“You’re together,” William stated flatly. And he watched Mason join my side and thread our fingers together. Whatever ran through William’s head caused his forehead to crease. “Together, as in… So, you two… You’re together. You’re a couple.”
“Yes.” I waited him out and wondered if we should give him some space. This reaction from him wasn’t necessarily bad. He did take longer to process sometimes. “Are you okay?”
That seemed to snap him out of whatever state he’d been in, and he straightened and plastered a practiced smile on his face. A practiced smile I hated with every fiber of my being, because it was the one he’d forced into place for the last part of our marriage.
“Of course I am, Lis,” he said. “I guess congratulations are in order. I’m happy for you two. My brother and my ex-wife. Wonderful.”
All right, even when he’d been neck-deep in depression, he’d been a better liar.
Mason cleared his throat and left my side to drape an arm around William’s shoulders. “How about breakfast, and then we’ll talk in private, yeah?”
“There’s nothing to discuss as far as I know,” William insisted. “This is good news. Let’s eat.”
We let it go for now, partly because Aurora was paying attention a few feet away. It wasn’t the time or place to dig deeper.
Thank goodness for Kelly. He carried the conversation as we all got seated until I was ready to play along, and we kept it about Tristan, Katie, and Olivia. Aurora spent the first couple of minutes staring between William, Mason, and me, but then her curiosity about the baby got the best of her. She wanted to know everything from Olivia’s height and weight to her appetite and if she was a loud baby.
I did my best to give her a play-by-play from our visit to the hospital yesterday, and the pictures thankfully distracted her plenty.
“I hope they’ll let me babysit when she’s older,” she admitted, browsing through the photos I’d taken. “I think it’ll be good practice for me.”
“Absolutely.” I squeezed her hand on the table.
“Sweetheart, if they let me babysit, there isn’t a chance they won’t let you do it too,” Mason told her.
Aurora giggled.
I tilted my head at Mason. “What’re you talking about? You’re good with children. You raised Tristan practically on your own.”
“It’s been a while since he was little,” he pointed out. “I think they’re banking on you being nearby.”
I chuckled.
“Boys are easier, though.” Kelly threw in his two cents too. “With Matt, I was just raising a mini-me. Will showed me a new, terrifying world when Aurora came into my life.”
Aurora clowned off by making spooky hands and crossing her eyes. “Ooh, tampons! So scary!”
I let out a laugh and wiped my mouth on my napkin.
Kelly shook his head in amusement at her. “Maybe it isn’t the tampons as much as it’s the fear of fucking up and making you cry when you’re, uh…more sensitive.”
Aww, bless. I had it on good authority that Kelly was doing a great job, though.
Aurora smirked. “Good thing Dad’s prepared. He handles girls like a pro. Like when Jaylin spent the weekend after her boyfriend had dumped her.” She nudged me. “Dad has a whole cupboard for girl-related emergencies. Candy, pads, tampons, painkillers, magazines, rom-com DVDs… Turns out, some of that works perfect after a breakup too.”
I couldn’t help but hug her to me. She wasn’t telling Kelly and me anything we didn’t know already, but somehow she knew William might need the reminder. This was where Aurora and William shone. They were incredibly attuned to other people’s feelings.
I caught William sending our girl a quick smile, but I could tell he’d been caught off guard by her sweet words, and he still got easily overwhelmed. I wasn’t the only one who predicted his leaving the table under the guise of going to the restroom.
“My comfort will fall on deaf ears at this point,” Kelly told me quietly. “It’s you he needs to hear from.”
I nodded and pressed a kiss to Aurora’s temple before I stood up. “I’m proud of you, sweetie.”
She smiled unsurely, and I counted on Kelly and Mason to reassure her while I dealt with William.
The bathroom in the hallway was open and empty, so I took a chance and opened the door to the garage.
There he was.
I flicked on the heater and stepped into my boots before I joined him.
He stood by the workbench and looked at the bassinet Mason finished late last night.
“He was always good at this.” William nodded at Olivia’s first bed and folded his arms over his chest. “Our mother called him the family’s little fixer.”
I hummed and walked closer. “You make people’s lives easier for a living, honey.” I didn’t know what else to call psychology for children who’d suffered trauma or had neurological disorders. “If that’s not a type of fix, I don’t know what is.”
William sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t want to compete against my own brother, Lis.”
“Compete for what?” I wondered, bewildered.
“I don’t know,” he replied tiredly. “Our children? Everything we’ve built—”
“Okay, you can stop there,” I said patiently. “I remember feeling a little threatened when Aurora and Brady came home to tell me how cool Kelly was, so I’ll go easy on you. It’s definitely an adjustment. But I wish you wouldn’t immediately assume your own brother would try to replace you. He doesn’t deserve that.”
He flinched. “I know I’m acting horribly selfish here, but this threw me.”
I nodded slowly. “It happens.”
I didn’t know how else to put it. It’d “thrown” me when he’d wanted a divorce and shortly thereafter moved in with the love of his life.
He frowned at me. “That’s all you have to say? It happens?”
I’d been fully prepared to comfort him, because I felt for him when he struggled, but this part right here…? It was almost amusing. He wasn’t made of glass, and it seemed he’d grown very comfortable with everything we’d established since the divorce.
“What do you
