“Carter Hayes,” Della snaps. “Don’t you dare touch Christopher. I just got him to sleep.”
“But you just handed him to Rhett?” Carter says with a look of confusion.
“Because he is the only other person whose arms our children will sleep in. The second you touch them, they wake up and then I have to start all over again.”
I smirk at Carter as he takes the beer from Della.
Then I start to smell something just as Christopher begins to wiggle in my arms.
“Oh, hell no. Take your kid,” I say as I dart up and pass him to Carter. “I draw the line at changing diapers.”
I take a few steps back, almost falling over the chair I was sitting in, which makes everyone burst out laughing.
“Scared of getting your hands dirty?” Miss Sebastian teases me.
∞∞∞
By the time I get back to the hotel, I’m exhausted. Mia and Logan offered to stay with them, but as much as I love my niece, I don’t want to be woken by her crying every few hours.
I rented out my place when I moved to LA. Everyone thinks it’s because I wanted to help Jaxson and Marcus set up the new business, but it’s because Evie is there.
I haven’t seen or spoken to her in… fuck, I think it’s been six years. Yeah, I last saw her when I was twenty-two. I turned twenty-eight last month.
Damn, it still feels like yesterday though. Marcus tends to drop something about Evie here and there, and it’s pathetic how I’ve become dependent on him just so I know what’s happening in her life.
It’s small stuff.
“I hear Evie’s doing okay.”
“Evie’s still single.”
He will whisper it when walking past me, or while we’re getting coffee in the mornings. I’ll just nod, so he knows that I’ve heard him.
Like I said, it’s pathetic. If I were half the man I claim to be, I’d be knocking on her door and making her mine.
But I’m not the man everyone thinks I am.
I’ve become the man I used to warn Mia about. I spend my Saturdays at an exclusive club where I fuck random strangers. Lately even that’s starting to lose its appeal.
With all my friends settled down, I’m forced to face the horrible truth that I’m alone because I let the only woman I’ll ever love walk out of my life.