I stood in the center of them, numb.

In the hours I’d spent in solitude last night, I’d worked it all out, knowing it could go either way. Her story made sense, timeline-wise. It explained Wendy’s coming back, her insistence to see me. I took that information, applied it to the opposite—maybe it wasn’t mine, and she’d made the whole thing up to trap me. And then I’d accepted both possibilities as best I could, packing it away so I could focus on this meeting, the ruins of which lay in crumpled piles in the window.

I scrubbed a hand over my face. Sighed with a breath drawn from the very bottom of my lungs. “It’s possible. I don’t know when she’s due or how far along she is. She was hysterical when she told me, and I had to get back to the shop with supplies. There was no time to get into it. And today … well, you saw how much was accomplished today.”

Marcus’s face darkened. “You need to nail this down and get confirmation from a doctor. I know you want to believe her, but—”

“I don’t want to believe her, Marcus. I don’t want this to be true, not with her, not like this. If it is, you know I won’t walk away. But I’m under no illusions when it comes to Wendy or her intentions, especially when her back’s against the wall. I have something to do with why she’s back, and either it’s because I’m the father of her child or because she wants me to be.”

Laney shook her head. “God, if she lied … Luke, this is so fucked up. And Tess…”

Pain split my chest in two at the mention of her name. “I know.”

Jett’s brows were drawn. “What about the magazine? Do you think you can patch that up?”

“Not until I hear from them. I’ll try to reach out in a few days, but I can’t force them to give me another chance any more than I can Tess. Time and space. That’s all I’ve got to work with. And in the meantime, I’ll figure out exactly what’s going on with Wendy.”

“You’re gonna have to deal with Mom too,” Kash added.

Everyone sighed at that, even Marcus.

“You committed the cardinal sin,” Laney noted. “You slept with Wendy, and Mom will see that as a personal betrayal. She’s probably wondering what she did wrong when you were a baby that you’d sleep with Wendy after all she’s done to you.”

“I’ll talk to her tonight, after she burns an effigy and cries over my baby pictures.”

“And how are you planning on avoiding her and Tess?” Marcus asked.

“You act like avoiding things isn’t a special skill of mine.” A chuckle rolled through them, but I didn’t so much as smile. “I’ll stay here all day. I’ve got the installation to figure out, or at least break down. See if I can get another one put together with stuff we have in storage. That should take me all day. I don’t suspect anyone will bother me. The only one who wants to talk to me is the one person I don’t want to see.”