Page 82 of Push

His eyes flicked back from the horizon, his frown tugging into a sympathetic smile. “You seem like you need a friend.”

Ouch. “I don’t have a lot of friends right now.” Orany.

“Well, you’ve got a new one. Token Dad is recruiting. We can be the Dad Duo.”

Christ, maybe wewouldget matching tracksuits.

Zach waggled his eyebrows above his glasses, grinning as he stretched his arms in a half-assed warm-up. “Ready to run?”

“Born ready.” I started jogging ahead, but he didn’t keep pace beside me. “Areyou?”

“Uh, not exactly.” He grunted a few huffs as he caught up. “I’m into outdoor stuff. Rock climbing. Kayaking. I take the kids to the beach a lot. As for running… It’s not really my thing. My ideal pace is the equivalent of my grandpa pushing his wheelie walker in a lap around the retirement home.”

I laughed. “You’ve got enough gray up top to be convincing.”

“Piss off.” He smirked at me over his shoulder. “My wife says the silver around the temples isdistinguished.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, man.”

“A silver fox, even.”

“Uh-huh.”

Grins plastered on both our faces, we jogged along the path, shooting the breeze about not much at all, mostly sports or sharing tips about how to fix shit around the house. So, when Zach threw a tricky question out of nowhere, it caught me off guard.

“How are your parents handling the separation?” he asked.

“My mum…” A sour taste flooded my mouth. The memory of my mother’s past rants churned in my gut. “Family’s a tough one for us, even without the separation. Gwen and I, yeah… I guess we’ve always been on our own.”

“That’s a lot of pressure if it’s just the two of you against the world.”

I sighed. “Now, it’s not even the two of us. Life feels impossible without Gwen. And it’s the dumbest stuff that makes me miss her the most sometimes, you know? The other day, the girls at work were raving about a true crime podcast, and I wanted to tell Gwen about it so bad. She likes that kind of stuff.”

“How are you handling living on your own?”

“Honestly? Not great. You probably won’t believe me because of the shit I did, but I love Gwen. Not being there…not seeing her every day…” I couldn’t finish that train of thought. The tears were ready and waiting behind my eyes, but there was no way Iwas crying in front of Zach. “I hate being away from Noah. We used to have bro time every night when I got off work. I miss that.”

“Ask for that time. It’s cliché, mate, but he’ll grow up in the blink of an eye. My daughter’s three going on thirty, and she informed me with her hands on her hips that she can brush herowndangteeth, thank you very much.” He swiped at the beads of sweat on his forehead but never stopped smiling. “Will you get some bro time with Noah when Gwen starts work?”

“Yeah. I wrangled a day off work where I get to be Numero Dad-o, and I’ve even talked Gwen into letting me do a few of the daycare drop-offs and pick-ups. I think she’s secretly relieved I offered, though. The only place I could get Noah into on short notice was across town. The peak-hour traffic’s going to be hell.”

Zach’s smile was tight, but it had nothing to do with the grunt of effort it took him to run up the hill. Something wasn’t right. He had a thinking face like Gwen.

The anxious tug in my chest slowed me to a jog a step or two behind him. “All good, man?”

“Yeah… Just…” He sighed. “It’s not my place.”

“Spit it out. I’ve given you heaps of shit about your hair. Feel free to say whatever’s on your mind.”

“I guess I just see a lot of my old self in Gwen. Us lawyers… Eh. We’re a broken bunch. Working too much. Expecting too much of ourselves.Perfectionists.”

I nodded. Zach had explained my beautiful wife to a T. “Gwen’s hard on herself.” I sighed. “Too hard.”

“She’ll burn herself out.”

Talk about stating the obvious. “I know.” My biggest fear was that Gwen would dig her heels in and try to juggle long hours like she used to work, but… “Work is one of those topics that always ends up in an argument for us. Gwen loves being a lawyer, and she’s so damn good at it, but…”

“It comes at a cost?”

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