13. Tate

The testing is simple, a swab of the inside of my cheek and Dylan”s as well as a little clip of both our hair. I was super worried that he wouldn”t like the swab in his mouth but he barely fusses at all. The nurse assured me that all his teething slobber made it easy to get a good sample. She assured us that the results would be ninety-eight percent conclusive and that I should have them in seven to ten business days. They are checked three times, by three different labs which is why it takes longer than other places.

The nurse leaves the room, and Mallory and I both get up to leave too, but she turns to me with a curious look in her caramel-colored eyes. ”Are you worried about the results?”

“No. I know he’s mine,” I say simply. “I’m only doing this test for legal proof.”

She nods and as soon as we get into the waiting room, Tenley springs out of her seat and reaches for Dylan. He goes to her happily and I have never been so jealous in my life. It must show on my face, because in the elevator on the way back down to the lobby Tenley shoots a sympathetic smile. ”Don”t get all butt hurt. He”s a ladies” man, just like his daddy. He prefers hanging out with girls.”

Mallory giggles. I roll my eyes. As we cross the parking lot I tell Tenley, “I’m going to call you an Uber.”

“Nonsense. I’ll drive you guys home. My car is at your place anyway.”

She hands Dylan to Mallory pulls the keys from the front pocket of her jeans and punches the unlock button. Mallory heads to the passenger door to get Dylan into his car seat. I snatch the keys from Tenley”s hand. ”You have to Uber or pretzel yourself into the back seat with my son.”

“Pretzel.” She sighs and walks toward the car. “You know this car is not meant for a man with a baby.”

“I know. I’ve already bought a G-Class but the dealer needed to order it because I wanted the model with all the extras, not just some. And in blue, which they didn’t have at the dealership.”

“You ordered a new car?” Mallory balks.

I nod and open the driver”s side door, pushing my seat forward so Tenley can get in. ”Yeah. Obviously, I need one that Dylan fits in. Also, it makes sense to have two cars. One for each of us.”

Tenley twists even farther as she climbs in the back so that she can stare up at me with this what the fuck expression. I shoot her one back before pulling my gaze up to look at Mallory over the roof of the car. “You mean one for you and one for your nanny.”

Actually, I mean Mallory. I even ordered it in blue because I know it”s her favorite color. But I can”t say that right now. Tenley will think it means something and Mallory will get all weird about it. So I just nod. ”Yeah. The nanny car. Whatever.”

I slide into the driver’s seat as Tenley whines that her knees are at her ears and I need to move my seat up. Instead, I push it back a little bit more.

When we get to my townhouse, Mallory immediately grabs Dylan and rushes for the front door, mumbling something about checking his diaper, and then I’m stuck alone with Tenley in the parking lot.

“We need to talk,” my sister says.

“I don’t want to talk to you.” I know I sound like a belligerent teenager. I kind of feel like one, and it’s making me even more mad. “I should just go meet up with the guys.”

“It’s not even noon,” Tenley replies. “Where the fuck are the guys going?”

“Our local spot opens early when they know we’re home from a road trip. Nash, Crew, Collingwood, and a few others, including me, always want hot wings,” I reply. “It’s like a tradition.”

She laughs at that. “Nash Westwood? Only spicy thing about that dude is his taste buds, I guess.”

“He usually gets teriyaki.”

“That tracks.” Tenley rolls her eyes. I start toward the house but she blocks my path with her skinny, lanky body. “Just let me say what I have to say, okay?”

I sigh and stare at the gray cloud cover above us. “Fine.”

“Why have you been keeping this from us?”

When I finally bring my head down to lock eyes with her Tenley looks soft. No fight in her eyes, no stubborn set to her jaw. She just looks gentle, which is a bit unnerving. We stare at each other for a long moment and all you can hear is the rustle of palm fronds in the light breeze and the cars on Abbott Kinney. Her eyes, which are exact replicas of our dad”s, get a little teary. ”No one is going to be disappointed about this, Tate. Shocked. Confused. Worried. But no one is going to look at that perfect little boy and be disappointed he exists. Your lack of faith in our family is astounding, Tater Tot. Especially considering you”re the Golden Boy.”

