"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Holding a hand up, Daryl stared at me like I'd grown three heads. "What are you saying here, Molls? That you think I'm gonna up and leave you to raise my kid by yourself?"

"No…" I shrugged, unsure of how to answer that question. "I'm just saying that I understand that you have other obligations –"

"From where I'm standing, I only have one obligation," Daryl cut me off. "And that's to you, Molly." Clearing his throat, he added, "Well, two if you count the intruder in there."

"Intruder?"

"Yeah." He shrugged sheepishly. "It was all I had in the moment."

"Intruder's a pretty accurate description for this little guy," I agreed, smiling.

"Guy?" Daryl's eyes lit up. "It's a boy?"

"I have no idea," I replied. "But that's what I've been calling him."

"Well, hell, you better hope we ain't having a daughter," he warned, chuckling nervously. "'Cause she's gonna be pissed when she finds out that her mama spent nine months referring to her as guy instead of princess."

"Mama." I shook my head. "I still can't believe that I'm gonna be someone's mama."

"Holy fuck," Daryl choked out, eyes widening to the size of saucers. "I just realized that I'm gonna be someone's daddy."

59 Daryl

I had no words.

Well, none that made any sense, at least.

I came outside to my truck, fully expecting to beg for Molly's forgiveness, and instead she dropped a bomb on me.

I was going to be a father.

Me.

A daddy.

And I didn’t even get nine months to get used to it, either.

I got four.

Holy shit.

"Does your father want to kill me?" I asked, as more of an afterthought. "Ah hell, he's gonna kill me, ain't he?"

"No," she replied, lips tipping upwards. "He's had a month to get used to the idea."

"Lucky him," I muttered, shaking my head.

"Are you mad at me?" Molly asked then.

"What?" I stared at her. "Mad at you?"

"For not telling you sooner." Chewing on her bottom lip, she rested her small hands on her big belly and sighed. "For running away."

"I understand why you had to leave, Molly," I told her, and it was the truth. "I know how bad you were hurting – and how much of that pain I'm responsible for – and even though it fucking killed me every day that you were gone, I understand why you had to do it."

Affection filled her brown eyes. "You do?"

I nodded slowly and dared to place my hand on her knee. "I'm just glad that you came back to me." Instead of shoving my hand off like I'd half expected, Molly covered it with hers. "You did come back to me…right?"

She was quiet for a long time before whispering, "Yeah, D. I came back to you."

Relief flooded my body. "Thank Christ for that."

"I'm not over it." She looked at me with sad, lonesome eyes. "I don’t know when or if I ever will be…" With a little shrug of her shoulders, she added, "But I understand that everything you didn't say was kept unspoken because you love me."