Page 49 of The Woman By the Lake

“Quelle surprise,” I teased.

That got me a genuine smile before he continued, “Also wasn’t sure, with Angelica being Angelica, and that’s not throwing shade, you’ll get me as the story goes along, that it was mine. But I helped out through the pregnancy, and I got a DNA test as soon as I could after Ledger was born, but I didn’t really need it. He looked just like me when I was a baby.”

“As he does now,” I remarked.

“Yeah,” he agreed, and his attention went back to the lake. He let out a big breath and carried on, “But DNA came back as expected, and Angelica took advantage of me falling instantly in love with my kid and talked me into giving it a go. She pushed for marriage. She said it was for Ledger’s sake, but with her, I wasn’t going to make anything legal unless I knew we could hack it.”

Smart decision.

“Me being me,” he carried on, “and her being her, we couldn’t hack it. Us being a thing ended about five months into Ledger’s life, and those were not good months. I moved into the extra bedroom and didn’t move out until he was four years old, mostly for selfish reasons. I didn’t want to miss anything. It also didn’t totally suck, because she’s Angelica, but she’s a good mom, and those years were a lot easier on both of us because we had each other’s backs. So it wasn’t great, but it worked in a way for both of us. More importantly, it worked for Ledger.”

“I can see that,” I noted.

He hesitated a moment before he asked, “Want kids?”

“I used to.”

Another hesitation before he suggested, “How ’bout we hit that when you’re not taking a break from alcohol.”

“Good call,” I replied.

“So,” he thankfully took us off that subject and went back to our other one, “I moved out, and that’s when the fun began.”

“I’m sensing facetiousness,” I remarked.

“You sense correctly,” he affirmed.

“Oh boy,” I repeated.

He did a short head shake with another lip twitch and kept talking.

“It worked for Angelica when I was around, because Angelica could have a part-time job, and even though she loved our boy and looked after him, without me in her bed, she had needs she needed to see to. I got it. Same went for me. The thing was, once I was gone, I was all in to take care of my boy. I made more than her and I wasn’t about to see him suffer when he was with her. But I wasn’t about to make it so she could work sixteen hours a week, take care of our kid some of the time, then pawn him off on her mom and sister, my mom and sister, or some babysitter, and party the rest of the time on my dime.”

“As you shouldn’t,” I stated firmly.

He gave me a small grateful smile at my support and shared, “Fortunately, a judge saw it the same way. She could earn. We never married. We weren’t a couple but for a few months, and we were only for Ledger. She was given a choice. Appropriate child support payments with her contributing financially to the rearing of our son, or she could give up custody and I’d take the full financial burden of raising our boy. She didn’t like that last choice, so she took the first one.”

Another hesitation, before he went back to it.

“Then another condom broke.”

I had begun staring idly at our feet on the coffee table while listening to him, but that brought my gaze to his face.

“No.” I drew that word out.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Another guy who isn’t rolling in it, but he makes real good money. Know the guy, not well, but he’s been around, and I’ve seen him and met him in that time. Though, he was not happy with the surprise of impending fatherhood, and not in a flipped-out way. He straight up wanted nothing to do with it.”

“Shit,” I whispered while he took another sip of his martini.

“Yeah,” he repeated. “He told her to get rid of it. She didn’t. He didn’t support her while she was pregnant and demanded an immediate DNA test when the baby was born. Kid was his, only then did he kick in. Unless you’re a total asshole, you can’t have a kid and not fall for that kid, and he’s not a total asshole, so he fell for the kid. She tried the same thing to get him to help her live free and breezy, including pushing marriage. He had less patience with it than I did, and I had zero patience.”

I pressed my lips tightly together.

“Yeah,” he said once again. “Things were rough for Angelica for a while, and I can’t say I’m thrilled that Ledger has a little brother, who he adores, but he’s only around every other week. Nor am I thrilled that Angelica and her second baby daddy get into it a lot, and sometimes, Ledger sees or hears that shit. But I can’t deny, she really does love her kids, and this guy, his name is Storm, truly isn’t an asshole, and he likes Ledge. So, after Ledge told me what shit was going down, I had a word with Storm to share I wasn’t a fan of him hanging his shit with Angelica on my son, and he promised to pick his times so Ledger and his little brother Viggo didn’t see it.”

“First,” I stated, and tried not to sound judgy, but failed. “Storm?”

Riggs grinned. “It’s a nickname. Like Doc was before I changed it. His real name is James. Lots of talk around how he got his nickname. Some say it’s because he can be broody. Others, mostly women, say it’s about the color of his eyes, which to me are gray, like mine.”

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