Page 104 of Danger

“You can’t just show up, see him, and take your time deciding if you want to be a mom. He’s not a toy you can pick up when you’re bored.”

“That’s not fair,” she says, fire flickering back to life.

“Life isn’t fair. You want to know Fisher, you have to stay and be here for him. You don’t get to disappear again.”

She bites her lip, looks away. “Maybe you could both come with me.”

“We’re not going anywhere, Rylee. His life is here. He’s happy.”

“But what if I could give him a better life?”

I gesture around us. “This is his life. This is what six years of staying looks like. Early mornings. Late nights. Every scraped knee, every nightmare. All of it.” My voice stays even, but my chest burns. “One day, this will be his.”

She swallows. “What if I could give him more?”

A laugh scrapes out of me before I can stop it.

“You already decided what you’d give him,” I say. “And what you wouldn’t.”

She glares. “You don’t get to talk to me like that.”

“I do,” I say quietly. “You left.”

Silence.

“You’re such an ass, Dutton,” she snaps. “You always have to be in control.”

“Maybe,” I say. “But when things got hard, I didn’t disappear.”

That lands. I see it land. Low blow. I don’t care.

“So what’s your plan?” she fires back. “Keep me away forever once I leave again?”

“If I need to.”

Her hands are shaking now.

“We need a solution,” she says. “One that works for both of us.”

I meet her eyes, steady. Unmoving. “I don’t care what works for you,” I say. “I only care about him.”

She looks at me for a long time, like she’s trying to recognize the man in front of her and compare him to the one she walked away from. Like she thinks if she stares long enough, she can change the way I am now.

Then she looks away.

“I’m staying right here,” she says. “Until we figure this out.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and lean back against the bar.

Six years of doing this alone—and now she wants a compromise.

I say nothing.

This is going to take a while.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

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