Proving Paul's Promise (The Reed Brothers 5)

They walk off together hand in hand, and I watch them until they disappear from sight. Paul comes toward me from the other direction with Hayley’s hand in his. “How angry are you?” he asks. He cocks his head and looks at me like an inquisitive puppy.

“I’m not angry.”

I touch the top of Hayley’s head and tell her, “I’ll see you later, Hayles, okay? I have some errands I have to run.”

She nods, and I walk away.

“Friday,” Paul calls. But I don’t turn back. I can barely see for the tears blurring my eyes, but I’ll be f**ked sideways before I’ll let anyone see them fall.

Paul

Shit. I f**ked that all up. It was going so well and she looked so f**king happy. Watching Friday with her son was like watching chocolate being poured over ice cream. It was warm and soothing, and they just belonged together. The two of them in the same place—it was magical. It was meant to be. My only regret is that I didn’t warn her. I didn’t give her notice that we would be meeting them. But she might not have come if I had told her. I run a frustrated hand through my hair.

Hayley pulls on my hand. “Where is Friday going?”

As far from me as she can get, I’d imagine. “She said she had to run some errands. I don’t know.”

She blinks up at me, her blue eyes big and wide. “Is she coming home later?”

I don’t know. “I think so.”

“Why is she mad at you?” She’s all innocence and wonder.

“What makes you think she’s mad at me?” I narrow my eyes at her.

“She looked like she was going to cry.”

Fuck. She did. I pick up my phone and call Matt. “Hey,” I say.

“What the f**k do you want?” he replies. But he has that playful tone in his voice that’s all Matt.

“Hayley wants to come over and touch Sky’s belly.”

“Oh,” he says. He puts his hand over the phone and says something to someone. “Bring her over. Sky’s belly will be waiting.”

I wait a beat.

“What’s wrong?” he says.

“I think I messed up.”

“Friday?”

“Yeah.”

“Bad?”

“Yeah.”

“You want us to watch Hayley so you can go talk Friday down off the ledge?”

“I just want to climb up with her and hold her hand.” I scrub my palm down my face.

“How far away are you?”

“Five minutes.”

He hangs up on me. I hate it when he does that; I taught him better manners.

I look down at Hayley. “You want to go touch Matt and Sky’s babies? See if they’re kicking?”

She puts her hands on her hips. “You’re despecting.”

I sputter. “I’m what?”

“Despecting. Making me think about one thing when I want to think about another. Like why Friday is crying.”

I scratch my head. “Despecting?”

“Despecting,” she says again. She puts her hands up like she’s blocking karate chops. “Despecting.”

“Oh, deflecting!” I laugh. “Yeah, I’m deflecting. That okay with you?”

“Do I still get to go see Sky’s belly?”

I nod, and she grins. Apparently, deflecting is okay as long as Matt’s babies are involved.

I knock on Matt’s door when we arrive, and it opens to a little girl wearing a pink-and-purple tutu and nothing else.

“Hi,” Mellie says.

Hayley looks at me, rolls her eyes, takes Mellie’s hand, and leads her to her room to get dressed.

Matt is in the kitchen making an early dinner. “Where’s Sky?” I ask.

“Taking a shower.” He dumps hot pasta into a colander.

“One of your children just opened the door wearing nothing but a tutu.”

He grins. “As long as it wasn’t Seth, I don’t care.” He thinks about it for a second and then adds, “And if it was Seth, I hope he’d pick one with fall colors to match his eyes.”

“Dude, I am so taking your man card.”

He laughs. “At least I’m getting laid.”

Heat creeps up my cheeks, and I look away.

“Oh,” he breathes. “That’s what’s up.”

I pick up the salad bowl and toss the salad with a pair of tongs, pushing the carrots to the bottom because I hate carrots and don’t think they should be in a salad.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to kick you in the vagina,” Matt says to me.

I growl and finally raise my eyes.

“How was it?” he asks softly. He doesn’t want details. He just wants to be sure we’re okay, and I know that.

“Earth shattering.” I groan and throw my head back. “Fucking perfect.” I close my eyes and let my head hang there.

I hear feet pitter-pattering across the floor and open my eyes to see Sky walking into the kitchen. She wraps her arms around Matt’s back and squeezes him. She can’t wrap around much of him with that belly in the way, but it’s sweet to watch. He kisses her over his shoulder.

“Hey, Paul,” she says. She walks by me and runs her hand through my hair. Then she tips my head back with a quick, soft jerk to my hair. She kisses my forehead, which makes me smile. “What’s up?” she asks.

Matt cups his hands around his mouth and whispers, “He and Friday bumped uglies, and then he opened his mouth and did something stupid. He hasn’t told me what yet.”