Chapter 3 #3
Sam pursed his lips, and Evan knew he hadn’t impressed the guy, but he didn’t give a shit. It was his job to negotiate a bunch of stuff. And he was good at it. And he was going to do the same thing with this. He wasn’t going to leave Max out to dry.
“I imagine that’s what my dad would say too.” Max gave everybody a sort of half-ashamed grin. “I’m willing to fill out any paperwork you need for that and to help as much as I can. I really am. I’m not a bad person.”
“I wouldn’t have been with you if you were a bad person.” Hillary rolled her eyes. “I’m not stupid. I made a mistake, and I actually did everything right. I was over eighteen. I had protected sex.”
Sam lifted a hand up. “Mira. Don’t. I don’t want to ever hear you say the word sex ever again.” He put his thumb and his pointer finger together in the universal shut up motion. “As far as I’m concerned it was a virgin birth like our Santa Maria did.”
Well, in that case, Max would be off the hook.
“Papa, you’re so silly, and I’m sorry. I didn’t try to get pregnant.”
Evan sighed. “No one suggested you were trying to get pregnant. What we’re suggesting is that you are pregnant, and we have to do something about it. I think even your father would be with me when I say that.”
Sam nodded. “No one ever suggested you were lying about being pregnant.”
“And I’m not saying that at some point we might not get married and be a family. I’m just not ready to get married. I have a whole life ahead of me—college, hockey, everything.”
Oh, Max, no.
Evan winced because that was the wrong tack to take, and he couldn’t even blame the fire that lit up Sam Marrón’s eyes.
He got it. Max had a life, but so did this little girl, and she was going to be the one raising a baby. She was going to be the one being pregnant. She was the one who didn’t have a choice in this matter, assuming they were going to keep the baby.
“Yes, and when you’re going to your frat parties as a freshman, and Hillary’s working two jobs so she can pay for baby clothes and being the size of a house and going to community college—”
Evan shook his head. “Come on now, we don’t have to go there.”
“Don’t we?” Sam speared Max with a glare.
“I think we do. The sleepless nights? The two a.m. feedings? Running out for baby Tylenol and Orajel? Endless loads of laundry. And before that? The heartburn, labor, hormones, tears? I’ll be here with my daughter, like I have been from the second she was born. Where will you be?”
Max gaped like a fish out of water, and now Evan did roll his eyes because Max was bobbling the puck.
Evan cut in before Max could say something more stupid, because he would, undoubtedly. “What are you saying? That you want some sort of a schedule? You want Max to take the baby for a certain amount of time every month or every summer or what?”
“I’m saying I want something in the way of evening out the playing field here. This baby is half his. I feel like he should have to send enough money to cover half the expenses.”
Shit, here it went. Evan got it. He really did. But how were they supposed to measure that? How were they supposed to say what expenses were reasonable and which ones weren’t? He just didn’t know.
He tried hard not to take a defensive posture because he didn’t want to give away what he was thinking. “So, what is your idea then, Mr. Marrón? What are you throwing out there?”
Sam took a piece of pizza and munched on it, obviously giving himself time to think. But the furious glare he sent over the top of the greasy slice should have skewered Evan on the spot. Good thing he wasn’t terribly worried about glares.
Sam swallowed and held up a hand when Hillary drew a breath. “What I mean is, I don’t think him going off to college in Massachusetts and just saying he’s going to send money is going to work for me.”
“Then what is going to work for you, because there’s not a hockey team here, and Max is really good at hockey. In fact, that’s his best bet of being able to support this kid. So you tell me.”
“Uncle Ev.”
“Papa.”
The kids both tried to break in at that moment, and Sam shook his head, his jaw firming up, his eyes flashing fire. “No. No. If this ain’t gonna work, we’ll just go to a lawyer, and we’ll draw something up that his daddy can sign.”
Ah, Jesus fuck. This was not going well.
Evan took a deep breath and let it out. Then grabbed his own piece of pizza and made a show of having a few bites.
Thank God he hadn’t chosen the green chile because he could smell that good shit, and it was going to take the top of his head off if he ate any of it.
“I’m not saying we can’t hash all this out, and it may be that we have to get lawyers involved, that’s fine. I just wanted to meet everybody and get the ball rolling with this. That’s all. We don’t have to make any major decisions right this second.”
“Right,” Max seemed relieved. “We have all summer. I don’t have to go back and be at school until…” He paused, eyes up to the ceiling as he calculated. “Well, I have summer camp.”
“And what about you?” Sam raised an eyebrow at Evan. “Are you just going to hang out here with the boy?”
“I won’t be able to do that for very long, no. I have other obligations, but I can stay here for a couple of weeks. I’ve cleared my schedule that much. Surely we can iron something out in that time or at least get a good start on it.”
“Bueno. Fine.” Sam wiped his hands on the napkin. “We’ll just get to know each other. No?”
Hillary obviously understood that her dad’s tone was not friendly. She kept glancing back and forth between them, her eyes huge. Her lips parted as if she didn’t know what to say. Max looked like a total panicky idiot, and Evan gave him a hard glance to keep him quiet.
“Sounds good to me. That’s great. By the time we do that, maybe we’ll all understand a little more about what we can do for each other.”
Sam nodded. Once. “I’m just concerned with my little girl and her baby. This is my first grandbaby, and my only girl. If you think I’m protective, just wait until you meet her mama.”
Evan arched an eyebrow. “Yeah? So where is her mom?”
“She’s married. She and her wife live in Albuquerque.
She’s a reporter. I was an oops baby. You’d I think I would have figured it out, but no.
” Hillary’s cheeks were bright red, Sam reached out for her, and she went right to him.
“I’ve got three half sibs though, so there’ll be plenty of hand-me-downs.
Karolina is only just three, after all.”