It was hard, though.
Seeing Logan look that defeated made something inside of my heart feel broken and battered.
It was long minutes later that Logan said, “Yes, sir,” and hung up the phone.
My eyes had never left him, so when Logan finally turned and looked for my gaze, I witnessed the devastation there.
“Nina and Darius Maxwell are on their way with Paydon in tow.” Logan dropped the phone from his ear. “And they’re justifiably pissed.”
“They didn’t know any of what happened?” I asked in surprise.
“They knew that something had happened and that something had sent their son into a tailspin,” Logan confirmed. “But the particulars they didn’t know, because they refused to let me tell them.”
“So why do you look like you’re about to throw up?” I asked. “It sounds like none of this was your fault.”
“I could’ve tried a little harder to let them know,” he admitted.
“I’m fairly sure you’ve given up enough when it comes to this family and this child,” I said. “You’re looking out for her. You’ve allowed Tasia to put you into an impossible position just because you wanted to keep tabs on the child’s life until such time that the Maxwells pulled their heads out of their asses. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve done everything that you could’ve done, and more. More than any other man would’ve done if put into this type of situation.”
Logan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I’m not sure that I did enough, to be honest,” he admitted. “I know that they would’ve gotten their heads screwed on the right way if I’d just said that they had a grandchild on the way.”
“But you didn’t. They asked that you give them time, and you did. As far as I’m concerned, you did your duty.” I paused. “But saying that, I don’t think that you did anything wrong. In fact, you did more than even I would’ve done. I would’ve hung Tasia out to dry.” I squinted. “How much is she getting out of you in child support?”
“Fifteen hundred bucks a month,” he answered.
My mouth fell open.
“What?!” I practically screeched. “That’s robbery!”
“Tasia has a lawyer for a dad, a lawyer for a sister, and a judge for a brother. Though we didn’t use the judge that happened to be her brother, we used a judge that knew her brother well. He was already half sold on Tasia before we’d walked in the door, and I didn’t give him any reason not to give her everything that she wanted.”
No wonder he couldn’t afford a couch, or a decent motorcycle.
Holy shit.
Fifteen hundred bucks was likely three-quarters of his paycheck!
“I’ll have to go back to court and get it reversed,” he said. “Because I have a feeling that in the next couple of days, everyone will be knowing who the real father is.”
I had no doubt that he was right.
“So, what do we do now?” I asked curiously.
Logan bit his lip.
“I have no idea whatsoever.”
That was when the child in my arms woke up. And went absolutely ape shit.Chapter 17Let’s bake a cake.
-Things you shouldn’t say to a dead person.
Katy
“Let’s go get her something to eat,” I suggested. “Maybe that’ll make her happy.”
“You don’t think that she’d like a sandwich?” he asked, holding up the small amount of turkey that he had among the next week’s worth of meal prep meals.
“Um, no,” I said. “I think that turkey isn’t good enough to make her stop crying.” I walked to the door and came to a stop. “We don’t have a car seat.”
Logan scratched his head.
“We could walk,” he offered. “If we go down the trail that way, it’s only about a half mile until you reach the McDonald’s.”
I grinned and turned to him.
Over the sound of the little girl in my arms crying, I said, “Whose bright idea do you think it was to put a McDonald’s at the end of an exercise trail?”
“No idea,” he admitted, looking at the kid worriedly. “Do you think she needs a diaper change?”
That’s when I started to worry.
“I’ll have to call in reinforcements,” I said. “I don’t think I’m equipped to handle a kid.”
“Who are you going to call?” he asked.
“The obvious choice of who a girl would call first,” I told him. “But I need to go change. Can you handle this for ten minutes while I go get some jeans on?”
He looked at my nightgown and grinned.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll get something more suitable on, too. Like some underwear.”
I winked and started for the front door, picking my keys up as I moved past the table.
The kid in Logan’s arms wailed louder.
“Just put her on the floor in the hallway while you get dressed. Give her this.” I wiggled my phone.
“She’ll throw it and shatter the screen,” he said.
I snorted. “My screen is already cracked, and I’m slated to get a new one in about a month since that’s when I’ll have the money to pay for it. She can shatter it all she wants, and I’ll just borrow some money from my dad, who offered to pay for the phone since he was the one to break it.”