Her words are comforting but I laugh them off because of that last comment. “Conner is the Golden Boy. I’m just Tater Tot.”

”Shut up,” Tenley gives my shoulder a rough shove as I start walking towards my front door and she falls into step beside me. ”You have always been the Golden Boy. Conner is special because he”s the firstborn, and he lived through some shit when his parents divorced. But you… you are the firstborn of the favorites. You can do no wrong. They”ll love Dylan without hesitation just the way they love you.”

“Favorites?”

”Oh please, you don”t see it? Gran and Gramps love Dad best,” Tenley announces. ”And Gran adores Mom because she”s the one who kept her sisters safe and sound when our great-grandmother abandoned them. Gran was best friends with Mom”s mom, remember?”

”Right.” Of course I don”t remember all that crap. It happened well before I was born. Our mother”s mom died before our mom was a teenager and our great-grandmother who was supposed to raise them but didn”t really, died when our mom was my age. Her funeral is the reason our parents found each other again. That part I remember. ”But I”m still not the Golden Boy. And… Ten, it isn”t just the fam. It”s the team and the media. I have to make sure the legal stuff is in place and that I have Dylan well looked after before the world turns its judgy eyes on him.”

“He seems well looked after with Mallory,” she states as I hold open the storm door for her. Something down the pathway catches my eye and I see Tara dressed in running clothes with her headphones in. She smiles and waves and I return the friendly gesture before stepping inside and getting slammed with an annoyed look my Tenley.

I lock the door behind us and nod. “Mallory is the best with Dylan. I wish I could keep her as his nanny forever. But she wants to go back to Silver Bay.”

“Does she?” Tenley asks, her left eyebrow raised. I just nod. “Well, maybe she’ll change her mind after her first date with Fisher.”

My brain stumbles over the words they have to absorb. Tenley walks through the house and into the kitchen. The back door to the patio is open and I assume Mallory went out with Dylan. I can hear him babble-talking out there. “Her what with who?”

Tenley smiles around the refrigerator door she just opened. I rake a hand through my hair again. “She met some of my crew—fellow students—when we were filming here. My hot camera guy asked her on a date.”

I’m still in my suit and I’m wildly uncomfortable suddenly so I start undoing some buttons on my shirt. Thankfully I didn’t wear a tie home. “And Mallory said yes?”

Tenley pulls out one of my expensive juices from Pressed Juicery and cracks the lid before I can protest. Then she shrugs at me and closes the door with her hip. “Not sure. But that’s his number on your fridge.”

She points to the phone number scrawled across the wipe board where I leave notes for the house cleaner. I stare at it like I’m trying to make it catch fire.

“Weird. You have this look on your face I don’t recognize…” Tenley notes and pauses to gulp back some of my expensive beet, spinach, carrot, and apple blend before narrowing her eyes on my face. “Is that… jealousy? Yeah. It is. Like how you looked at me when Dyllie Bear happily let me snuggle him earlier. You worried about who is going to snuggle Mallory, Tater Tot?”

“His name is Dylan, not Dyllie Bear,” I growl. “And she’s my friend. I don’t want her dating one of your douchey film friends.”

“He isn’t douchy.”

“You have terrible taste in men.”

“You have great taste in women,” Tenley mutters back. “You just don’t know it yet.”

“What?”

She ignores me and walks out onto the back patio. I follow. Mallory is on the floor, crossed-legged, playing with Dylan and smiling so brightly at him that it makes my heart feel warm and gooey in my chest. I love her for loving him.

”Mal, why don”t you go grab a shower?” Tenley suggests and sits down next to her on the patio tiles. ”I know you didn”t have a chance to grab one before we left for the lab. I can watch him.”

“I can watch him too!” I sound like a jealous boyfriend.

Mallory glances up at me and then at Tenley. “That would be epic, thanks.”

“And grab one of the fancy juices. They’re delicious.” I kick Tenley lightly in the back as Mallory heads upstairs.

