“You should.” Sidney’s voice was clear and firm, even as she belatedly wiped the tears off of her cheeks. “You absolutely should. You deserve better than this place.”
“So do you,” Brett realized, searching her face. He had misjudged this woman, and honestly, a lot of his antipathy had come after she had been trying to get with John. But that was no crime, who wouldn’t want to be with someone so incredible?
“He wasn’t hitting on me back, you know,” Sidney said suddenly. “I’ve wanted to tell you that, but you didn’t seem exactly open to listening. He just wanted to know some massage techniques. I was showing him. And I will freely admit that I was flirting like crazy, but he never gave me anything back.”
Brett tilted his head as he looked at her, trying to see if there was any dishonesty in her face, but he saw none. Funny that she had mentioned it, but maybe he wasn’t as good at hiding his feelings for John as he might have liked to be.
All of a sudden, the full impact of what she was saying hit him. Sidney and John had been a big part of why Brett had made some major assumptions, and hearing that it had never happened, that it was probably never going to happen, it threw everything sickeningly askew.
“He’s at the hospital right now,” Brett whispered, and he had to put a hand on the cold stone wall beside him to steady himself. “Waiting for his baby to be born. And he asked for me to be there.”
Sidney took that pretty easily, all things considering. Or maybe John had mentioned it to her before.
“So then, why aren’t you there?” she asked, and in a second, with just a few words, all of the muddiness in his brain disappeared until everything was crystal clear. Why wasn’t he there? John wanted him there, and he wanted to be there, so what else really mattered?
“Wait!” Sidney called out, gripping Brett’s shoulder as he turned away. “Give me your number. We’ll be in touch. I’ll help you any way I can. I think I owe that much to you after everything I’ve done.”
Brett took a deep breath, then turned back to her and nodded. They exchanged phones, put in their respective numbers, and Brett was left with a feeling of dreamy unreality at how quickly everything had changed in his life. One conversation, that was all it took sometimes.
“When the business is open,” Brett said suddenly, impulsively, perhaps, but with no sense that it was the wrong thing to do, “I think you should come and work with me. Because you don’t deserve what she’s doing to us, either.”
She didn’t speak in return, but the smile that crossed her face was answer enough. Gently, she gripped him by his shoulders, turned him around, and pushed him toward his car.
“Go,” she directed. “Go welcome the newest addition to your family.”
His family? He wasn’t sure about that. After everything that had happened between them, would John even welcome him? Would he want anything to do with him? But he knew, too, that he had to try. He had stood up for himself to his boss, and he could use the bravery that had taken and face the man that he loved.
He didn’t even check his phone, so he didn’t see the text message until much later. He had no idea when he walked through the hallways of the maternity ward if John would even want anything to do with him anymore.
So it was incredibly scary, nothing short of the most terrifying thing that he had ever done in his life, to reach out and touch John’s shoulder, touched deeply by the attitude of fear and worry, the defeated bend to the back as John cradled his own head in his hands.
“John,” Brett told him because there was something that they needed to have out between them before they could even know how they were going to go on from here. “I love you. I’ve been in love with you for more years than I can count.”
