Fake Daddy (The Single Brothers 2)

Noah was just as bad, as he said, “Right, tomorrow we’ll see if he naps for the same length of time. If so, then maybe he needs to see the doctor.”

Sure guys, because Richard has a stressful lifestyle and probably wasn’t sleeping for those ten minutes. He was probably happy about the breathing space.

I shook my head, deciding that they weren’t an option.

Martin and Gia weren’t, either. Martin had managed to turn the one woman that didn’t have a maternal bone in her body into a woman who was obsessed with not only pleasing the kids, but Martin, too. Even he admitted that she was going over the top these days.

I needed to stay from my dramatic friends and their wives.

Dan wasn’t an option after he’d been dumped by his wife. He’d turned into a hermit. Shit, he was more miserable than me at the best of times. I called to check in with him once in a while, but there was only so much drinking I could do in one day and he wanted to do it every second of the day.

No, I needed to wait until Olivia got home from work. She would be able to help me out. Make me look more dadable. If there was such a word.

I didn’t have a fucking clue about parenting. Sure, I baby sat him once in a while, but Olivia made sure that he was sleeping whenever I did. I would listen out for him. He’d cry, I’d give him a bottle and then he was sleeping again. That’d been our interaction… until now.

I knew the moment Joshua was at least walking and talking, we’d be the best of friends. I’d take him to hang out with Richard, even teach him to ride a horse and we’d all hang out. It would be a win-win situation for all of us.

I struggled with babies. They’re cute to look at. Smile at. But that’s about it. I watched Noah have deep conversations with Richard and every time I knew that Richard wasn’t listening. I knew that I fucking wasn’t. It was always something boring.

“Today, Richard, we went to the farm and looked at the horses. Then we looked at the chickens. And you smiled as I showed you how to milk the cows. When you’re older, you can do the same thing.”

How fucking exciting to hear exactly what they did the whole day, all over again. Noah said that it helped with Richard’s memory. I would say that Noah had been reading one too many books. Because not only did it send Richard to sleep, but me, too. When I went with them on one of their exciting trips around his farm, I didn’t remember Richard seeing anything because he slept most of the time.

I’d been sitting in my sister’s driveway thinking about how to ask her about Joshua. I knew this was a win-win situation for both of us. Olivia has been down lately. I’ve been bored ever since I sold my dating app. I made money and then found myself just fucking sitting at home bored.

I’d spent the last five years developing it and making it what it is today. Winton, my business partner, wanted to sell. He had a fiancee, a kid on the way and it felt as if selling was the best option for us. It was for him. He invested in property, bought a house and got married and has a wife.

I felt as if I was in the middle of a mid-life crisis and I wasn’t even thirty yet. I just didn’t know what to do with myself. I had money. Good looks. Charm. But no job and no interest in starting something all over again.

Part of the reason that I wanted mom to go on the cruise was because she was always complaining that I’m not doing anything with my life. I’d booked her on a cruise so I didn’t have to hear her nagging me all the time. Travel and jewelry are a way to a girl’s heart, because it always seems to work with my mom.

Olivia was pissed that I sent mom on a cruise when she was struggling to work and look after Joshua. When I offered to help, Olivia ignored my offer. Maybe now she would listen because I had to get out of the house more often and my baby sister needed more rest.

***

Olivia stared at me as if I was crazy or something. I waited for her to say something before I repeated myself once again.

“You want to borrow your nephew on the weekends only?”

“Exactly! Just for a couple of weeks or so. Nothing more, then you can go back to doing whatever you guys do on the weekends.”

She shook her head, looking at me as if I was insane.

“Let me get this straight, you don’t want to babysit your nephew. You want to borrow him?”

Why was I repeating myself?

“Yes. You see, I met this single mom, Ivy, when I went to look at the preschool and she thinks that Joshua’s mine. She even came up with this suggestion that we’ll go to the next preschool tour as a couple, just so that Joshua has a better chance of getting into a good one. Apparently, they frown upon single parents. You should have seen the dirty looks they were giving us when we were on the tour.”

“Who?” She blurted out, as if that was really important, but I answered all the same.

“The parents. Anyway, I asked her out on a playdate and she agreed so that we could figure out the next preschool. Besides, Joshua needs some company. He gets lonely at times.”

“Really? How do you know?”

She shook her head as she entered her house. Maybe I should have at least waited for her to come in, instead of catching her at the driveway and then coming out with my proposition. She walked towards her open-plan kitchen. She was laughing at the same time, which meant that she wasn’t taking me seriously.

“Well, he told me.”

“My six-month-old baby told you that he needs company?”

She had her hands on her hips and her blue eyes were looking at me as if I was insane as she rose an eyebrow waiting for me to respond.