I drop down on the couch and tip right over as I watch Tenley and Dylan play on the floor in front of me. I’m exhausted. My muscles ache from the road trip games. I’m also growing more and more hungry by the minute. But all I want to do is watch Tenley and my son. They seem so… comfortable and easy with each other, nothing like how he is with me. I study them like I’ll be able to unearth some kind of secret code.

“He feels your hesitation,” Tenley announces like she’s reading my mind. Because I swear she’s a freaking witch. “He knows you’re freaked out by him.”

“I’m… not anymore. I mean, I just… what the fuck do I know about being a dad?” I rake my hands into my hair and stare at the palm fronds hanging over my privacy fence.

“The same thing every first-time father knows,” Tenley laughs. “Absolutely sweet fuck all.”

“But at least other dads got a chance to prep. They saw it coming.”

“Mostly. Probably. Yeah.” She shoots me a small grin. “I know this throws a wrench in your carefully mapped out life plan, Tate, and you’ve never done anything by accident, but well, you just need to get over it.”

She’s not wrong, but I somehow still hate that she’s right.

Tenley stares at me for a long moment and then she grabs my hands in hers and squeezes them. “You’ve got this. All of this. You just have to be honest with yourself, take it one day at a time, and not just accept help but ask for it.”

“I’ve got Mallory for help. For now.”

”You two need to talk,” Tenley replies letting go of my hands and standing up. ”Mallory cares about that little boy more than anything. If he needs her, she”ll be there. And she”ll also be there for you if you let her. If you can just stop protecting your fucking heart like it”s Fort Knox.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re a lone wolf, Tate,” Tenley announces her hands on her hips and her eyes fierce. “The Garrisons are a pack but you’ve always been the lone wolf. You never really let anyone in. Even your friends, which is why now that you need help you don’t think there’s anyone you’re close enough with to ask for it. Because you don’t ever let anyone really, truly, in. So let her in. As a friend if nothing else.”

I try to think of an argument to throw back at Tenley but I don’t have one. She’s right. I am a lone wolf and I’ve always loved how I could handle anything on my own. But this situation is impossible to handle alone. I need help. I need Mallory.

“Well, can you help me convince her to stay and help me?” I ask and that gets me one of Tenley’s trademarked sarcastic laughs.

“Oh hell no.” She pats my shoulder. “But what I will do is take Dylan for a stroll to the beach so you two can have the conversation uninterrupted.”

She plucks Dylan off his playmat and walks into the house and I follow. “I don’t know if you should be alone with him, in public.”

”I”m not going to do anything that would risk my nephew,” Tenley replies, and the casual way she says nephew causes a lump to instantly appear in my throat. I really love hearing her say that. She walks to the bottom of the stairs. “Mal! I’m gonna take Dyllie Bear for a stroll.”

“Alone?” Mallory’s voice floats down the stairs. It’s distant but the angst in it is clear.

“Yeah. Tater needs to stay here and have a talk with you!” Tenley calls up the stairs and I shove her, lightly because she’s holding my baby. She shoves me back, not so lightly.

“Right now?” Mallory calls back.

“No! Just shower. I’ll talk to you after! No rush!” I turn to Tenley and whisper heatedly. “Don’t say another word. I don’t want her to hurry. She deserves alone time. She hardly ever gets it.”

Tenley pats my head like I”m a puppy who followed a command. I swat her hand away and grab the folded stroller. I pull it out onto the front porch where I open it and watch carefully to make sure Tenley straps him in right. ”I need to see if there are any dudes who think single moms are hot.”

“Excuse me?”

“What?” Tenley grins. “Babies are chick magnets for men. Let’s see if they’re men magnets for chicks.”

“I’m about to veto this idea,” I warn.

“Shut up,” Tenley replies. “We’ll only be gone like half an hour so get it done with Mallory.”

I watch Tenley until she and the stroller are through the gate and out of view. Then I go back inside, lock the door, and take the stairs two at a time. I need to change and think of what I can say to make Mallory stay with me indefinitely. For Dylan’s sake.