Chapter 18
Kaden
Isla grips her father’s hair in her tiny fist, the strength of it almost impressive for a three-month-old baby. She nearly yanks out a few strands between her small, chubby fingers, and I laugh as Jason does his best not to wince from the pain.
“Ow, my sweet girl. Can you please let go of daddy’s hair? That hurts.”
She coo’s and ahh’s at his request, but doesn’t ease up, instead, she grips and pulls it harder.
“Help a brother out, will ya?” he groans at me, and I can’t help but chuckle.
“Alright, little rebel,” I murmur, gently prying her fingers from his short strands. “Wouldn’t want to add another bold spot to your dad’s already thinning hair,” I tease, a mocking smile curling my lips.
He goes to swing a half-hearted jab at my ribs, but I quickly dodge it, laughing again as he misses.
Isla finally releases her father’s hair, and I swear I catch a flicker of mischief curve across her cheeks, like she already enjoys taunting her dad. I lift her in front of me and pull a ridiculous face, and she rewards me with an adorable, gummy smile.
She’s the perfect blend of Jason and Mila—her mother’s smile and dark curls mixed with her father’s nose and mossy green eyes.
Isla’s conception came as a complete surprise.
Jason and Mila had only just moved in together, and Jason’s ex-wife’s court case was still unfolding when Mila discovered she was pregnant.
The timing may not have been ideal, but Isla was loved—deeply and without question, from the moment she existed.
And watching my best friend step into fatherhood for the second time is a joy I know I’ll never grow tired of.
“I’ll put her down for her nap, and then we can talk,” Jason says as he stands.
I nod and gently pass the baby to him. She curls into his arms immediately, rubbing at her eyes as a yawn slips free.
The small, familiar gesture reminds me so much of Ari—how she used to grow heavy with sleep, and how I’d carry her to her cot and linger, watching as she drifted off.
She’d always been an easy sleeper, out the moment her head met the mattress.
She’d be about twenty-months now—a toddler, walking and talking, no doubt getting into all kinds of mischief.
It’s been more than a year and a half since I last saw her, but every now and then, she finds her way back to me in the quiet moments when I’m holding Isla, or when I catch sight of a baby out in public.
I quickly shake the thoughts away before the ache in my chest can fully settle—still there, but softer now, no longer as sharp as it once was.
Jason walks back into the living room minutes later, having now changed into a fresh shirt and tracksuit pants.
He looks exhausted, like he could use a nap himself, courtesy of life with a newborn, but he insists he’s fine.
All he wants is a boys’ night in after taking a few weeks off work to help Mila care for the baby.
Chris, Jason’s bar manager at the restaurant, is joining us tonight to watch the footy, eat pizza and knock back a few beers, or in my case, nurse a couple of non-alcoholic drinks.
I’ve been sober for the past fifteen months. The last time I had a drink was around last June. Though my sessions with Dr. Carroll have eased from weekly to fortnightly, I’m doing surprisingly well.
The urge to drink has all but vanished; if anything, the thought of alcohol now twists my stomach, a sharp reminder of how far I’ve come, and how far I still intend to go.
“When will Mila be back from the night markets with Jake?” I ask.
“In a few hours. She’s taking him to the movies afterwards—just wanting a little extra time with him. She feels guilty that the past few weeks have been all about the baby and doesn’t want him to feel left out or ignored.”
“She’s such an amazing mum.”
“She’s incredible—with both our kids. It comes so naturally to her, and she surprises me more each day with how well she’s managing everything. I can’t fucking wait to marry her.”
It had only been a week ago, when Jason popped the question to Mila in their backyard.
He blindfolded her and led her along a trail of rose petals to the far end of the pool, where a large, glowing Marry Me sign stood waiting.
Behind it, a wall of fairy lights shimmered, flowers cascading like some enchanted forest. It was a deeply intimate moment, shared only with the kids.
Though Isla was far too young to understand what was happening, Jake was every bit as excited, even offering Mila five reasons why she should say yes to marrying his dad.
It turns out Mila didn’t need much convincing.
She said yes without hesitation. And now my best friend is getting hitched, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
Even though my relationship with my ex-sister-in-law remains rocky, I’m glad she’s finally found happiness after everything she’s been through.
She deserves to be with a man like Jason, someone who, no matter what, would scorch the earth for her.
The doorbell echoes through the living room, and Jason immediately goes to answer it. A minute later, he returns with Chris in tow, balancing three boxes of pizza in his arms.
“Alright fellas! Who’s hungry?”
“I’m famished,” Jason replies, patting his stomach. “I’ll get us some beers, and what about you, Kaden? I’ve got an apple and blackcurrant juice box and a can of cola?”
“I’ll take the cola, thanks.”
He nods, then disappears into the kitchen, just as Chris sets the pizzas on the coffee table.
“What did I miss,” Chris asks.
“Nothing much, unless you count Isla trying to give Jase a new hairdo.”
He looks at me in confusion.
“She went for a fistful of his hair again,” I explain. “I’m surprised he still has a head full of hair with the way she’s always grabbing at it.”
“Oh, yes. I’ve been a victim of that too. That little one’s got some serious arm strength.”
