Military Daddies’ Nanny (Lucky Women’s Daddies Reverse Harem #1)

Chapter 20

Carlos

I pace the length of my workshop, barely registering the tools and half-finished projects littering every available surface. My mind is a maelstrom, churning with disbelief and simmering rage.

How could Drew do this? After everything we've been through together, everything we've built. He's just going to throw it all away? And for what? The woman who walked out on him without a backward glance?

The wrench I've been absently fiddling with clatters to the concrete as my grip spasms. I left Drew and Karen to their private conversation earlier, herding the kids upstairs before they could be subjected to any more of this mess. Now, with Jason and Bella sequestered in their rooms, the reality of the situation crashes over me anew.

Karen is back. And just like that, our careful construction of family and home feels ready to topple like a house of cards.

I drag a hand down my face, exhaling harshly. This can't be happening. Not now, when we were finally settling into something stable. Something real.

The soft shuffle of footsteps behind me barely registers until Nathan's hand lands on my shoulder, gripping tight. "Carlos."

I turn to face him, taking in the hard set of his jaw, the shadows lurking behind his eyes. "Hey, man. The kids okay?" he asks.

I nod jerkily. "As much as they can be, given the circumstances. Jason's reading, and I think Bella snuck her phone into her room to text her friends."

A ghost of a smile flickers across his lips. "Probably to tell them about how her long-lost mom decided to show up out of nowhere."

I snort humorlessly. Yeah, that tracks. Ever since Nancy came into our lives, Bella's been slowly emerging from her shell, finding her voice, and making connections. And now…

Now Karen steps back in, upending everything. Christ.

"I can't believe he's even considering this," I mutter, more to myself than Nathan. But he hears me anyway, fingers tightening incrementally around the neck of the bottle in his hand.

Whiskey, from the looks of it. Not usually my poison of choice, but tonight...tonight I'm tempted.

"You and me both." Nathan's voice is sandpaper-rough, edged with fury. "I tried talking some sense into him, but..." He trails off, shaking his head. "It's like he's got blinders on or something. All he can see is this chance to give the kids their mom back."

And I get it, I do. On some level, I understand Drew's desperation to make things right, to give Bella and Jason the family they deserve. But at what cost?

"What about Nancy?" I ask, afraid to know the answer.

Nathan's face twists. "Gone. She met Karen. Jesus, I don't even know what he said to her. But she bolted."

"Fuck." The expletive slips out unbidden as I spin away, hands fisting in my hair. This is bad. This is so fucking bad . "We need to find her."

I don't wait for Nathan's response, already fumbling my phone from my back pocket. Come on, come on... My thumb jabs Nancy's name in my favorites list, before I lift it to my ear as it starts to ring.

One ring. Two. Three. My heart thuds against my ribcage, a staccato percussion of worry. Pick up, mamacita. Please pick up…

Just when I'm ready to hurl the device across the room in frustration, there's a click. And then, thank every god in existence, Nancy's voice.

"H-hello?"

Relief wars with concern as I register the tremor in her tone, the unmistakable rasp of recent tears. "Nancy? Baby, where are you? Are you okay?"

A choked sound filters through the speaker, my chest constricting at the obvious distress. When she finally manages to speak, the words send ice water flooding my veins.

"I'm at the hospital."

For a split second, everything stops. The world narrows to a pinprick, my pulse a deafening roar in my ears. Hospital. Nancy. Hospital .

"What happened?" The question rips from my throat, rough and urgent. "Are you hurt? Which hospital?"

Dimly, I'm aware of Nathan hovering nearby, tension radiating off him in waves as he strains to make out Nancy's end of the conversation. I switch the phone to speaker without conscious thought.

"St. Mary's," Nancy says, her voice small. So small. "I...I passed out. My friend Jamie, she called an ambulance..."

"We're on our way." The words tumble out before she's even finished speaking, an assurance and a vow rolled into one. "Just hang tight, okay? We'll be there soon."

I end the call and whirl to face Nathan, who's already reaching for his keys. No words are needed. We're moving in unison, footsteps echoing against the linoleum as we barrel toward the front door.

Nathan takes out his phone as I get behind the wheel. “Telling Drew?” I ask.

Nathan nods. “Yeah, I texted to tell him we were leaving the house so he should take care of the kids.”

“Did you tell him Nancy called?” I feel like if Drew knew something happened to Nancy, he would want to come as well. “Did he text back?”

Nathan shakes his head though. “No. I didn’t mention Nancy. I just said we needed to get some air. We’ll tell him what happened when we’ve made sure that Nancy’s safe.”

I nod tersely, peeling out of the driveway with probably more speed than was strictly necessary. Later, I'll need to circle back and hash this out with Drew—figure out how the hell we're supposed to navigate Karen's reappearance without shattering the family we've painstakingly cobbled together.

But right now? Right now, all that matters is getting to Nancy.

The drive to St. Mary's passes in a blur of compressed time, my knuckles white around the steering wheel. Neither Nathan nor I speak. The air is thick with shared anxiety, filled with all the things we're afraid to voice aloud.

What if she hit her head when she fell? What if…

No . I slam the door on that line of thinking before it can take root. Nancy will be fine. She has to be.

We screech into the parking lot in record time, tires squealing against asphalt. The second I throw the Jeep into park, we're out and running, sprinting toward the looming edifice of the hospital.

