Alicia holds a finger to her lips as she leads the way into the house. “The others might still be sleeping,” she whispers.
Sure enough, the house seems dark and quiet. It looks like everyone’s still in bed. Alicia points me toward her room to wait and goes to another door, which I suspect must be Kayla’s.
“This is big,” I say. “I know I’m her father, but now she’ll know officially. Do you think she’s going to understand?”
“I think so,” she says. “She’s aware of fathers. I don’t think it’s ever occurred to her to wonder whether she had one herself. And there’s no one I’d rather have as the father of my baby.”
“Not even that Chad guy?” I can’t resist teasing her.
She socks my shoulder lightly. “Chad was never anything to her,” she says. “Even when we lived together, he wasn’t part of her life. He treated her like she was a pet or something. He was happy to look after her for me when I had somewhere I needed to be, and I could trust him to keep her safe, but he didn’t care about her.”
“He sounds like an asshole.”
“He wasn’t quite on Lonnie’s level, but he was definitely a waste of my time.”