Incestuous, much? I grinned.
Ha! Maybe if he’d grown up with us. Honestly, we all knew it would happen eventually, but it took them forever to figure their shit out.
Wait, are they the ones with all the kids?
Right. Sage, Keller, Gavin, Gunner and Iris. The first four are from Shane’s first marriage. Long ass story, don’t ask.
That’s a LOT of kids.
No shit. They make it work though.
What about you? Any kids?
Smooth, Morgan. Nice transition. Jesus, why was I still talking to the guy? Nothing good would come of striking up a friendship with Trevor Harris.
Nope. No kids for me yet. I haven’t found someone I wanted to be with for longer than a few months, so…
Me either. I joked.
Shit, I didn’t mean it that way.
No worries. Etta was the best surprise I’ve ever gotten. Like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one.
I bet. She’s awesome.
When I didn’t reply right away, he texted again.
Let me pull this foot out of my mouth. I’ve always been really sure of the fact that I don’t want to be a part-time dad. I want to be there for everything. So, I haven’t planned any kids, and there haven’t been any unplanned either. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t be happy with any child, no matter if I was with their mother or not.
His attempts to backpedal were admirable, and I couldn’t help but snicker. He hadn’t offended me. I knew the way Etta had been conceived wouldn’t have been the ideal situation for most people. I’d just been glad she was, so I tried not to think about it.
I get it. LOL
I do want kids, though. Eventually.
Clock’s ticking.
You just told me to be patient!
Not too patient.
Now you sound like my mom.
Ouch.
Nah, I love my mom so that’s a good thing.
Mama’s boy, huh?
And not ashamed to admit it.
I grinned at his response. Our texts had been flying back and forth so fast that I hadn’t realized my show was over and my coffee had grown cold. Yeah, I was one of those people who drank coffee at night. It was more of a comfort thing for me than a caffeine fix. My dad always drank black coffee and it reminded me of home the way other people said hot chocolate gave them similar comfort. I didn’t have any little-kid hot-chocolate memories.
I know you’re working all week so I think I’m going to head home tomorrow.
The smile fell off my face even though I knew it was definitely a good thing that Trevor was leaving so Etta and I could get back to our normal lives.
I’ll come back down to visit as soon as I can—maybe I could bring my mom and we could plan it so you have some days off?
Sure, sounds good.
I’ll text you.
I didn’t bother with a reply. I could already feel myself shutting down and shutting him out. It wasn’t anything he’d done or hadn’t done. I’d just always had the habit of fitting people into their little boxes. I’d developed the habit as I’d shifted in and out of foster homes. Being able to leave people behind, the good ones and the bad ones, and not think of them again had been the only way I’d survived the moves. If Trevor was leaving the next day it was time to put his box on the shelf until I had to deal with it again. It was easier that way. Besides, I’d known the minute he’d shown up at my door—his expression a mixture of nervousness and hope—that I wouldn’t let Trevor Harris upend our lives.
Chapter 7
Trevor
Mom,” I groaned in exasperation. “I hear you. I told you she hadn’t texted back yet, and she still hasn’t. I’ll tell you when I know anything.”
I’d been home for a little over two weeks and my mom was already itching to take a trip to California to see little Etta. I understood her impatience, but there wasn’t really anything I could do to speed things up.
Morgan and I had texted a little after the day we’d met, but that contact had tapered off pretty quickly. I wasn’t sure if she’d just been humoring me for a while, or if she was crazy busy now, but she wasn’t returning my texts with any sort of efficiency. She wasn’t completely ignoring them, sometimes writing back a day later, sometimes not until two days later, but I could tell she didn’t want to talk to me.
I was surprised. I’d gotten the impression that we’d gotten along pretty well. I thought she’d liked me. However, I wasn’t about to tell my mom, who was waiting on pins and needles, that Morgan had decided that she didn’t want anything to do with me but seemed too polite to ignore me completely.
Morgan had agreed to let my parents get to know Etta, and she hadn’t told me she’d changed her mind. That was the important thing, no matter how she seemed to be acting toward me now.