He Was There for Her Baby, Not Mine novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Bench

Colette went quiet for three weeks after the diner, and I let myself believe she was done.

Then, at eleven on a Sunday in December, my friend from the library texted me.

Colette is live from Jack's bench. Are you seeing this?

I was seeing it.

I sat at my father's kitchen table with Trudy asleep on my shoulder and watched Colette's face on my phone, with the lake white and flat behind her.

"This is the bench the Brannigans bought for Jack," she said to the screen. "His son has never once been allowed to sit on it."

Forty-one people were watching. The number went to sixty-three while I stood up.

"Dad," I said. "Get your coat."

The bench stood at the end of the lakeshore walk, past the lift bridge, where the path ran out onto a spit of frozen rock.

I had never seen it.

Dalton had paid for it, as he had paid for the storage unit, and I had been too angry at a dead man to ask where.

Now it sat in the open with snow on the slats, and a small brass plate on the backrest said Jack Doyle. Builder. Brother. Son.

Colette sat in the middle of it with Arlen bundled in her lap and her phone held out at arm's length.

A dozen strangers stood around her on the path.

Two of them were teenagers filming her filming.

"Jack's family doesn't want you to hear this," she was saying. "His own sister threw a woman with a baby out of her father's yard. She says Arlen isn't who I say he is."

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend