Chapter 8

"Knock, knock," Catherine said as she let herself in the back door.

Paisley had been expecting her and had told her to let herself in. Luke would probably be upset that she had left the door unlocked, but it was the back one, so she felt fine about it.

"Hey," Paisley greeted her.

"I brought some things for Garrett." She held up two shopping bags.

Paisley shook her head. "He will never be able to even wear all the clothes you've bought him before he outgrows them."

"Meh, you'll just need to change his clothes a few times," Catherine teased. "But this time I bought the next size up. He's my nephew after all."

She laughed with her new friend.

"So what's going on with you and Luke?" Catherine asked as she started spreading out the new clothes on the sofa.

Paisley struggled for an answer. "Umm."

"Are you guys together? Like, are you going to be my sister-in-law?" Catherine pressed.

"I don't know," Paisley answered honestly.

"Fair enough. Ryker and I danced around the inevitable for years. Seduce him, you already know he likes you at least." Catherine laid the last outfit out and studied her handiwork. "I think I like this one best."

"I'm not seducing him." Paisley ignored the clothes. "It's not like that. We are just relearning each other."

"Sorry. I tend to be a bit much for most people. It's not on purpose."

"It's okay," Paisley muttered.

"No. It's not. If you don't like it, you have to let me know. Speak up for yourself," Catherine urged.

Paisley's eyes widened. "It's not a big deal."

"If it makes you uncomfortable, then it is. You won't offend me. Just know that if you ever need to girl chat, you can talk to me," Catherine told her.

"Thanks." She might end up taking her up on it. Most of her friends had abandoned her when she found out she was pregnant. Showed how good she was at picking friends. "Actually, Luke is on his way back from the office. He wants to talk about my past."

"Oh. That's probably a good idea. You weren't around for it, but our father did some pretty shitty things to all of us to try to get us not to hook up. I didn't really understand the whole Jake and Lauren thing since it had nothing to do with him, but apparently it was just because he was worried Cade would marry a secretary or something."

"I don't know what to tell him," Paisley confessed. Her stomach had been in knots since he'd texted.

"The truth." Catherine shrugged. "I've seen him look at you. You aren't going to lose him or his admiration with anything you say."

"I don't know about that," Paisley worried.

"I do." She cleared some of the clothes and took a seat on the sofa, patting next to her for Paisley to have a seat. "Luke doesn't have to do all he's doing for you and Garrett, right? Like, you know that. He could give you some money and walk away or even take you to court for custody."

Paisley gasped at the thought.

"He wouldn't. Believe it or not, you do know him. He is doing this because he wants to, not because he has to. That's saying a lot because Luke slept around and he didn't maintain any sort of relationship with anyone. I'm not saying that to hurt your feelings. I want you to know how special you are to him." Catherine reached over and took her hand.

Paisley squeezed it. "I don't want to make more problems for anyone."

"Oh girl, you aren't. Our father is the problem here. When Ryker left this morning, he said they were going to try to get ahead of the problems. If I were doing this from a PR perspective, I'd want to know absolutely everything so I can plan ahead. That's likely all they are doing."

"That's pretty much what he said."

"Then just be honest with him. In the end, if he can't accept all of you, past, present, and future, he's not someone you want anyway. I can guarantee you that Cade and I will always make sure that you and Garrett are taken care of no matter what if that helps. You're family now."

It was weird, being called family. She didn't need the support because she believed Luke when he said that he would take care of them, and nothing she was going to tell him was that bad. She just didn't like talking about it.

"Just think about it. I'll head back home and you call me later." Catherine stood. "Just give him some credit, okay? I think he'll surprise you."

Luke walked in before Catherine left the living room. "Hey, ladies," he said with all his charm.

Catherine outright laughed at him while Paisley giggled. "You're losing your mojo now that you're a family man," Catherine teased him.

"That's not so bad. I'm getting a lot in return." His eyes landed on hers and held.

"And with that, I will show myself out," Catherine said as she left the room.

Luke waited for the door to close before taking the seat that Catherine had just vacated.

"Sorry for interrupting your girl chat," Luke said.

"It's fine. We were just talking." She pointed at the other side of the sofa. "Our son is going to be so spoiled."

Luke's smile split his face. "I love it when you say that."

"What? He's spoiled?"

"No. Our son. I love it when you call him ours."

She blushed and ducked her chin. "He is."

"Yes, but it's still nice to hear you say it."

It was, she agreed, nice when he said it. She loved that he thought so, too. That he was stepping up because Catherine was right. He could have walked away.

She leaned back into the sofa cushions and made up her mind. She was just going to spill her past to him and it would be what it was.

"I grew up in the Midwest. I didn't know my parents really. I lived with my grandparents until I was twelve. My parents liked to party, and not together. My mother would pop in and out now and then, but she never stayed and treated me more like a kid sister than her child."

Luke shifted to face her but didn't interrupt.

"She died when I was ten. I don't even know if my father is alive. When my grandparents passed almost six months apart, social services tried to find him but they couldn't. After that, I bounced around from foster home to foster home. Some were good, some awful. I knew I was never going to be adopted so I just counted down the days until I turned eighteen."

"That had to have been hard. I'm sorry."

She nodded and continued. "I moved here with another girl I had been in foster care with. I didn't know anyone except her and her friends. When I got here, I lived with her for a little bit until I finally saved enough to get my own place. That was the apartment. For a while, she would come over and sometimes sleep off the night before. It was a weird dynamic, but it worked for us.

"It went that way for a few years. I didn't try to make friends outside of the few of hers that I knew because all I was doing was working and taking care of her. It was just alcohol in the beginning, or at least I think it was. Then there were the drugs. So many drugs. She'd stay awake for days. I tried to help her. Offered to send her to rehab but she wouldn't go. Her friends thought I was terrible for suggesting it."

"People that are down that hole aren't easy to help out of," Luke said.

"I helped her as much as I could until I got pregnant with Garrett. She was mad that I was keeping him, and I didn't want her around if she was doing drugs or drinking. We had a huge fight, and I haven't seen her since. The first few months, her friends would pop by looking for her, but that stopped, too."

"Do you know where she went?" Luke asked.

"Mary, her name, hasn't reached out since that day. I look for her online sometimes, but I've never found her. Then the few people that I also considered my friends had the same reaction as she did about Garrett. Apparently, I wasn't going to be much fun once I had a kid, so they left, too. Then it was just me. I had a neighbor, a single mom, who taught me how to do some of the work from home stuff. That's how I managed to quit the coffee shop. It meant I didn't need daycare for Garrett and that was cheaper, but I didn't want to send him to a stranger anyway.

"She helped me when I went into labor and then when I brought Garrett home—taught me how to change diapers and make bottles and all that. She was great. Her ex-husband came back, though, and she moved with him." Paisley took a deep breath. "So some of those people might do something for money because they're desperate. That's my life in a nutshell, though."

Luke was silent for a moment until she started to get up. It was making her uncomfortable.

"Baby, I'm so sorry you had to go through all that." He put his arms around her and lifted her onto his lap. "There's nothing in that story that makes me think poorly of you. If anything, I think you're stronger than you let anyone give you credit for."

Paisley rested her head on his shoulder. It wasn't bad, but it did leave a decent number of people that would say or do things for money.

"I didn't grow up with money either, remember? Your past doesn't define you; it molds us into who we are, but how we come out of it is our choice." He hugged her tighter. "Do you want us to try to find your friend?"

She thought about it and shook her head. "No. If she gets clean and wants to find me, she will. I don't want her to be a part of our lives when she's like that."

"Let me know if you ever change your mind."

He held onto her tightly as they both processed their day. Looking back, she knew Catherine was exactly right. She needed to just trust Luke. He'd come through like she knew he would deep down.

What this meant for them as a couple? Well, that part she wasn't sure of, but she knew that he'd left taking the next step up to her and she was ready for it. She missed the connection that they'd had before, even as short as it was.

Paisley shifted across his lap until she was straddling him.

"What?" Luke got out before she covered his mouth with hers. If he wanted her to take the next step, here it was.