Vic didn’t say anything. It wasn’t that Logan didn’t like Tachina. They got along fine. His younger brother was just being protective of him. Tachina had never asked him for anything crazy. She knew he was loaded but never took advantage of him. Hell, what he was paying her in child support he had to practically force her to take. She was a woman who was full of pride, and even if she were down on her luck, she wouldn’t ask him for help.
So her request was a big fucking deal.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about it.” Logan sat forward and stared at him.
“Of course I’m thinking about it. It’s Tachina asking.” Had it been Sydney, he would have already said no. Matter of fact, that had been one of their arguments. She hadn’t understood why he had never wanted to discuss having children with her. He knew she resented Tachina for Kian. She never would admit it, but Vic was good at reading people.
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t do it,” Logan shotback. “She’s the one woman on earth you actually respect. Don’t blow that up because she’s hormonal or lonely or?—”
“She’s not lonely,” he snapped. Hell, that was the other thing he couldn’t stop thinking about. She’d gone out on a date Friday, knowing she was going to come to him on Sunday to ask him to get her pregnant. What the hell was that about?
“Really?” Logan cocked an eyebrow.
He wasn’t going to believe anything Vic said. He glanced back at the television and found it on commercials.
“She wants Kian to have a sibling.” He exhaled and ran his fingers through his hair. “She doesn’t want multiple fathers. She’s not wrong when she said it’s worked out between us. Better than anyone would have expected.”
“And you think adding another kid makes it easier?”
“I think…” Vic paused. He wasn’t sure how he could explain it so his single brother with no children could understand. “I missed out on a lot when she was pregnant with Kian. I went to a few of her appointments, I was there for the birth and was here and there until Kian started walking. I want to experience the whole thing.”
Her pregnancy hadn’t really seemed real. She’d shared things with him. He had his copies of the ultrasounds, maybe one picture of her pregnant. Hell, he hadn’t even gone to the baby shower. He’d been away on business.
Ever since she’d brought up having a new baby, he’d been bombarded with countless imageries of couplesexpecting on the television, videos of men bragging about expecting with their wives, touching their bellies, getting up in the middle of the night to help their wife breastfeed.
All of that was foreign to him. It had him feeling like he’d missed a big part of his son’s life.
“What?” Logan downed the rest of his beer and eyed Vic wearily. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I want to feel the baby kick. Help her out at home when she’s exhausted. Get her whatever she’s craving. Stuff like that,” he admitted.
Logan stared at him as if he was seeing him for the first time. “Jesus. You’re in deep,” he muttered.
“I’m not in deep,” Vic snapped. He finished off his beer and set the bottle down on the floor by his chair. “I’m just saying that I missed out on a lot. All of it. By the time she found out she was pregnant, we had moved on. I didn’t get the chance to?—”
“Do things that husbands or real boyfriends get to do?” Logan teased.
Vic winced at the shot. He hadn’t been either of those things to Tachina. They were two responsible adults who offered benefits for each other.
“I mean be involved with her pregnancy,” he said.
Logan folded his arms and settled his gaze on Vic. He didn’t say anything for a moment.
“Look, I get the appeal of giving Kian a sibling. We were lucky to have each other. The kid would make a great bigbrother. But what about long term? What happens when you meet someone else? They’ll want kids, too. Now you would have two kids with Tachina. That would be messy, man.”
“I’m not looking for someone else.”
“You weren’t looking before Sydney either…”
“That was different.” A muscle ticked in Vic’s jaw.
“Was it? You were with her for three years and nothing. No ring. No future, and believe me when I say I heard about how you wouldn’t even talk about children with her.” Logan rolled his eyes.
“Who told you that?” Vic asked.
“Our dear ol’ mother.”
Why had Vic even asked? He should have known Sydney would have run to his mother about their issues. The two of them had been close. His mother was also disappointed in him that he hadn’t proposed to Sydney. When he’d first shared with his parents that he was dating Sydney Bridges, they were very pleased because of Sydney’s relations. The Bridges sat on quite a few boards of local companies, a wealthy family who’d had roots in Cleveland for generations. Sydney was a philanthropic consultant who was polished and well connected.