Page 84 of Don't Remind Me
“It’s not always past tense,” I admitted.
He glanced at Oliver and resumed rocking. “Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I saw how they treated you differently. I just didn’t think you cared.”
“I tried not to. It’s why I left, though. Why I never really came back. I shouldn’t have leftyoubehind, though. That’s what I’m sorry for.”
He watched his son for a minute, thinking. Then he nodded and raised his arms out to me. “Want to hold him?”
My pulse sped up. “What?”
“You haven’t yet, right?”
“I…are you sure?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure. You’re his uncle.”
I swallowed. “Okay.”
He stood carefully and walked over to where I sat, then placed the bundle that was my nephew in my arms.
He weighed almost nothing. A squished little forehead and cheeks stuck out from the blankets, all red and splotchy. His face reminded me of a potato, to be honest, but I kept that to myself. Potato or not, he was still the greatest thing I’d ever seen.
“Hey, Oliver,” I whispered, pulling him in close. “I’m your Uncle Jase.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Dani
“I’m sorry, you’re out.”
The camera panned away from Heidi Klum’s solemnly sculpted face to the designer who had just been eliminated. She nodded her acceptance as the other designer left the runway, looking more shocked than she did. The designer who’d been sent home had beencrushingit for weeks and was a favorite to win the whole season, but this week she’d choked, and like Heidi always said, in fashion, one week you’re in, and the next, you’re out.
The show cut to the back room where the rest of the contestants waited, and the eliminated designer walked in to say her tearful goodbyes. A moment later, Tim Gunn showed up to escort her back to the sewing room to pack up her things…or so we thought.
“I’m using my Tim Gunn Save…”
“I knew it,” I said aloud, sprawled on my couch in a tank top and sleep shorts. I’d been in practically the same position all day, only getting up to occasionally run to the bathroom or get a snack. On any other Monday, I would have been coming home from work right now, and I savored the luxury of being utterly lazy instead. Like playing hooky only better because I’d been ordered to be lazy today, which meant I didn’t need to feel guilty about it.
My phone buzzed, and I snatched it off the coffee table, expecting to see a text from Robin demanding I get off my butt and meet her for a drink. I’d been messaging her a play-by-play of all the juicyProject Runwaydrama throughout the day, even though it was years old at this point and honestly not that juicy, but that was part of the fun. It was low stakes. Nothing I had to think too hard about or get too emotionally involved in. Just pretty dresses and petty designers.
But the text wasn’t from Robin.
Jase:I heard you drove my brother to the hospital.
My heart lurched. I hadn’t expected to hear from him this soon.
Me:I wasn’t confident he’d find his way in a cab. He was pretty frazzled.
Jase:Oh, I know. Yesterday he tried to use his gym ID at a vending machine that didn’t even accept cards.
I grinned, bubbles erupting in my chest like a can of seltzer that had been shaken. Not at the story itself so much as the fact that Jase was texting me about Alec like it was no big deal. Like he was just Jase’s brother and not some inflated Christmas decoration the size of a house standing between us.
Jase:He’s a dad now, btw.
The next message was a picture of Jase sitting in a hospital recliner holding a baby, and I’d never been much of a baby person, but holy shit, was it the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
