The After of Us (Judge Me Not #4)(12)

I finally get her out of bed, but she refuses to change her clothes. I throw up my hands. “Whatever, I give up.”

With all the confusion, we end up running late. There’s no time for me to make breakfast, so I take us through a fast food drive-thru on the way to the lab.

Lily spills juice in my new BMW and gets hash brown crumbs everywhere, but I bite my tongue. She’s behaving for the moment, so why rock the boat?

Before we head into the lab, and while I’m unbuckling her seat belt, she informs me, “That was fun. I never sit in a car like a grown-up before.”

“Oh, shit.” I need to get a car seat, like, as soon as possible.

“You swore.” Lily giggles.

I’m batting a thousand at this dad thing. Not.

Lily is great in the lab; she thinks getting her cheek swabbed is a blast. Nash gives her a lollipop afterward, and she’s content with that while I get my own cheek swabbed.

Nash informs me before I leave that he’ll rush the results. “I could have them as early as this evening,” he tells me. “If so, I’ll give you a call. But, dude…” He lowers his voice to a whisper, so Lily doesn’t hear. “…that kid looks too much like you not to be yours. Check out her eyes.”

Sighing, I say, “I know. I did.”

Lily looks up at me then, lips stained purple from the grape lollipop. I can’t help but smile. “What, Daddy?” she asks.

Again with the daddy thing, though it is growing on me.

I shake my head. “It’s nothing, sweetheart.” I take her small hand in mine. “You ready to go?”

She nods and blinks up at me with those all-too-familiar greens.

Nash calls that night, and it’s no surprise at all when he says, “Lily’s definitely yours, man.”



So, I, without a doubt, have a kid. The lab results confirm what I already knew in my heart. Still, this makes it undisputable.

I call Chase.

“Hey,” I say—too enthusiastically, probably—as soon as he answers. “How was your flight back to Ohio last weekend?”

I’m not one to call and ask about shit like this, so Chase is immediately suspicious. He knows I’m a sneak.

“Uh, it was good,” he says slowly. “Jack and Sarah were surprisingly well-behaved, even though we had a long delay in Dallas.”

“Ah, yeah,” I drone on as I try to put off the inevitable. “That’s where your connecting flight went through, right?”

Chase sighs. “Will, what’s going on?”

He knows me all too well.

“Uh, I got something I need to ask you.”

“Shoot.”

“Would it be okay with you if I flew out to Harmony Creek tomorrow? You know, to visit with you guys?”

“Uh—”

I speak right over my brother, lest he quash my plan before he hears all of it. “I was thinking maybe we could spend my last day and a half of freedom hanging out and shit. You know, like old times?”

Chase hesitates, surely suspicious, but eventually says, “Yeah, sure, Will. Though I thought you were planning to fly into New York City early to look at apartments? Don’t you start the new job this Monday?”

I blow out a breath. This may be harder to pull off than I imagined.

“Yeah, yeah, I do, that’s true.” I nod, even though Chase can’t see me. “But, I figure Mom has me booked at a hotel for however long I want. So, there’s no real rush to find a place to live. Besides…” My voice goes up a notch as I feign excitement. “…I’d much rather spend some quality time with my brother and his awesome family.”

Like that doesn’t sound shady.

Surprisingly, Chase buys it.

He must be tired, probably worn out from his kids. Now that I see how exhausting one can be, I can only imagine what it’d be like dealing with two little people who seem to need something every sec.

“Okay. Sounds great, Will,” Chase says. “It’ll be nice to see you again before you get too bogged down with work.”

He sounds so sincere that I start to feel like a real dick.

“Yeah, exactly what I was thinking.” Hurriedly, I add, “So, anyway, my flight is due to arrive sometime around dinner.”

“What?” Chase sounds shocked. “You mean you already booked a flight?”

“Uh, yeah. Is that okay? I guess I was counting on you being cool with me visiting.”

“Of course it’s fine, Will. I’m just a little surprised, that’s all.” Chase sighs. “So, do you want me to pick you up at the airport?”

Hell, I definitely don’t want Chase coming to the airport. Best to spring Lily on him at his house, with Kay around, so she can keep him calm.

“No. I’ll just rent a car,” I reply as nonchalantly as I can muster “Okay, then. Guess we’ll see you tomorrow, Will.”

Yeah, they sure will. I just hope my brother doesn’t kill me when he finds out I have a daughter…and that I plan to leave her with him and his family for the entire summer.





Will



Who knew traveling with a kid could be so, uh, challenging. It seems like Lily needs something every ten minutes.

“Daddy, I’m hungry.”