“Is it him confusing you, or her?”

“Her.” I tsked. “But Colin did figure out I’m his dad before we could tell him.”

“Oh, wow, um. I guess it’s not a total surprise he put two and two together. You did go John Wick in front of him.”

Why’d that make me smile? “You heard him say that?”

“Over Hudson’s comm, yeah.”

“The kid really is like me. He’s trying to act tough and put on a brave face when in reality, he’s probably dying on the inside.”

“Oh my God,” she remarked in an exasperated tone.

I rewound my words, unsure why she had that reaction. Oh. I ran my fingers through my hair, gripping the ends, working hard to keep it together as the weight of the morning caught up with me.

Since the cat was out of the bag anyway, I went ahead and unloaded on Izzy, sharing more of what went down with Colin. Everything from the Ziploc bag to him calling her a chick.

“Well, I’m speechless.”

“For you, that’s saying a lot. You never shut up.”

“I’m eye-rolling you so hard,” she teased.

“I know.” At least I was smiling and not quite as moody after dumping all that on her.

She switched back to serious, saying, “I think his reaction is perfectly normal. He’s probably going to bounce back and forth between extreme emotions as this settles in for him.”

Yeah, I could relate to that.

“Happy one minute, hiding his tears like you do the next.”

“I don’t hide them because I don’t cry.”

“Sure, sure.” She gave me a five-second break before turning the conversation in the direction I was trying to avoid. “Talk to me about Juliette. What’s going on with you two?”

“She’s driving me crazy.” In ways I didn’t care to share with my little sister. Having to hide an erection while in the kitchen despite the hell we’d gone through this morning was proof I was off my fucking rocker.

“Has a woman ever driven you nuts?”

“Besides you?”

“I don’t count.”

I sat taller, my bent knee going straight. “Just one, when she didn’t call me after I left her my number seventeen years ago.”

“Oh.” She paused. “Ohhhhh.”

Yeah, tell me about it.

“Well, um, how’s she making you crazy?”

By simply existing and not being mine. I kept that thought under lock and fucking key. “She dared to suggest I might feel obligated to be with her because we share a son.”

“Well, duh.”

“I beg your finest pardon.”

“Come on, you know it’s true. Don’t lie to me, yourself, or to her.”

I had to stand for this. “What are you saying?”