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She shrugs. “Maybe a little jealousy will be good for him.”

I don’t like the idea of her wanting to make him jealous. It bothers me, but I’d do right to let it go. “I need to get going,” I say quietly, my eyes still on her. The moment lingers, charged with a current that shouldn’t be there.

“Same.”

I trail my fingers along her cheek, her skin like silk beneath my touch, before I force my hand to fall. “Are you sure I can’t convince you to go to the hospital?”

“Absolutely not. I’ll take care of it. I promise.”

I frown, hating how I’m not in a position to demand she go. Or take her myself. I’m already on borrowed time.

“Right then. I’ll let you get to it since I’m late, and I know you are too. Cheers. I’ll ring you later to check on your wrist, yeah?”

“Sure.”

I smirk at herwhateverexpression. “You’re blowing me off? Are you already breaking up with me and I’m too blind to see it? We just got together.” I hold a wounded hand to my chest. I’m very late and I have to go, but for some reason, I don’t want to leave her. I don’t want to stop talking to her or looking at her. I’ve missed her, I realize, and for that reason alone, I should go, yet I’m still here, grinning like a loon.

She smiles, the glow of the street lamps dancing in her pretty green eyes. “I’m definitely breaking up with you. I don’t even know who you are, let alone what your name is.”

I belt out a laugh. “True. I can’t argue that. Ironically, that was the longest relationship of my life.”

“That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I doubt that.” I check my watch again. “Buggar. Which way are you headed?”

She points to my right.

“I’m going this way.” I point straight ahead.

I step forward and wrap my arms around her, and for a moment, I allow myself to breathe in the sweet scent of her hair. To appreciate how perfect she feels in my arms. But I don’t allow myself to linger.

My cold hand cups her cheek. “It was really good to see you, Keegan.”

She gives me a half smile. “You too.”

“Dada! Dada!” a small voice calls out, and my head flies up just as Fenric, all bundled up with red cheeks staining his face, comes barreling down the slippery sidewalk headed straight for me. And running behind him is Tinsley. Crap.

“Dada?” Keegan questions, her head flipping back and forth like a ping-pong ball between the two of us as I make a quick adjustment and catch my little boy at full speed, swooping him up into my arms and kissing his cold, runny nose. “Did he just call you, Dada?”

Fear grips my lungs, and I hold him closer to me before I meet her shocked green eyes and answer, “Yes.”

I watch her closely, a myriad of emotions and questions flickering over her face. What Keegan doesn’t know is that her LA trip was more than just her coming for a visit and me resisting her in the name of friendship and doing the right thing.

It was when I got the call about Fenric.

And with it, the trajectory of my life has veered drastically off course. In the blink of an eye, one phone call, all these months later, and still nothing is settled. Nothing is calm. Everything is a clusterfuck ofJesus Christ, how is this my life, andhow can I hold on just a little longerandwhat the absolute fuck am I going to do now? I wasn’t lying when I told her my life was a mess.

A mess is an understatement.

It’s almost a laughable term.

My life is a runaway train barreling down the tracks headed straight for a building loaded with TNT, like in those old cartoons I used to watch as a kid.

I glance over at Tinsley, who is staring apologetically at me, and back over to Keegan, who is completely flummoxed. She looks as though she’s attempting to solve quadratic equations and coming up short. It’d be adorable if the situation wasn’t so fucked up.

“Hey, Keegs.” Tinsley greets her nervously, but Keegan doesn’t even hear her.

“He’s your son? You have a son?” she asks, disbelief heavy in her tone. “How is that even possible?”