Changing Lines (Bellevue Bullies 5)

“Yeah, it’s sudden, I know.”

“Yeah, it is.” She exhales heavily. “So, are you saying you don’t want the baby?”

“No!” Claire shouts. “We want him. We so want him, Tristan. It’s not that at all.”

“Oh. That’s good ’cause I really don’t know what I would have done.”

She laughs, but Claire and I don’t. “But it means that unless you want to move with us, you wouldn’t be around the baby much. Unlike what we promised,” I say, and I’m nervous how she’s gonna react.

“Oh.”

“You can still visit,” Claire insists. “And you’ll still be Auntie T.”

Tristan doesn’t answer right away, and I find that I’m holding my breath. “About that…” Tristan starts. “I don’t know… I don’t think I want him to know about me.”

“What? No, that’s not right,” I say quickly. “He will know about you.”

“But I don’t want him to resent me,” she says, and I can hear the emotion in her tone. “Like I hate my dad for running out on me.”

“Yes, but you’re not running out on him. You’re giving him a better life than what you can give right now.” Claire looks at me, tears streaming down her face. “You’re giving us a gift we can never repay. Please let us tell him you did that for him and for us,” I stress.

“We don’t want to lose contact with you, Tristan,” Claire says softly. “You’re a part of our family.”

We’re met with silence, and my stomach turns over. I know, for someone else, this is the ideal situation, but I don’t want that for our baby. He’ll be ours, but he will know about Tristan. How she made our dreams come true. “I want him to know how strong, how smart, and how selfless you are, Tristan. Seriously. Don’t take that away from us. From him.”

“I don’t want him to hate me,” she whispers.

“He won’t. He’ll love you just as we do,” I promise. “Honestly.”

“Okay,” she finally says after a moment. “I’m terrified, guys. This shit is legit crazy.”

I laugh as Claire cries out. “Amen, sister, but we’re in this together.”

“Thank God. I couldn’t do this without you two.”

And we couldn’t without her.

New Beginnings

Jude

“So, what did you think of everyone?”

I walk through Claire’s and my potential kitchen before glancing back at my baby brother, Jace. On my shoulders is my nephew Jamieson. He looks like a carbon copy of Jace—nothing like Avery, but then, neither does Ashlyn. Avery jokes she was just a carrier, and it’s true, the Sinclair genes are strong. Dawson looks a lot like Baylor, but at the same time, Louis is Jayden made over. Even my twin nephews, Max and Ryder, look like Lucy. Thankfully, Benji got one kid out of the four. Charlotte is a girly little version of her dad. Thinking of everyone makes me miss them. Good thing we’ll all be together soon to celebrate my son.

Wow. My son. I’m going to have a son.

A grin covers my face as Jamieson holds on to my forehead, resting his head on mine. Every time I see the kid, he does this. “First impressions were good. They were excited to have me.”

Jace looks through the pantry. When I told him I had been traded, he offered to drive up from Fort Lauderdale to help me look at places. Avery and Ashlyn are off in Nashville for some singing benefit, so it was perfect timing for Jace. He was bored, and Jamieson missed me. I missed the little bugger too. Maybe my brother a bit also.

“J,” Jamieson says. “Why don’t you move in with us?”

I laugh as I tap his hands on my head. He’s been calling me J since he could talk. Don’t know why, but I find it endearing. “I gotta live in Tampa, buddy. You can come visit Claire and me whenever you want.”

I don’t have to see him to know he’s smiling. “And the new baby?”

“And the new baby,” I say proudly.