I had to think about it as I pulled a reusable stainless-steel straw from Mo’s backpack and dropped it into my fresh lemonade. “Twice.”

She hmphed, and I narrowed my eyes at her, not even bothering to try to hide it.

“We thought the first time was a fluke, so we tried again another day, and didn’t try after that,” I explained, trying not to get bent out of shape by her thinking I was causing my kid emotional distress or anything.

One of her eyebrows went up a little, and I could tell that still wasn’t good enough for her. Or maybe I was being a bitch and looking too much into it. I doubted it though.

Our source of entertainment grabbed another block and shoved it into her mouth, sucking on it, loudly, pulling it out of her mouth, staring at it, and then putting it back inside.

“Jonah said she’s eight months,” the woman said after a moment.

I gave my lemonade a stir. “Yeah. Her birthday is May 2nd.”

“Is she your only child?”

I stopped stirring and stared across the table.

Shut the fuck up, Lenny. It’s not worth it. Just shut the hell up.

And… I couldn’t. When the hell did I ever give shit up? Never?

I gave my lemonade another stir, slower that time, and asked her in a sugar-sweet voice that would have made Grandpa Gus cackle at how fake it was. “How many do you think I have?”

“Okay,” Jonah interjected in that too-calm voice. “Mum, that wasn’t nice. Lenny….” He just turned his head to me and blinked.

I smiled at him.

His dimple popped out at me.

Fine. I guessed. God knows Grandpa had muttered worse in front of him before. “Yes, she’s my one and only,” I answered his mom grudgingly. I flicked my eyes back toward my little monster and did smile then. “She was my seven-pound, eight-ounce surprise.”

She was too busy slobbering on her food to know I was talking about her.

Good lord this lunch was going to be something, and the only person I felt bad for was Jonah. And his sister. God knew I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

“So it wasn’t intentional?” Sarah asked before clearing her throat. “Jonah, don’t make that face at me. It’s a simple question.”

Natia, who had been busy making faces while still taking pictures of Mo from where she was sitting, coughed. “I can’t believe you even talked to a girl long enough to get her to spend time with you, Hema. Much less have s-e-x with you.”

I stopped breathing and had to fight for every second I didn’t laugh. And that fight lasted two seconds—two seconds in which Jonah choked and his mom gasped—and then I asked, “What?”

“Yeh, you didn’t know he’s shy?” Natia asked, grinning wide.

“Natia,” Jonah groaned, his face already turning pink.

Wait a second, wait a second… I looked at the man sitting across from me and tried to process what the hell his sister had just said and scoffed, “You’re shy? Since when?”

“Always,” his sister responded with a cackle. “You haven’t noticed? If it’s footy he’s talking about, he’s fine. Any other topic with a stranger?” She pinched her index and thumb finger together and drew a line across her mouth, then cackled again. “Really? You didn’t notice?”

Shit.

Now that she mentioned it, I had noticed how he started talking with his Stuart Little voice every time he talked to women, and I know I’d wondered why the hell he was always whispering, but now…

Now it made sense.

And I couldn’t help but grin at him. “I wondered why you were being weird—”

He huffed for the first time I had ever seen. “I was not being weird.”

Oh my gosh. This sweet, little innocent soul. “No, you were not. I’m sorry. You have never been weird around strangers in front of me. You were being shy. Why didn’t you tell me?” I straight-up asked him.

Natia started cackling a little more. “Did he do his small voice? The one that you can barely hear?”

Tearing my eyes away from his blushing face, I nodded at her, trying my hardest not to smile because I was trying to be understanding and supportive over the idea of this beast of a man being shy. Heh. Wow. I seriously couldn’t believe I hadn’t put it together before. “Not with me, but with other people, he has. I never realized that’s what you were doing, Jonah. You talk to my grandpa and Peter just fine.”

“Well, that explains it then,” his sister said. “Wow. We’ve been making bets—”

Jonah groaned. “Nati, no—”

She ignored him. “Lenny, he’s been shy for ages. I mean, forever. His entire life. Even with teachers he would get like that. Did you talk to him first?”

I nodded, switching back and forth between looking at him and then at her.

“I knew it,” she bobbed her head triumphantly. “I knew it.”

A thought entered my head that killed just a slice of the pleasure in my heart. “Wait, but you’ve had girlfriends before. So you’re just shy around certain people?”

His sister didn’t give him a chance to answer. “You mean Hanna and that annoying girl? They were our neighbors. We grew up together. They weren’t strangers. I always thought they were more like your sisters.” She snorted with a shake of her head. “Settled for them, he did.”

Fuck me.

I raised my eyebrows and smiled at her, and she did the same right back.

And poor Jonah just sat there, still pink and at a loss for words.

I liked his sister even more now.

Jonah being shy. Who the fuck would have known? Jesus Christ. And his ex-girlfriends had been people he’d grown up around.

That shouldn’t make me feel nice, but it really, really did.

He let out a deep grumble as he sat back in his chair. I’d cut him a break.

Turning to Mrs. Collins and going back to the question she had asked, I told her, “To answer your question, no, Mo wasn’t intentional. I had never planned on having kids, if you really want to know.” I smiled at how uncomfortable she looked... at me or at the conversation we’d just had about Jonah having girlfriends and having sex? I had no idea, and I didn’t care. “But I wouldn’t change anything. I’m just glad that Jonah’s happy and wants to be part of her life. That’s the most a mom can ask for, isn’t it?” I was sure there was more I could ask for, but that was beside the point.

The other woman took a deep inhale, set her shoulders, and I got ready.

Natia must have sensed something too because she suddenly shot up in her chair and said, “Oh, I have a phone call. I’ll be back.”

And that was when Mrs. Collins spoke. “Jonah is a wonderful man, of course he would want to be part of his daughter’s life.” That was what she decided to pick up on of all things.

Did she want me to argue that? I wouldn’t. So I kept my mouth shut to keep the temptation of saying something unnecessary down. Grandpa Gus had always said that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, to just say it in my head. And most of the time I couldn’t uphold that, but in this case, I could. Because she was right. He was a good man.

“But,” she kept going, and something in me told me I wasn’t going to like whatever was about to come out of her mouth next either. “I can’t help but feel it’s a bit convenient that you say that you didn’t want to have kids, but you happened to have one with my son, a successful rugby player in every sense, who happens to do very well for himself. A former All Black—”

“Mum,” Jonah said in a voice that was pretty damn close to a growl.

But I didn’t look at him. I just looked at the woman who was staring right back at me without the smallest sense of shame or submission.

“That’s no secret,” she went on, apparently ignoring him too. “Jonah, I’m only speaking the truth. Aren’t I? Your deal in France was well publicized. It was in the papers. On the internet. Seems a bit convenient to me, is all, that you just found out now that it’s time for you to sign a new contract when you’re still playing so well after your injuries.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him lean forward. Using that same tone as before, the one that was almost a low spit, he said very quietly, “That was completely uncalled for and unnecessary. You promised me you would listen.”

Oh shit.

He kept going. “You said you would listen to the entire story later, but you’ve broken your promise and insulted Lenny. She’s the mother of my daughter, Mum. She’s my… mate. My partner.”

I was his mate? His friend? Was that what he meant? And his partner? Like his partner in crime? I guess I had said he could be in the Mo League.

I sat there and let that soak in. I liked it. You know, if I ignored the fact that I liked him and that was all he saw in our… friendship. But what could I do? It was good enough. I should have been overjoyed we got along so well.