“Yeah. She’s a nice kid.” Jodie kept her face absolutely straight, but Vivian didn’t miss the implication.
“How old is she, exactly?” she asked, not sure whether to be amused or exasperated. Honestly, Seth was practically a caricature of himself.
“Twenty-four. Give or take.”
Vivian blinked.
“It’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure,” Jodie said, almost but not quite smothering a smile.
Vivian didn’t bother trying. “Hoo yeah.”
“You can tease him about it at Sam’s birthday this weekend. He will
love
that.”
“I bet he will.” She grinned, thinking about how much fun it would be needling him. “So, do you have any paperwork I need to sign to get my hands on these kids of yours or what?”
“Not yet. We’ll talk to our lawyer next week, though, so I’ll let you know.”
Vivian caught her sister’s hand, the easy smile fading from her lips. She wanted—needed—her sister to know that this was a big deal for her.
“Thanks for trusting me, Jodie. I won’t let you guys down.”
“I know, sweetie. That’s why I’m asking you.”
They hugged, and the warmth of her sister’s arms was the best thing Vivian had felt in a long time.
Yep, it was damned good to be home.
* * *
S
ETH
PACED
IN
front of the clinic, checking his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. Lola was late
again.
Even though she hadn’t responded to any of the other messages he’d left, he dialed her number, rubbing his temples. He stopped in his tracks when she actually picked up. Hallelujah.
“Hi, Seth. Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier but I was at the checkout and there was such a huge queue behind me, I didn’t want to hold everyone up by talking,” Lola said, her Yorkshire accent more evident over the phone.
Checkout? Queue? She was
shopping,
instead of turning up for her thirty-six-week checkup?
Unbelievable.
Although, considering it was Lola, only too believable. To his eternal frustration.
“Lola. I’m at Dr. Mancini’s. Where are you?” He did his best to keep the impatience out of his voice, but wasn’t certain he pulled it off. They’d learned a few weeks ago that their baby was in the breech position, and this scan had been scheduled to see if the baby had corrected his or her position.
In other words, it was bloody important.
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I totally forgot. I heard about this amazing warehouse sale for baby furniture, and... Well, I forgot. Can we reschedule?”
Seth gave a silent sigh. In any other woman, he’d blame Lola’s lapse of memory on pregnancy hormones, but the truth was that she’d always been a bit flaky. Forgetful, more inclined to rub a crystal to get rid of a headache than take a painkiller, and absolutely hopeless with money. She also wasn’t great at thinking through the repercussions of her actions, or planning ahead.
“I’ll see if they can reschedule us and call you back with the time.”
“Oh, you’re waiting for me? I’m so sorry.”
Of course he was waiting for her. He came to all her appointments. Where did she think he was?
He bit back his irritation. There was no point getting frustrated with Lola. Her feelings would be hurt, and then he’d get the silent treatment for days.
“I’ll call you in five.” He hung up and went to talk to the receptionist. She was very understanding, managing to find a spot for Lola the following day, then he called Lola and passed on the details.
“Why don’t you set up a reminder on your phone for tomorrow morning?” he suggested.
“I’m not stupid, Seth. There’s no need to talk to me as though I’m a child.”
Dear God, not the don’t-treat-me-like-a-child argument again.
“I was just making a suggestion. If you don’t think it has any merit, feel free to ignore it,” he said, attempting to defuse the situation.
Too late, Lola was off and running. For the next ten minutes he listened as she enumerated her achievements—leaving her home in the United Kingdom to come here on her own two years ago, being promoted to shift leader at the call center where she used to work after only three months on the job, having to ask her parents for money only twice since she’d left home, while the girl she was living with practically had her rent paid by her father.
At times like these, he was reminded only too well of how young she was. At twenty-four, he’d been messier, less organized and a whole hell of a lot more irresponsible than her. Just as well one of his guys hadn’t slipped through back then. Twenty-four-year-old him and twenty-four-year-old Lola would have been a disaster of epic proportions. As it was, it would be a line-call as to whether thirty-four-year-old him and Lola could pull this thing off between them.
