Growing Love (Brookfield) by Lacey Wolfe Page A

don’t know what to say. We have some work ahead of us—Diane and me.”
    “You do. But I promise not to call you Jerkface anymore or stand in the way.”
    “A fresh start.”
    She smiled. “Guess so. For Patrick’s sake.”
    He chuckled. “All right. Well, let me get home before this gets cold.” He raised the coffee tray and his eyebrow both at the same time.
    “ Stop by and let me know what she says about the shower.”
    He nodded. “Will do.”
    A few moments later, he climbed the stairs toward his apartment and could hear his son exercising his lungs. Poor Diane. He didn’t know how she did it. He’d have bought ear plugs by now, but she was always so calm and collected.
    He pushed the door open and found her standing in the center of the place, still in her pajamas , as she patted the baby on the back.
    “I brought you coffee.” He held up the tray.
    “Yay. I need it.”
    As he got closer, he saw the dark rings under her eyes. She didn’t need coffee ; she needed sleep. He set the tray down on the table and held his hands out.
    “Give me the baby.” She handed him his son along with the wet blanket he’d been drooling on. “Go take a nap.”
    “I’m fine.” She waved her hand and went for the coffee.
    “You are not. You’ve not slept since he came home.”
    “I have to.”
    He rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to fight. He’d offered her a chance at a nap she refused. That was all he could do.
    “Alyssa wants to throw you a shower this weekend. Invite all your friends and celebrate Patrick. You up for that?”
    She nodded. “Yeah, that would be fun.” She sipped the coffee. “Could Tom come?”
    Something in her tone sent a red flag up. But before he could speak, she kept talking.
    “You did tell him to go away and all.”
    “I did not.”
    “Maybe not in those words, but you don’t want him around and I do. Before you came back into the picture, he was the only person there for me. Now he isn’t around at all. He’s my best friend.”
    He didn’t know what to say, really. Tom was still a sore spot for him. For months he’d thought Tom and Diane were an item, but he supposed Tom wasn’t to blame for that. Diane was.
    “Tom can come, as long as he knows I’m the dad to this guy.” Patrick let out a little sneeze. Matt pulled him from his shoulder to check on him, but he seemed fine.
    “We all know you are.” She sighed. “Need a bright yellow shirt with it on it?”
    Wow, she was getting really cranky. “I’m gonna go change.”
    He started to walk away.
    “Need me to take the baby?”
    He shook his head and kept walking. How hard could it be to change? All he had to do was set his son down for a moment. When he entered his room, he stopped in the doorway. It was clean. All his strewn clothes were now folded on his bed. Had she done this today for him?
    He turned to go thank her, but she was no longer standing. Instead, he found her a sleep in the living room. Damn, that was quick. He knew she was tired.
    “Mommy needed a nap,” he whispered.
    Back in his room, he laid the baby down on the bed and then his son screeched. He reached down quickly and picked him back up and the cries promptly stopped.
    Okay, so changing clothes wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.
    “Looks like I’m gonna stay dirty for a little bit, because Mommy needs to sleep.”
    He sat on the bed and bounced as he comforted his son. He needed to find a way for him and Diane to finally connect. To put everything behind them and move forward. They could fight until they were blue in the face, but it wasn’t going to solve anything.
    So how did one just let the hurt go?

 
    Chapter Twelve
     
    Diane waited as patiently as she could for Matt to come home. They hadn’t really talked much after their little argument. And she called it little because they usually got into a full-blown screaming fit.
    Diane had called Alyssa earlier and told her yes on the baby shower. She also asked if she’d be