Boss Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance by Black, L. (big screen ebook reader txt) 📗

I hooked up the streaming stick to get something on while I put away my clothes in the closet. It was a studio, so everything was in one big room, aside from the bathroom and the closet on one wall. I preferred it that way if I was alone. I could see everything. If I woke up in the middle of the night, there were no rooms for me to assume someone was in. Less broken doorknobs that way.

I had only just started getting my clothes in the closet when my phone rang. I ran to grab it off the nightstand where it sat charging, hoping it was and simultaneously hoping it wasn’t Hannah. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to have fun with her over the phone. But I didn’t want to hear that distance in her voice, that hesitation of knowing that I wanted her there with me and she didn’t want to come.

Instead, Tom’s name flashed across the screen. I swiped to open it and cleared my throat.

“Hey, Tom.”

“Jordan, what’s up? I saw you called,” he said.

“You know, I don’t really remember why I called,” I lied. Suddenly with him on the phone with me, it didn’t make any sense to talk to him about it. I couldn’t tell him about Hannah being pregnant right after I signed a lease on an apartment. What was he going to do? How could he fix it? He couldn’t. All it would do is put him in an awkward position and make him feel guilty.

“Oh,” Tom said. “Because I heard your voicemail and it seemed like you wanted to speak to me about something important. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” I paused. How much was I willing to lie to my brother? How much was I willing to lie to myself? “I’m just missing home, I think. Not used to not having everyone around. Look, I’ve got to get going. I still need a shower before I head into the bar.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment. “Alright,” he said, finally. “If there was something going on, you could tell me, you know.”

“I know.”

“Well, if you happen to remember what it was,” Tom said, “just call me back on the cell. If I don’t answer, call the office number and have them page me.”

“Will do,” I said. “Thanks, Tom.”

“Sure. Have a good one,” he said, and I hung up.

I stood staring at the closet for a few moments before tossing the hanger back on the air mattress and going to the door to put on my shoes. I was halfway down the street before I realized exactly what it was I was doing. I was knocking on Matt’s door before I knew what I was going to say.

“Hey,” Matt said as he opened the door. His expression fell from pleasantly surprised to worried when he got a look at my face. “What’s going on, dude?”

“Can I come in?”

“Mi casa, su casa, come on,” he said, and I walked inside. He shut the door behind me as I paced in his living room. “Jordan, what’s going on, man?”

“I think… I think I need to take a few days off to get my stuff. Like, really pack it all up and just make the move up here, you know? Looking around my room, it was nuts, man. I can’t live with air mattresses and a futon. I need to just bite the bullet and move up here, like you did.” The words all spilled out of me without much of a breath between them. Matt stared at me with his hands on his hips. It was his Superman stance, and I used to make fun of him for it all the time. Anytime he was presented with something he didn’t know how to handle, he stood like he was a superhero and waited until he figured it out.

“Sure,” he said finally. “I think I can handle that. Do you need to leave now?”

“No, I can close tonight. I think I’ll leave in the morning, though,” I said.

“Alright,” Matt said. “I can handle that. No problem. We have a good staff. I should make it a couple days without you, but you better come back.”

I laughed. “I will.” I didn’t know if I believed it, but I said it anyway.

Later that night, I helped close the bar with little fanfare. Business was down from the past week or so, but still busy. The novelty of being brand-new had mostly worn off. Matt didn’t seem worried, so I didn’t stress it. I had other things to do.

That night, more so than any of the others, I had a hard time sleeping. When I did, I felt like I could smell Hannah’s skin beside me, and I slept like a rock. But I kept waking up to her not being there beside me on the rapidly deflating mattress and struggled to go back to sleep.

36 Hannah

I put down my paintbrush and took a step back so I could take in the entire mural. A smile came to my face. It was finally finished. I had to admit, there were a few moments there when it felt a little touch and go. So much had been going on in my life, I worried I might not be able to accomplish what I hoped I would when the library asked me to do the piece.

But I kept pushing through, and I had finally just put the final strokes in place. It wasn’t what I had in mind when I first started. Things changed, and my plans grew and altered as the weeks in Astoria marched on. It felt like the longer I lived there and the more I got to know the town, the better I was able to understand what I was creating.

Aside from that, it resembled what I’d first concocted when I was making the sketches. It felt like so long ago that I saw looking at a blank wall