Page 55 of The Wedding Driver
Nor his baby’s mother.
He wasn’tthatman.
And he would never be that kind of person.
* * *
“Hey, Doug, do you have a minute?” Foster tossed his work belt into the back of his truck. He glanced at his watch. He had fifteen minutes before heading back to his place, giving him enough time to shower and change so he could make it to the docks in time for the first wedding ride.
“Sure.” Doug jogged across the gravel. “What’s up?” He leaned against the cab, wiping the sweat from his brow. His long dark hair touched the top of his shoulders.
“This will be an awkward conversation I hope we can keep between us.”
“Whatever it is, you don’t have to worry. You can trust me.” Doug nodded.
“This will be a personal question, and if you don’t want to answer, I understand.” Foster squared his shoulders. “When your first wife told you she was pregnant, did you ever consider not getting married? Or not having the baby?”
“No. Why?”
“I didn’t either.” Foster let out a long breath. “But I also hadn’t known we had gone without birth control.”
“Shit. How did that happen? If you don’t mind me asking. I mean, Jim and Stacey’s mom were in high school. They were dumb kids. I was a grown-ass man and our birth control failed.”
“Victoria had a horrible habit of forgetting to take her birth control pills, but she had no problems taking drugs.”
“That’s a tough one,” Doug said.
“Yeah.” Foster nodded. He hadn’t thought this conversation through well since there was no easy segue into the next part, so he was going to toss it out there. “What about the Plan B thing? Could it have been an option for you and Mary or was it too late or did you not want to use it and do you know anything about it?”
Both of Doug’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay, because I can’t imagine you asking if this wasn’t important to your personal life, no, it wasn’t an option. And even if it was, at that time in my life, I thought I loved Mary. I honestly wanted that child, and the whole reason we filed for divorce was that she decided having a family right away wasn’t part of her plan, and then she had an affair. But I have to know why you’re asking.”
“That’s a reasonable request,” Foster said. “Unfortunately, I’m not going to answer that. However, I do have one more question.”
Doug chuckled. “Shoot.”
“Do you know if it’s safe?”
“I have no idea. That would be a question for my wife.” Doug raised his hand. “Who has never taken it, but she’s up on all these female things.” He reached in his back pocket and pulled out his cell. “Hold on one second. I have to take this.” He tapped the screen and held it up to his face. “Hey, pumpkin. How’s daddy’s little girl?”
“Mommy says I have to go fishing tonight. Why do I have to go? I hate fishing.”
Foster did his best not to laugh at the cute sound of the little girl’s voice at the same time it tugged at his heartstrings.
“Because it’s Brandon’s turn to decide what we do on family night. When it’s your turn, he has to do whatever you want.”
“Well, I pick going to the hair salon.”
Doug groaned. “You know that’s not on the approved list, sweetie.”
“Daddy. That’s not fair. Fishing should be on that list.”
“Fishing doesn’t—honey, we’ll talk about this when I get home, which will be in fifteen minutes. Okay.”
“Fine.” The phone went dead.
“How old is your daughter?”
“Nine.” Doug shook his head. “And she’s a little freaking princess. I thought being sandwiched between two boys she’d be all rough and tumble like her mom. Jim is in grandpa heaven because Stacey was never like this. She was a little tomboy and Heidi is all girl. It’s kind of scary. Stacey doesn’t know what to do with her half the time and neither do I. All I know is thank God my wife is still packing because when the boys start coming around, she’s going to scare them all off.”