I let out a soft laugh just as Jason walks back in, carrying two Coronas and a can of cola.
“What’s so funny?” Jason asks as he hands us our drinks and drops down onto the seat beside me.
“Your daughter and her super Amazonian strength,” Chris murmurs.
Jason barks out a laugh. “That’s all Mila, believe it or not.”
Chris and I chuckle, because he’s not wrong.
Mila had been quite the athlete back in high school.
There were even a few times Skylar dragged me along to watch her tennis matches.
She’d had a powerful swing and stamina most people would envy, and I always wondered why she never went pro. She was an incredibly skilled player.
“Where is the little bugger by the way?” Chris asks, grabbing a slice of meat-lovers pizza from the box and sinking into the armchair beside Jason.
“She’s asleep in our room,” he replies, switching the TV on and flicking it to the channel broadcasting the game, “until I have to wake her in a couple of hours for a feed.”
“Man, I still can’t believe you’re a dad of two now, and that you’re about to get married again,” Chris mumbles with a mouth full of food. “One minute we were in your office talking about your new babysitter, and the next, you’re building a whole life with her. How does that even happen?”
“Man, you make it sound like I was grooming her. I’m not a fucking creep. And you know it didn’t just happen overnight.”
“No, of course not,” I chime in. “For Mila, it started with a little crush at thirteen.”
It’s no secret that my ex-sister-in-law had always been smitten with my best friend.
The moment I introduced them to one another thirteen years ago, she’d had hearts in her eyes for him ever since.
Skylar and I always noticed, even when she thought no one did.
The way she stumbled over her words whenever he asked her a question, or the way her gaze followed him wherever he went—it was always obvious to anyone who knew her well.
“Yeah, if you hadn’t ratted her out, I would’ve never known about it,” Jason tells me.
“And now, she finally has her man,” Chris quips. “Does Elena know you’re getting married?”
“It’s only been a week since the proposal, but I did let her parents know. I’m sure the news will reach her soon enough.”
“How do you think she’ll take it?” I ask, curiously.
“Probably not well, but I think she has bigger issues to worry about.”
Several months after Elena was charged with sexually assaulting her students at the university she worked at, she was handed a ten-year sentence. By the time she’s released, Jake will be almost eighteen, and she will have missed most of Jake’s youth.
It’s heartbreaking to imagine him growing up without his mother. But Mila stepping in as a mother figure has brought an added layer of stability and normalcy that he might otherwise never have known.
“And what about you?” I tilt my head towards Chris. “Heard you and Gemma are shacking up now. Thought you didn’t do ‘couple stuff’.” I add, using air quotes for emphasis.
“So, did I. But I guess when you find someone you genuinely click with, plans just change.”
“Who would’ve thought?” Jason cuts in. “Chris Hughes—the ultimate playboy—finally settling down with a girl. It better work out,” he warns, teasingly, “otherwise I’ve lost a damn good bartender for nothing.”
Gemma had been Jason’s employee, and part of Chris’s bar crew until she quit six months ago, after she and Chris officially became a couple.
Wanting to keep their relationship separate from the workplace, and with Chris being her supervisor at the time, they chose not to let it complicate their professional lives.
They keep their relationship mostly private, neither of them quite used to the idea of a committed partnership yet—but it’s clear they’re still going strong, hence the moving in together part.
Funnily enough, all three of us have had some kind of history with Gemma Wright.
She’d casually dated Jason not too long before he and Mila were ever a thing.
As for me, I met her first, at a local gym one night while working out with Lucia.
I still remember how jealous, and furious Lucia had been when she saw Gemma talking to me, as if she had any right to be angry when she herself was sleeping with her best friend’s husband.
The memory of how cruelly I treated my ex-wife still haunts me, even now.
And though she’s happy, and married to the love of her life, I’m still grappling with how to forgive myself for what I did in the past. Just when I think I’ve moved on, accepted it, let it go, the slightest reminder of her pulls me back to the time when my life began to crumble around me.
The day she married Heath was the hardest of all.
I had never known pain like that—the sharp, hollow ache of realising she truly belonged to someone else.
It felt final. Before, it had never felt completely over; memories lingered, vivid and raw, as if I were living them all over again.
But now… now that she carries another man’s name, it feels like the definitive closing of a chapter—for Skylar, and for me.
Still, life must go on. And inevitably, so must I.
I’ll admit, it’s been tough as hell, but I’m stronger now than I was before, and better equipped to keep myself from slipping back into the self-destructive cycle that once had me trapped.
For the past thirteen months, I poured all my pain, all my grief, into my projects—creating pieces that, according to Jason, are some of the best he’s ever seen.
That bit of encouragement from my best friend was all I needed to finally start selling them online.
And to say they’ve been selling like hotcakes is a vast understatement.
I’ve sold out more than a few times now, to the point where I’m even starting to consider a career change.
Jason slightly increases the volume on the TV just as the commentator announces the start of the game. We ease back into our seats, letting ourselves get comfortable for the night ahead.
For the next hour and a half, we devour pizza loaded with cheese and all kinds of protein, whisper-yelling at the screen, all the while hoping we don’t wake up the baby.