“Mr. Todd, will you stay until after I have my bath so you can listen to Daddy read me a bedtime story tonight? You’ll like it, he does all the voices.” Simon had been over the moon about having Todd over for dinner tonight and was reluctant to let him leave.

I wasn’t sure when I would tell him the news about the baby, but I figured the first step was to make Todd a fixture in his daily life. We still hadn’t had our first date and I supposed that was probably kinda weird. We’d gone from having a one-night stand to having a boss and employee relationship to being friends to now having a baby on the way. But hey, life happens and I’d always found it worked best to just roll with things as they came along—especially the good things like babies and hot omegas.

Todd shot me a questioning look and I nodded my encouragement. “You should totally stay, Todd. Simon is right, I do pull off some pretty kick-ass voices, if I say so myself—and I do. He’s taking a bath in a few minutes here because bedtime is in half an hour, so it won’t be long.” Todd nodded agreeably and picked up a puzzle piece.

Simon giggled at hearing me say a bad word. Before I could address that and drop a dollar in the swear jar, there was a knock at the door. I started to get up from the table where we were working a jigsaw puzzle, but the door flew open and banged against the wall as Victoria came stumbling in with an armful of gift bags and wrapped presents.

“Sorry to just bust in on you, darlings, but the door was unlocked and it’s a tit-bit nipply outside.” Victoria laughed bawdily and dropped her armload on the coffee table before looking over at the three of us. Her eyebrows shot up at the sight of Todd, but she ignored him and beckoned for Simon.

“Mommy is so sorry that she missed your birthday, pumpkin. I had a business meeting nearby so I thought this would be a great time to bring you your gifts and some treats.” She shook a large bag of candy and waved at the pile of gifts. “Have at it, pumpkin. It’s all for you—Mommy spares no expense when it comes to her boy.”

When Simon raced to throw his arms around her waist, she almost lost her balance on the high heels was wearing. She laughed as she gave him a quick hug and handed him the candy. “Gracious, you’re getting so big and strong. You almost knocked your mommy over, silly pumpkin. Go ahead, enjoy your birthday treats.”

I was happy to see her stepping up and Simon so thrilled, until I saw the skeptical expression on Todd’s face. “Is everything okay?” I asked softly.

“That depends on your definition of okay.” Todd shook his head and rose. “I’m just going to let you guys visit. I’m getting kind of tired anyway.”

He looked irritated, but I couldn’t figure out why that would be. It wasn’t like he hadn’t met her already. “You want me to walk you home?”

Todd shook his head. “Nope, I’ll be fine. You stay here and enjoy watching Simon; I know you won’t want to miss the fun of his happy un-birthday.” He squared his shoulders and walked toward Victoria and Simon, pausing long enough to ruffle Simon’s hair. “I’m going to let you visit your mom, sweetie pie. I’ll catch the next reading hour, okay?”

Simon tore his attention away from the gift he was ripping open long enough to nod happily, but he couldn’t answer because his cheeks were stuffed full of candy hamster-style.

After Todd left, it was nearly another two hours before Simon finally went to bed. And that was only because I carried him back after he passed out while playing with a new train set. He didn’t even budge while I changed him into pajamas and removed his glasses, setting them in place on his nightstand.

When I came back to the living room, I found that Victoria had poured herself a glass of wine and was sitting on the couch, surrounded by the mess of torn paper and ribbons. Toys and games were scattered everywhere, but she was oblivious to the wreckage. It was all I could do not to groan. While I made quick work of cleaning up the room, Victoria watched quietly before finally speaking.

“I thought you introduced that guy as your boss. You looked pretty cozy when I came in. Is there something I need to know about?”

Dumping the armload of wrapping paper into the trash can, I wiped my hands and started stacking his gifts on the coffee table until we could find places for them tomorrow. “Does it matter? We’ve been divorced for almost three years, Vicki. I don’t ask about your love life, why are you asking about mine?”

“Calm down, papa bear. I’m just asking, I didn’t say anything about your common little boyfriend. I thought we were still friends. Aren’t friends allowed to show interest in each other’s lives?” She reached down beside the couch for a bottle of wine that I hadn’t noticed she’d set there and topped off her glass.

“True enough,” I said after a moment’s thought. “If you must know, I think he might be my boyfriend at some point in the near future.”

Vicki laughed. “Might be? How does that work? Are you planning to blackmail him into it or something?”

I lowered my voice, even though I knew that Simon was out cold. “I need you to keep this to yourself for now, but Todd is pregnant with my child.”

