She cleared her throat. “So, um. My mother knows that you’re stepping up to fill in for Jon.”
Matt’s eyes widened. “Oh really?”
“Yeah.” She rubbed her forehead and sighed. “We were arguing about her talking to Jon, and how the baby needs a father more than I apparently need my self-respect.” Dropping her hand, she met his gaze. “And I kind of blurted out that the baby has a father.”
“Oh. Uh, what was her reaction?”
“Shock, horror, denial, anger, bargaining…”
Matt chuckled. “And we’re surprised.”
“Right?” She sighed again, rolling her painfully tense shoulders. “Anyway, she’s not happy. But if rumors start getting around, you’ll know why.”
His lips tightened, but then he shrugged. “If they do, they do.” He paused, studying her. “How have you been today? You were still pretty rattled when I left last night.”
Dara nodded. “I’m okay. Just keeping myself busy and letting my attorney handle Jon. At least the morning sickness has been better—I was able to get some work done this morning in between, you know…”
“Jesus. You know, you can take a few hours off when you’re not feeling well.”
“I’ve already taken hours and days off to deal with moving and my divorce.” She shook her head. “I’m weeks behind on work. And of course there’s a million other things I need to get done. I need to get caught up with work, and I also need to get all of this shit done.” She tapped a list on the desk.
“What’s all that?” He gestured at the list.
“Baby stuff. I want to get the nursery set up while I can still move.” She sighed. “But I’m still behind with my clients from when I moved, not to mention losing every damned morning to heaving my guts out.” She rubbed her temples. “It’ll be so nice when I have my mornings back. And when the fucking divorce is over.”
“Give me the list.”
She met his gaze. “What?”
He held out his hand. “Give it to me. I’ll take care of it.”
“But I can—”
“Dara, you don’t have to do all of this yourself.” He nodded toward her desk. “You tackle the stuff in there, and I’ll handle this part.”
She set her jaw. “I don’t need help.”
Instinctively, she braced for him to click his tongue, shake his head and gently mansplain that she should take it easy and put up her feet at her desk while he did the actual work. As if her job didn’t qualify as actual work, which according to some, it didn’t.
“You don’t need help, but this stuff”—Matt gestured at the list—“should be a team effort anyway. It’ll take some stress off you if we divide and conquer, and I have one thing you don’t have right now, which is time.”
Dara chewed her lip. She should’ve known he wouldn’t be an ass about it. Matt wasn’t Jon. He wasn’t doing this to be condescending. This wasn’t “let a man do the heavy lifting” like it would’ve been with her ex-husband.
He came closer and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “This is part of that whole parenting thing. There’s probably nothing on that list that I can’t do, and it’ll spread the weight around a little.” He laughed softly. “And maybe it’ll help me catch a clue about how the hell I’m supposed to be a father.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re worried about that?”
“Yeah. A lot.”
“Really?”
Matt nodded. “And yeah, I do want to take some stress off you at the same time. You don’t want to fuck yourself up like I did. Especially not when we’re both going to be scraping by on not enough sleep in a few months.”
Dara groaned. “Well, I guess my divorce is good for something—it’s getting me ready for that.”
“Is it?”
Sighing, she nodded. “Sucks to admit it, but yeah.”
Matt squeezed her shoulder. “Then let me help you where I can.”
“Okay.” She swallowed. “Let me, um, get you my debit card and—”
“Dara.” When she met his gaze, he smiled. “The money isn’t an issue.”
She clenched her teeth. “I don’t need your money. I told you that from the beginning.”
“No, you don’t. But our kid needs stuff.” He let go of her shoulder. “We can settle up later if you want to split the costs, but at least for today, I’ve got it covered.”
He had a point, and it wasn’t one she could argue with. So, she picked up the list and handed it to him.