wishing it could reach through my skullcap and shove some sense into my head.

“She tried to tell me,” I say. “I didn’t stop long enough to listen—”

“Because you’re still worried with what other people think of you, and you assumed she cares what others think of her,” Grandma throws back.

“It was more than that. Reese and Millie left my place right before the cops showed up. If she’d stayed a minute longer, the kid could’ve wound up in a mess, and it would’ve been my fault.”

“But she wasn’t there a minute earlier, Nicholas. Facts matter. And even if she had been, you would’ve worked yourself to the bone making sure we got that child home. You know it as well as I do.”

Damn, she’s good. Still...

“That doesn’t make it better, Grandma. I almost put Reese and Millie through the unthinkable. How is Reese, anyway?”

“Heartbroken. Any woman would be. She’s pregnant with her first baby, and she thinks the man she loves wants nothing to do with her.” The way she stares, piercing through me, drives it home.

“I—damn. There’s nothing I want more than Reese happy, living the life she deserves.”

“So make it happen, dear,” Grandma says pointedly. “There’s only one person in the way.”

I shake my head.

“She doesn’t deserve to be tied down to a man with a revolving gossip mill. And the kid...Christ. What kind of life is that, having me as a father?”