Vicki set her glass on the coffee table before jumping up to throw her arms around my neck. She squealed into my ear with excitement. “Oh, honey. I am so happy for you.” Her arms stiffened for a split second before she pulled back with an expression of horror on her face. As she staggered back, she held both hands over her mouth.

I was well familiar with her dramatics so I simply raised a brow. “What’s wrong, Vicki?”

She winced. “I may have done a bad thing the day I met you guys at the coffee shop. Actually, scratch that. I definitely did a bad thing.”

Throwing my head back, I stared up at the ceiling and counted backwards from ten before I spoke again. “Vicki, what the fuck did you do?”

“I cornered him outside of the bathroom and may or may not have implied that we were only legally separated and possibly implied that he was a nasty little homewrecker. Okay, I didn’t imply it—I said it outright. But in my defense, I didn’t know that you were serious about him or I would’ve kept my mouth shut.”

I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. “Vicki, you can’t do shit like that. What the hell were you thinking?”

“Hey, my intentions were good. I just didn’t want you to bring random people around my kid. I thought you guys were just flirting, I didn’t know that you were actually seeing him.” She squared her shoulders as she spoke, as if ready to battle if need be.

I shook my head. “Try again, Vicki, and this time lead with the truth. We both know that you’ve never hesitated to bring random people you’ve dated around Simon. Don’t think he didn’t tell me about the different uncles he met when he spent the week with you this summer.”

She shrugged and smiled ruefully. “Okay, fine. Maybe I was jealous for a minute and lashed out at the competition.”

I wasn’t sure whether to be irritated or amused. “Sorry, I’m not buying that one either. You’re the one who didn’t want to be in a relationship anymore. You didn’t want to be tied down, remember?”

Vicki threw her head back with a musical laugh. “Oh no, honey. I wasn’t jealous of your ass. I was pissed off that he’d gone with you to take our son to his first day of school. That is something that should only be reserved for parents, or stepparents—which he is not, at least not yet anyway. Right now he’s a maybe future boyfriend, at best.”

“He was only there because you didn’t bother to show up. Again. Honestly, you need to start keeping your word. And what was with this shit of arriving right before bedtime almost a month after Simon’s birthday when you didn’t even bother to call him? Not cool, Vicki. He’s forgiving now, but what about in a few years? You’re going to have a hard time keeping a relationship with him when he gets older, I hope you know that.”

“Are you seriously lecturing me right now?” Now she was the one who looked like she wasn’t sure whether to be amused or irritated.

“I’m not lecturing you at all, Vicki. If anything, I’m giving you a friendly warning because I don’t want to see you lose your shot at having a relationship with our kid. He’s pretty awesome, you know. If I were you, I’d work harder to get to know him instead of just bringing him sweets and treats when it’s convenient because you’re in the area for a business meeting.”

Todd ran into me while I was checking on my cider kegs in the storeroom. He leaned against the doorway and smiled apologetically. “Hey, I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry I ran out like that last night. That wasn’t very polite of me.”

“No, I totally understand. Vicki told me what she did to you at the coffee shop and I’m sorry she pulled that shit on you. For the record, we are definitely divorced and have been for about three years. She wasn’t even jealous of me, if that helps. She was upset that you were there for Simon when she couldn’t be.”

Rather than looking relieved like I’d expected, Todd looked like he wanted to punch something. I held up my hands. “A word of advice? I would chill out because I decided a long time ago that her antics aren’t worth getting riled up over.”

Todd clenched his jaw, his hands opening and closing into fists at his sides. “Maybe she isn’t, but Simon is. It really bothers me when she lets him down and hurts him like she does. I know what it’s like to have absentee parents and be that kid staring out the window, watching for a car that never pulls up or a phone call that never comes. Let me tell you, it sucks. And then she waltzes in a month after his birthday like it’s no big deal and tries to buy his affection because she was in the area? That isn’t right, Hugo.”

I really wasn’t sure how I felt about him offering an unsolicited opinion when we weren’t even together, but I didn’t want to get into a fight—especially since we weren’t together. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ve got it under control.” I spoke in an even tone but I knew Todd got the message when he threw his hands up and walked away.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sucked in a breath and wondered how the hell I would fix this one. A few minutes later, I heard the clear sound of a girl crying nearby. At least, it sounded like a girl, based on the pitch.

I was concerned because this was a private area for employees only. I left the room and followed the sound down the hall. When I found myself in the room with all the equipment for the controls and refrigeration systems, the crying suddenly stopped but there was nobody there. I scratched my head and turned to leave.

When I went to pull the door shut, I noticed that the knob was wonky and made a mental note to mention it to Todd before somebody wound up getting stuck in there or something.