Page 25 of Hero for the Holidays

She closed her eyes. “It’s all I wanted. That’s all I wanted for her.”

“I want what’s best for her,” he said, his voice raw. “Fia, I know I messed some of this up, and I know my anger is tangled in it. But I haven’t told anyone, because I felt like we needed to talk first, and I felt like she needed to know before anyone in my family did.”

“I didn’t tell anyone either.” She breathed out, hard. Long. “Even if you can’t understand me, I need you to trust that I want the best for her.”

He nodded. “Yes. If you trust it’s what I want too.”

It was like the anger was siphoned from the room. Maybe not from them, but it didn’t pulse between them like a monster anymore. At least not now. Could they do this? Could they actually call a truce and do this?

They needed to. They had to.

“Here we are. Split up and parenting a kid together. This was one of the things I wanted to avoid.”

“Yes, same. Also, everyone being in our business, I suppose.”

That was like a swift kick. “Yeah. Because everyone will be,” she said.

“Yeah. Great. So. Let’s go talk to Lila.”

She nodded slowly. “Let’s go talk to Lila.”

CHAPTER FIVE

THEYDROVESEPARATELY. He was all for presenting a united front with her, and he wasn’t going to take cheap shots at her in front of their kid. The truth was, they were going to have to figure out how to co-parent, and that meant dealing with each other. And it meant dealing with this long-held bitterness.

He had to admit that letting her tear into him, and him spitting back some of his own venom had felt good.

But now they had to actually go and see the kid. And they needed to hold it together.

And he would. For Lila. He had practice with that.

He gritted his teeth and pulled his truck up to the small house, and Fia did the same. They got out, and with a healthy distance between them, they walked into the house.

Only to discover that Lila wasn’t back yet.

He shot a text to Denver.

Are you guys almost done with dinner?

Soon. Leaving in ten.

Great.

Now Denver was going to see Fia’s car. Oh well. It was all going to come out; maybe it was going to be a little bit messy. There was nothing he could do about it. He had been deluding himself into thinking that it was all going to go according to some sort of plan. That it was all going to follow on easily. He had really hoped for that. But when had life ever been accommodating enough to do that?

Fia looked around the space. It was clean. Mostly. There were some dishes in the sink. And he wondered if she judged him for that.

But hell. She’d never had a kid before.

Not that he had tons of experience with it.

“This is...nice. You moved out of the main house.”

“Yes. Moved out of the main house to give Lila her own space. She’s eating dinner with the family right now. I expected that Denver was going to have her back.”

“It’s good that she gets along with everybody.”

“Yeah. It’s been good. Whatever you think about my family, about my dad, my siblings are good people.”

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