Although it wasn’t as though they had a choice.
Somehow he managed to assure her that he hadn’t been taking a shot at her, agreeing that he’d meet her at the clinic again tomorrow before ending the call. He needed to get to the bar to make his six o’clock appointment with his brother, so he jumped into his Audi and wasted five minutes trying to get it to start before the engine finally caught and he could hit the road. He made a mental note to talk to the mechanic to get the ignition fixed. One of many things he needed to take care of in the run-up to Lola’s due date. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck with a car that wouldn’t start when she was in labor.
He was tired and hungry by the time he parked in the reserved spot behind the bar, not a great sign when his day wouldn’t be over until at least midnight. Scrubbing his face, he let himself in the back door and hollered out a hello to the guys in the kitchen before heading upstairs to his shoe-box-size office.
He sat at his paper-strewn desk and stared bleakly at the scuffed wall. There was no getting around it—he was deeply, profoundly worried about how Lola would cope with being a mother. Not because she was a bad person, but because she simply didn’t handle difficult situations well. Her default reaction to any stressful situation was to retreat to bed and stay there eating junk food for as long as she could get away with it. Yes, she could be fun—a lot of fun—when she was in the right frame of mind, but she could also be impatient, temperamental and self-centered.
Right, and you’re a freaking saint. Perfect daddy material.
He wasn’t. He was the first to admit that. He’d lived selfishly his entire life. About the only thing he’d ever fully committed to was the bar—and, perhaps, to being a decent uncle to his brother’s kids. But he was fairly certain he understood many of the challenges that lay ahead. He knew there were going to be late nights and not a lot of sleep and periods of intense frustration and worry. He knew that no matter what else was happening for him or Lola, the baby needed them to put him or her first. Every time.
He wasn’t one hundred percent certain Lola had the same take on parenting, however. He wasn’t sure that she’d given much thought to the way things would work between them, in fact. She preferred to “take things as they come” and not get “bogged down in all the details”—both phrases she’d used to fob him off last week when he’d tried to discuss a care schedule for when the baby was born. He’d wanted her to know that he would be there to support her in any way she needed him to be, but she’d shied away from the discussion. As though by avoiding the conversation she could pretend for a little bit longer that she wasn’t about to become a parent.
Which boded really bloody well for the future.
The phone on his desk buzzed, signaling a call from downstairs.
“Hey, boss. You’re brother’s here,” Syrie said when he picked up. “You want us to send him up?”
“Thanks. And send up a couple of beers and a large fries, too, okay?”
“I’ll put it on your tab.”
“Funny.”
He took a second to check his emails—nothing urgent—before the sound of steps on the stairs announced his brother’s arrival.
“Good to see you,” Seth said when Jason entered the office. “Grab a seat. I’ve got some beers coming our way in five.”
“I knew I liked coming here for a reason,” Jason said as he loosened his tie and set down his briefcase.
Seth tried not to smile. He could count on the fingers of one hand the times Jason had dropped by Night Howls for a drink. Usually he was either working late or had some commitment with his family—which was the way it should be when you had two kids under five.
“What did you have to do to get out of jail early?” he asked.
Jason touched his briefcase with the side of his shoe. “There’s a reason why that bastard weighs a ton. Lots of stuff to go through when I get home.”
“Man, I don’t know how you do it,” Seth said, shaking his head.
He’d long since given up the hard partying days of his youth, but the thought of showing up at an office in the city at eight every morning and sitting under fluorescent lights all day and not checking out again till it was dark outside made him want to launch himself from the top of the nearest building.
Jason shrugged easily. “Horses for courses, mate. No way could I stand working the hours you do, either. I’m comatose once it hits nine.”
“That’s because you’re up at sparrow’s fart. I don’t start the day till ten, minimum.”
“That is so going to change when the baby comes along.” Jason’s laugh held more than a hint of schadenfreude. “How many weeks is it now?”
“Four.”
“It’ll be so much fun watching you do this.”
“This is an ugly side of you, just so you know.”
