Danny startled as Mrs. L. looked over his shoulder. He hadn’t seen or heard her approach. “Wish I was going to be around to see it,” she added.
Mrs. L.’s words, echoing the sentiment he’d written to Liv days earlier, hit him in the gut like he’d been slugged by a heavyweight boxing champ.
“I’m pretty sure Zane isn’t going to let her out of his sight until she’s thirty-five.” Danny stood, his gaze immediately going to the crib before he turned and looked at Mrs. L. He laid his phone back on the worktable.
“With any luck he’ll get to thirteen.” Mrs. L. lifted the bag in her hands. “I brought you something since you’ve been working so hard.”
Guess he hadn’t gone as unnoticed as he’d hoped. He took the bag and peered inside. Big, round chocolate chip cookies were stacked one on top of the other. “Thank you.”
“Olivia mentioned they were your favorite.”
His eyes met Mrs. L’s in a silent plea, begging to know if she’d talked to Liv, to answer all the questions eating him up inside for the past five days.
Mrs. L. made him wait for several agonizing seconds before she said, “She told me everything. Said she had to come clean before she packed up and left. I already knew the truth, or most of it. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know. But she insisted so we had some tea and talked.”
Danny ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry for misleading you. I feel terrible about that.”
“As you should.”
“I don’t think it’s too late to stop escrow from closing. I’ll call the realtor.” He reached for his phone.
Mrs. L. stopped him with a hand to his arm. “It’s okay. The house is still yours.”
“But—”
“I made a deal with Olivia.”
His pulse sped up. “What kind of deal?”
“You’ll have to talk to her about it. In the meantime, did you hear the truth about that horrible man, Will?” A look of disgust crossed Mrs. L.’s small, wrinkled face.
“What are you talking about?” Danny flexed his hands into fists.
“He wanted to use Liv and the baby to get a promotion. He…”
Danny listened as anger made his blood turn thick, pumping like paste through his veins. That asshole.
“Our girl is too smart and too good for the likes of someone like him. Tango told me Will left with his tail between his legs.” She paused to study him. “You really didn’t know?”
“No.”
“Then I’m glad we talked.” Was she implying he should say something?
“The one thing I don’t know is what exactly came between the two of you,” Mrs. L said. “I don’t buy Olivia’s excuse that you’re better off friends.”
“You don’t?”
Mrs. L. rolled her eyes. “I know what love—real love—looks like, young man, and you and Olivia have it. It was there the first day I met her, hiding in the roots of your friendship. You know you can’t kill roots, right? There’s always a persistent part of them buried deep down.”
Danny gulped. Yeah, he and Liv had roots, but nothing changed his medical diagnosis.
“Whatever your problem is, I hope you realize it’s not a problem for Olivia.”
Every muscle in his body clenched. “What makes you think it’s my problem and not hers?”
“I’m not wrong,” she said in lieu of answering his question. Her expression went soft and she patted his arm. “See you later. Enjoy your cookies.”
He silently thought over Mrs’ L.’s certainty as his eyes drifted to the crib yet again. Was he that transparent? Had he let his diagnosis ruin his heart so much that he was willing to give up the best thing to ever happen to him? One day he’d lose a big part of how he interacted with the world, but hadn’t his parents raised him to be a fighter? Liv was willing to fight for them, and what had he done? Told her to find someone else because he was too chicken shit to face that, deep down, he wanted a spouse and children, too.
He didn’t realize his feet had carried him closer until his hand was running over the crib he’d made for their baby.
Their. Baby.
Liv had never pitied his future or made him feel any less of a man because of his CHM. In fact, she’d faulted him for keeping his heart closed off. In that sexy, bossy voice of hers, she’d told him to get over himself. To not give up on living because of a medical condition. Blind people love and are loved, too, she’d informed him.
He hadn’t wanted to consider it until now.
Until Olivia.
And her turning his carefully planned world upside down with a marriage proposal and baby on the way.