Chapter 5 #3
“Everyone gets to see her, and obviously—unless something weird should happen like she decides that she doesn’t want it—as far as I’m concerned, the grandparents and Max are welcome to be here when the baby comes or around that time, so that they can meet him or her.
But that is really up to Hil. She says no, then I’m not sure how it works.
But Hillary’s pretty rational.” Sam kind of grinned.
“We’ll see how rational she is when she’s in labor. ”
“Were you there when Hillary was born?”
Sam nodded. “I’m the one who took Hillary home. I’m the first person who ever held her. At the point that Val had Hillary she was in complete meltdown. She didn’t want anything to do with Hillary; she just wanted to be left alone, and we gave her that space.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask her give up custody.”
Sam frowned at him. “That’s not the way of doing things.
A baby needs its mama. My mama is a nurse, and she explained to me, this is how this works.
I was a kid, and my mama said this is the right thing to do, so I did it, and it was the right thing to do.
Val has been a good mom to her when she could be.
And I think once Hillary’s well and grown, they’re going to be good friends. ”
Evan wasn’t sure he got any of that, but he had a sort of very normal nuclear family on his own, with his parents and his sister, so fuck if he knew what to say to any of that. “Hey, if it worked for you guys then it worked. Works. You know what I mean.”
“It does. Do I wish maybe she’d been a little more involved in Hillary as a kid? Sure. But I can’t ask her to be something she’s not. You gotta meet people where they are.”
“Right.” Okay. They needed to get some of this shit ironed out, so he grabbed his phone and started making notes. “Insurance, visitation, travel details, all that shit.”
“Where do you fit in all this?” Sam asked. “I mean, I know, uh, injured daddy. You have an interest in Max’s career, blah blah blah, but do you just handle shit for this family all the time?”
Evan bit back a smile, but he was pretty sure it must have showed.
“Sometimes, yeah. I mean, Bobby has a sports agent and a wife, but she’s got three smaller children and, I’ll be honest, being a hockey wife can be a full-time job on its own.
And Max is kind of a fuckup, you know? Since I’m not ever going to have any kids, I spend a lot of time cleaning up his messes. ”
“Why aren’t you going to have kids? Are you allergic to them?” Sam’s gaze sharpened, and they stared at each other for a long moment before Evan broke the eye contact and drank more of his beer.
“No, I’m not allergic to anything, really, except penicillin, but it’s just not in the cards for me.
” Sure, he supposed someday he could maybe find the right guy, settle down, and adopt kids.
But he was aging out on that, honestly. And he dealt with a bunch of young, testosterone-fueled boys all the time.
It was more like he was a full-time gay uncle.
Now he could see some healthy speculation in Sam’s expression, but what was he going to do? Lie? Better for Sam to know what was going on.
“Well, never say never, buddy. You might find yourself ending up with a little one somehow.”
“Yeah, I guess the stork might be able to drop one on my doorstep. Who knows?”
Their burgers came, and he was pretty relieved to see the food. “One way or the other, now that I know what all you want, I’ll call Bobby tonight and talk to him. If you think of anything else while we’re sitting here having dinner, tell me.”
“Wait ‘til tomorrow. I want to talk to Hillary tonight, just see if what we’ve talked about as far as her going for spring break and stuff works for her. At least right now. Like I said, who knows what’s gonna work when she’s all hormone girl and having a baby.”
“Sure, just call me or text me tomorrow and let me know what she says.”
Sam stared at him for a minute, fingers turning his beer bottle around and around and around.
Then he took a deep breath. “Why don’t we have breakfast tomorrow?
I know a little Mexican place, it’s kind of a hole-in-the-wall, not right in town.
We can sit there and have migas or pancakes or something and have another discussion. ”
His heart started thudding, and he told himself not to get excited about this.
Sam wasn’t asking him on a date or anything.
He was just being nice, helping him out because he was the one who was away from home.
“That sounds great, as long as they have something that’s not going to burn my insides out. ”
“They got gringo breakfast. Don’t worry about it.” Sam gave another one of those surprising glinting grins that just made him so much more approachable. And Evan had to work not to get a little heated about that in a good way. Now wasn’t the time, and Sam wasn’t the guy.
“It’s a date.” Shit, did that pop out of his mouth? He laughed it off, made it a joke, but damn it, he needed to stop doing crap like that.
Sam? He just nodded easily, like that hadn’t even fazed him. “Good deal. Come on, eat your burger. It’ll settle your poor green chile tummy.”
Yeah, it probably would. But Evan had a feeling that wasn’t going to do a damn bit of good for what was happening below the belt.