Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2)(41)

"So he's been a good bonus dad?" I'm not sure why I'm asking, it seems pretty clear that he has. It seems pretty clear that Kyle is nothing like I initially thought he was. Kyle might just be the kind of man I claimed I wanted when I went on the dick diet in the first place.

"He is." She nods. "Overprotective, but mostly fair. The teenage years were tough because all of my friends were in love with him." She rolls her eyes. "Like gross, right?"

I visualize being sixteen and one of my friends’ dads looking like Kyle. "So gross." I nod even though that's a lie. I'd have been eyeing the hell out of him at sixteen too.

A three-tiered tray with tiny sandwiches and scones is set on the table. I help myself to one that looks like egg salad. I've never been an afternoon tea kind of person but I can see the appeal.

"Tell me about Margo," I request. I probably shouldn't, but I'm so curious about her. I don't understand how she couldn't make it work with Kyle if she wanted him so badly. He's not even particularly difficult. That I know of.

"Ugh, Margo. So much of their history is from when I was like, a toddler." Kerrigan wrinkles her nose before popping a bit of scone into her mouth.

History. I sorta hate that word. It's so loaded. But it's better than future, I suppose.

"Then they got back together when Kyle came back to Philly,” she continues. "She was around a lot, helping and stuff, but I think Margo needed a lot of attention."

"How so?"

Kerrigan glances around us and leans in, lowering her voice. There's not actually anyone sitting near us so it seems a little unnecessary. "Word on the street is that Margo cheated on Kyle. With Wyatt."

Oh.

"The street?" I raise a brow in question.

"Fine. Word from the family backyard is that Margo cheated on Kyle. With Wyatt. It was a long time ago though," she adds. "It was sometime during my junior year of high school, I remember that much."

She says it like her junior year was ages ago, when it was two years ago. Not a long time when it comes to feelings. Feelings linger like the smell in a teenage boy's bedroom.

"Honestly, it might have been partially my fault. Maybe they'd still be together if not for me."

"How so?" I frown, puzzled that she'd think any of what went on between Kyle and Margo could have been her fault.

"He'd have had more time to devote to Margo if he wasn't raising a teenager, you know?"

Maybe, but I can't imagine it. If Margo cheated on Kyle she deserved to get dumped.

But also, I wonder if I'm foolish to be falling for him. If we'd ever have ended up together if we weren't forced together by some sense of honor on his part. If he'd have ended up back with Margo, or really, anyone he didn't feel forced to be with. He upended his life to take care of his sister, of course he'd do the same for his baby.

"She'll get over him eventually," Kerrigan adds as if that's what I'm worried about. I wasn't really, but I'll add it to the list.

"She works for him though? In the same office?" Now I'm prying. Sue me.

"Oh." Kerrigan shrugs like it's irrelevant. "Well, yeah. But in marketing, I think? There are thousands of employees at the corporate office. They have nothing to do with each other at work. Less than nothing."

That's somewhat appeasing. Kerrigan has a point, with that many employees in one space they likely never even see each other.

"What is it you do? Kyle mentioned you do something in travel?"

"Sorta. I was a tour guide for Sutton Travel for the last few years, but I recently resigned from that job. It was a lot of travel, at least half of every month, and it's not really practical now that... now that I'm married." Now that I'm pregnant, is what I don't say.

"Did you love it?"

"I did." I'm wistful for a moment, remembering the good times. It was always in my plans to leave that job eventually, so I'm not completely bereft about it. "I've also been growing a travel blog for years and it's become a full-time job in and of itself, so I'll be focusing exclusively on that now."

"Fun! I love to travel. I traveled a lot with my parents. Not as much with Kyle but we always go somewhere during my Christmas break. Usually skiing…" She stops abruptly, halfway to taking a bite of a tiny little tart topped with a strawberry. "Of course we don't have to," she says as if she's just realized things have changed a bit. "Maybe you hate skiing, or traveling in winter."

"I've never been skiing, actually. But even if I hated it I'd happily wait at the lodge sipping a cup of hot cocoa while you and Kyle skied. I'm open to whatever sounds fun."

God, I kinda sorta have a stepdaughter. How did this not really occur to me before now? I feel a huge weight of responsibility looking at Kerrigan's eager, worried face. I wonder how Kyle felt taking this on all by himself? Heck, she's eighteen now, so she's an adult. Imagine what he felt when she was just a kid? But she's still just a kid, really. I think of myself at eighteen and imagine how I'd feel if I'd had no parents.

I'd feel lost.

I'm going to be so pregnant this Christmas. I'm due in February, so by December I'll be the size of Tubbs-McGee. Definitely no skiing for me, but I can still fly through December, I think. I nibble on my bottom lip and make a mental note to look this up later while I assure Kerrigan we can all go skiing or make new traditions. She relaxes a bit and I wonder if that's partly what this lunch was about for her. To feel me out, see where she stood in this new family dynamic.