Inside, fluorescent lights cast sickly shadows across institutional green walls as we skid to a stop at the reception desk. "Nancy Jones," I pant, probably looking half-crazed. "She was brought in by ambulance. Where…"

"Carlos! Nathan!"

We spin in unison at the familiar voice, sagging with relief at the sight of Nancy pushing herself up from a nearby row of plastic chairs, a woman beside her, assisting her. She looks pale and drawn, but gloriously, blessedly whole.

"Oh, thank God." The words gust out of me as we converge on her, four hands fussing over her and checking her all over. "Are you okay? What happened?"

“Everyone calm down. That’s not what she needs right now,” the woman, whom I’m guessing is Jamie says, putting her arms over her friend protectively.

Nancy smiles weakly. “It’s all right, Jamie.”

Nancy sinks back into the uncomfortable-looking chair, fingers trembling as she tucks an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "I...I don't know. Everything just sort of went black. Jamie said I fainted while we were on the phone..."

My jaw clenches as I crouch beside her, taking in the smudged shadows beneath her eyes, the slight quiver of her lower lip. She looks...fragile. Small. And something primal inside me roars to shield her, to gather her close and never let go.

"Ms. Jones?"

We all glance up at the new voice. It’s a doctor, from the looks of it, clipboard in hand as she approaches. "I have your test results back, if you'd like to step into an exam room...?"

Nancy nods jerkily, allowing Nathan and I to help her to her feet. As we make to follow her and the doctor, though, a slender hand on my chest stops me short.

"Um. Do you think...could you three wait out here? Just for a minute?"

I blink, thrown. In all the months we've been together, I can count on one hand the number of times Nancy's asked for space. She must see the confusion, the hurt, written across my features, because she hurries to clarify.

"It's not…I promise I'll tell you everything in a second, okay? I just...I need to hear whatever this is on my own first."

She looks so earnest, so raw, that I find myself nodding despite the unease roiling in my gut. "Yeah. Yeah, of course, mamacita . We'll be right here."

Nancy offers a wan smile before disappearing after the doctor, leaving Jamie, Nathan and I to sink into the vacated chairs. For a long moment, we just sit there in tense silence, each lost to our own swirling thoughts.

It's Nathan who finally breaks the quiet, voice low and taut. "You don't think..."

I shake my head sharply, unwilling and unable to entertain whatever spiraling possibilities are currently plaguing him. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, yeah? I'm sure she's fine. Probably just stress or dehydration or something."

The words ring hollow even to my own ears. Because the truth is, I'm terrified. More scared than I've been since…

“It’s nice to meet you both, finally,” Jamie says. “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

Carlos stands and grimaces. “Pardon our manners. We’re just very worried, otherwise we would have introduced ourselves. I’m Carlos and this is Nathan.”

Nathan nods and smiles, offering her his hand, although the worry in his eyes for Nancy is evident.

We relapse back into silence and my thoughts travel back to a time I would rather not think of, although I can’t help it because it’s the same dread I feel now.

Since Drew lay bleeding out beneath my hands in that godforsaken desert, his life seeping away even as I screamed for a medic.

I scrub a hand down my face, pulse rabbiting beneath my skin. This is different, I tell myself firmly. Nancy will walk back out any minute now with a clean bill of health, and we can all go home and forget this nightmare of a day ever happened.

Except...that's not quite true, is it? Even if Nancy's okay—and she will be, she has to be—we still have the Karen situation to contend with.

The memory of Drew's shuttered expression, his quiet insistence that he needs to try to make things work with his ex, hits me like a sucker punch to the solar plexus. How did everything go so wrong, so fast?

I'm yanked from my spiraling thoughts by the sound of a door clicking open. My head snaps up just in time to see Nancy emerge from the exam room, a doctor in tow. She looks...dazed. Shell-shocked.

Nathan and I are on our feet in an instant, crowding close. "Well?" I demand, probably more brusquely than intended. "What's the verdict? You okay?"

Nancy just blinks at us, her throat bobbing soundlessly, almost as if she can’t force out whatever she’s trying to say.

Nathan grabs her and shakes her lightly. “Nancy. Snap out of it. What’s wrong? What did the tests say? Whatever it is, it’s just another thing for us to deal with together, right?”

She looks up at Nathan, fear visible in her eyes, and swallows hard. And then—

"I'm pregnant."

For a long, suspended moment, nobody moves. Nobody breathes. The words seem to hang in the air between us, impossible and earth-shattering all at once. Pregnant. Nancy is...we're…

"Are you sure?" The question slips out before I can stop it, earning me a look from the doctor—half amused, half exasperated.

"We ran the blood work twice," she says. "There's no doubt. Ms. Jones is approximately eight weeks along."

Eight weeks . My mind whirs, calculating backward. That would put conception right around…right around the time things got serious between the four of us. When we went from casual hookups to something deeper, more lasting. When “we” became “us” in a way I never could have anticipated.

I meet Nancy's eyes, a thousand unspoken questions swirling in their depths. Because we all know what this means. In eight weeks' time, we've all been with Nancy. Any one of us could be the father.

My gaze darts to Nathan, seeing my own shock and awe mirrored in his expression. And then, unbidden, an image of Drew flashes through my mind. Drew, who just hours ago was ready to cast this all aside. Drew, who might have no idea that he could be…

"Carlos? Nathan?" Nancy's voice snaps me back to the present, small and scared. "Please say something."

But for once in my life, words fail me. Because how do you even begin to wrap your head around something like this? A baby. Our baby.

The only question now is, how do we fix our failing relationship so we can be a family again?