“Consider it payback for all the years you gave me shit for not coming out to play because I had to be home with Jodie and the kids. I’m allowed to savor the irony a little.”
Seth shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, well, I was a dick. You’re a good dad, and you have awesome cute kids. If they were mine, I’d want to be home with them, too, instead of out with a douche like me.”
“Funny you should mention that.” Jason yanked at his tie, loosening it further.
Seth braced himself. When his brother had called to ask if they could catch up tonight, he’d been a little surprised, given they mostly saw each other on Jason’s turf. It had only taken him a few minutes’ thought to work out what his brother wanted to see him about, however. Seth had dropped the big news about Lola and the baby on Jason and Jodie only last week, and he figured his brother was here to offer him some guidance, man-to-man. Which, frankly, he was more than happy to take. He figured he and Lola needed all the help they could get.
Syrie arrived and Jason held fire on whatever it was he was about to say while she distributed the drinks and fries. Once she was gone, Jason took a big mouthful of his beer before eyeing Seth.
“I know you’ve got a lot on your plate at the moment, so this is probably going to seem as though it’s coming out of left field, but Jodie and I talked about it and we decided that we’d leave the decision up to you. If it’s too much, we totally understand, given what you’re taking on. But you’re at the top of our list and we wanted to give you the option.”
Seth was genuinely baffled about where this conversation was going. “You want to tell me what this list is for?”
Jason nodded, smoothing his hands down his thighs, and Seth realized he was nervous. Which made him nervous.
“Okay,” Jason said. “You’ve always been really good with Max and Sam. The best uncle ever, is the way Max puts it. And Jodie and I have started putting things in place for the future in the past few weeks, just in case. Insurance, wills, that kind of thing.”
“Cheery stuff. What brought this on?”
He shrugged. “Jodie saw some movie with her girlfriends a few weeks ago—I don’t know the details, but she’s been freaking out about making sure the boys are looked after if something happens to us. Which is where you come in.”
“Me?”
“Long story short, Jodie and I would really like it if you’d be Max and Sam’s co-guardian in the event that something happened to us.”
For a moment Seth was literally speechless. He’d given his brother’s wife a lot of crap over the years—a reciprocal arrangement that they both mostly enjoyed—although he’d never had anything but the utmost respect for her as a parent. Same for his brother. They loved their kids, were firm but loving, generous but measured, and Seth figured that Sam and Max would be a whole hell of a lot better adjusted than him by the time they were grown men. That Jason and Jodie wanted him to step into their shoes if necessary was both daunting and touching.
He realized Jason was waiting for his response, a small frown between his eyebrows.
“Sorry,” Seth said. “You threw me for a second there. Yes, absolutely. I would happily be guardian to the boys. Whatever you guys need me to do.” There wasn’t a doubt in his mind.
Jason’s expression smoothed out as he sat back in his chair a little. “Good stuff. Great.”
“You didn’t think I’d say no, did you?” Seth was more than a little astonished by the notion.
“No. I know you love the kids. But taking on someone else’s family is a big deal. I wouldn’t blame you for hesitating, given your situation with Lola.”
“Since the odds of anything actually ever happening to you guys is ridiculously small, I’m not going to get too sweaty over it. But you should know that I would do whatever it took to make sure those kids get everything they want and need. As for Lola and the baby...I’d work it out.”
“Good to hear. Thanks, mate. It’s a load off, for sure. I know Jodie will be thrilled to have this all sorted. Assuming, of course, that Vivian is in, too.”
Seth had just taken mouthful of beer and he nearly choked as the meaning of his brother’s words hit home. Because Jason had said “co-guardian,” hadn’t he? Which implied that there was at least one other guardian. And now his brother had mentioned Vivian.
“You’re not seriously thinking of asking Vivian to be guardian, too, are you?” The words were out his mouth before he could think of a better way to phrase his objection.
“Why? You got a problem with Viv?”
“Not with Vivian herself, no. She’s fine—awesome fun—as herself. But as a stand-in
mother?
Are you sure you’ve really thought this through?”