Page 79 of Better Daddy

For the past few months, I’ve consciously put concerns about Sloane’s pregnancy out of my mind. Yes, she suffered from preeclampsia the first time around and ended up on bed rest. Yes, her blood pressure spiked so high it became dangerous to her own health. But that doesn’t mean it will happen again, and there’s no sense in worrying about the unknown.

The fear that gripped me when there was a chance I could lose my wife, especially after her placenta ruptured and she was rushed in for an emergency C-section, kept me from being eager to have another baby. However, I could never regret the surprise blessing we’ve been given. This little peanut is special not only becausethey’re a physical representation of our love, but because this tiny being has given me hope that our family will be okay. Hope I’d almost given up on.

I nod, not wanting to talk about how terrifying the risks are any more than I want to share my worries about Sloane’s silence. “What were you saying?”

“Will you sign this complaint? That way we can get these two women divorced.” She flings the pages at me.

I frown at the names that come into focus. “Did you find someone for them to sleep with?”

Lo glares daggers at me.

Bloody hell. That was not the right thing to say.

“Of course you didn’t.” I rough a hand down my face. “What am I saying?”

She doesn’t take her green eyes off me until I’m squirming in my chair. Damn, this woman is something. I don’t understand how my brother doesn’t shrink into the floor in front of her when she looks at him like that. And she does. Often. He’s full of utter nonsense.

“Lola.”

Her eyes soften slightly at the sound of Cal’s voice. Ah, yes. That’s why he’s still alive—she loves him.

“Lo-la,” he chants again, appearing at the door to my office. “You’ll never guess who came for a holiday.”

“Who?” Lo’s red hair falls over her shoulder as she tips her head.

“Mum!” Cal is wearing a smile, but his eyes are screaminghelp me! Help me!as he drags the tall, thin, dark-haired woman who raised us into view.

I know the feeling. There’s nothing more terrifying than a visit from dear old Mum.

Her blue eyes light up upon seeing me, but before we can greet each other, Lo turns and steps between us.

“Ms. Murphy. What a surprise.” Lo’s tone is formal, like she’s talking to a client and not her boyfriend’s mother.

It makes sense. Lo and our father were close. She was practicallya daughter to him, and Mum and Dad’s relationship was bloody awful from about the time Cal was born until the day Dad died.

“My dear.” My mother gives her a tight smile.

My brother’s eyes flash with a foreign kind of anger. Cal is the definition of happy-go-lucky. If he’s peeved off, then our mother better be very careful. He might be the friendliest of blokes most of the time, but if she says one unflattering thing about Lo, I have no doubt she’ll be booted from the office in the blink of an eye.

Mum assesses Lo, her expression pinched. “You look lovely.” Without waiting for a response, she rounds the desk, headed for me.

But I’m frozen in horror. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Nothing annoys Sloane more than my mother’s tendency to show up unannounced.

The surprise aspect of her visits is especially maddening, considering that she lives across the pond. One would think she might drop us a line before she hops an international flight, but they’d be wrong.

Sloane and I have made incredible strides over the last few months, but suddenly, the ground beneath us feels shaky again, and this little surprise might be enough to lead us to an epic disaster.

“Mother.” I force myself to my feet and greet her with a kiss on the cheek. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

She smacks my chest. “Don’t be so stiff, Sully. I came to see my family.”

That’s hard to believe. Though we lived with her in England when we were children, she had very little time for us. Nor did she have much interest unless it was to tell us how awful our father was. She always had time for that.

Her eyes drift over my shoulder. “Plus, I must meet the woman who finally captured my little boy’s heart.”

“I’m thirty-two,” Cal grumbles from the doorway.

Lo giggles. “But only five at heart.”