Page 59 of His to Love
“Take the side of the Soliz family,” she stated.
“I’m not taking their side, honey. I’m thinking about our son.” There was a difference.
“I see it as you taking their side. Because if you were thinking about our son, then you would want him to have nothing to do with those people.” Her dark brows raised high as her hands moved to rest on her hips. “So, you need to think about this, Patton, and think hard. Is that boy yours or Alejandro’s? You have to make up your mind. I’d rather you do it sooner than later, too. I need to know what to expect in the future. And if we have one with you or not.”
The wind left my lungs. “You’d leave me over this?”
“This marriage hasn’t been consummated yet,” her chin jutted out stubbornly. “If we’re not on the same page about our son, then I don’t see the need to stay together. I won’t have that family in his life. Are you with me or against me? I’ll leave you to think about it.” Then she turned and walked away.
Standing there breathless and lost, I watched her walk away.What have I done?
Five minutes rolled by before I caught my breath, and my mind began working again. I had to talk to someone who would be honest with me, not tell me only what I wanted to hear.
So, I called my older brother Baldwyn. “You on your way over with my nephew yet?” he answered my call.
“Not yet. Maybe not at all.”
“You sound weird.”
I felt weird. “Alexa and I just had a fight. I mean, a really bad one. And I’m not sure if she even wants to be married to me anymore.”
“Good God man, what did you do?”
“I—well, I said some things maybe I shouldn’t have.” I hadn’t seen this coming at all. “She’s mad at me. Like furious.”
“What the hell happened?” he asked. “She was happy as could be when she talked to Sloan earlier today.”
“The Soliz kid was here when she came back from the doctor,” I told him as I tried to wrack my brain as to how I was going to deal with this issue.
“Did you kick his ass? I sure hope so.” Baldwyn wasn’t a fighting man, so I had no idea why he’d say such a thing.
“Why would I kick his ass?”
“For so many reasons,” he said. “Reason number one, he came to your home. Reason number two, he hurt the woman you love.”
“I wasn’t in love with her when he did that,” I reminded him. “And he came to our home because his father saw us at the hospital and told him about the baby. I’d felt sort of guilty since then. But when I told Alexa about how I felt, she got mad. Not nearly as mad as she is now, but she did get mad.”
“If she got mad then, what made you think she wouldn’t get mad now?” He seemed to have all the questions prepared in advance. “And what did you do or say to piss her off anyway?”
“Well, I sort of said that we had to face the fact that one day we’ll have to tell Patty about his biological father and that family.” I didn’t see anything wrong with that, and I waited to see if my brother found anything wrong with it.
“Why would you have to tell him anything about those people?”
Crap. He thinks the same way Alexa does.
“You don’t think it’s important to be honest with him?” I thought he, of all people, would think honesty was the best policy.
“I’m not saying that it always has to be a secret. But while he’s an impressionable kid, he doesn’t need to know about them. It’ll only confuse him,” he said with what sounded like conviction in his voice. “Once he’s older, maybe. Then that’ll be something you and Alexa might think about talking to him about. Until then, it needs to be kept under wraps—for Patty’s sake. No reason to go confusing the boy. It sounds like you need to keep it hush-hush for Alexa’s sake too. It doesn’t sound like something she’s ready to parse out right now.”
“But I don’t think Alexaeverwants to tell him,” I said as I started thinking that maybe I had been a little bit wrong to make a big deal out of this right now.
“The future is the future. Who knows what anyone will think by that time? He’ll be grown and you two will have weathered a few storms as well. You have no idea what will happen. But for now, just be that boy’s father—and only you. That guy isn’t in any shape to take on the role of daddy. Not from what I’ve heard about him. He’s a selfish jerk. You want to have him co-parenting your kid, Patton?”
“No.” I hadn’t thought about that. “Not at all. He’s a young punk with no idea if he’s coming or going. You’re right. I was wrong. I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. I should’ve just had my wife’s back and never brought up what went through my mind.”
“Yep,” he agreed. “Look, I’m your brother and I know how caring and soft-hearted you can be. Do you remember that puppy that showed up on our street when we were kids?”
“Yeah, Bones. That was what I called him.” I recalled the small mixed breed well.
