Page 89 of Biker Orc Baby Daddy

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"I walked past you forweeks. Brought you coffee. Talked about the weather. And I didn't. I didn'tseeyou."

"You weren't looking."

"I should have been."

"Maybe. But I wasn't exactly waving a flag either." I sit beside him. Close enough our knees almost touch. "We both screwed up. We both hid. We both. We both made choices that seemed right at the time and turned out to be. Complicated."

He looks at me. "Complicated."

"Yeah."

"That's one word for it."

"You have a better one?"

"Disaster. Train wreck. Catastrophically mismanaged?—"

"Okay, spreadsheet boy. I get it."

A tiny smile tugs at his mouth. Fades. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not finding you sooner. For the fake tattoos. For. For all of it."

"I'm sorry too."

"For what?"

"For running. For not. For keeping you out." I twist my hands. "I was scared. I didn't know how to. How to do this. Any of this. I didn't know how to be a mom and run a business and also somehow track down a stranger and sayhey, remember that reckless night? Surprise, you're gonna be a dad."

"You could have tried."

"I know."

"I would have. I would have stepped up. I would have?—"

"Iknow." My voice breaks. "But I didn't knowyou. I didn't know if you'd step up or disappear or. Or hate me for trapping you or?—"

"I could never hate you."

"You don't know that."

"I do."

"Gunther—"

"Cecie." He turns. Faces me fully. "I spent fourteen months wondering about a woman I met for one night. I kept a napkin with a lipstick stain because it was the only proof you were real. Imemorizedyour perfume. I'm not capable of hating you. I'm. I'm pretty sure I'm the opposite of that."

Oh.Oh.Heat floods my face. "You kept the napkin?"

"It's in my desk drawer."

"That's. That's really weird."

"I know."

"Also kind of sweet."

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