I swallowed hard. “And then a baby. I’ll be able to have a baby.”
I smiled as I said it, and I listened to her speak again before I hung up the phone and let out a breath.
I was going to have a baby. Maybe not in the most conventional sense, but I was ready. I was ready for my future. I did not need a relationship to make that happen. So yes, I was a Garrett. A Montgomery.
And soon, I’d make my own family.
Even if I was the only person that knew.
Chapter 2
Benjamin
I dug my hands into the soil and let out a relieved breath. It had been a long morning, full of dealing with clients, paperwork, and the bank. Nothing like my typical day, and I just wanted to get my hands dirty. Yes, I had lunch later, for which I had to be clean, but my ex knew who I was and how dirty I got. The fact that I usually had dirt somewhere on my body wasn’t why we were exes per se, but she knew my faults. So that meant, for now, I would stay covered in dirt and just dig.
“Hole looks about right.” I leaned back, studied the bed in front of me. “Let’s set her in.”
We had used a shovel for the first part, but I always liked to get down and dirty and make sure that the sides of the hole for the trees we planted were set. I did that with every tree that I helped plant, every bush, every flower. I needed to feel the earth.
I may be a weird landscape architect, but it was my niche. It’s what I did. The rest of my team did the same thing. I didn’t know if they had just learned it from me or it was something we all did. It didn’t matter. In the end, we were fucking good at our jobs.
“I’m glad that you talked her out of the Pyrus calleryana.”
I snorted at Timothy and helped him place the tree. The Pyrus calleryana was famous for its unique…smell.
“Of course. It wasn’t going to fit the design anyway, and considering this is right by their bedroom window? No, they don’t need that smell in the mornings. Though it’s still a pretty tree.”
“They’re gorgeous, and they smell like ass and other, um, things, when they’re blooming.”
I looked around the area and made sure that nobody else was around but my team.
Timothy blushed. “Sorry.”
“Oh no, it’s technically a construction site, you can expect the cursing, and I curse more than you,” I said with a laugh. “However, I know our client is heading around to visit us today, and so the last thing that we need is to get yelled at.”
This client was a bit demanding, but I didn’t mind. Their lawn and garden would look fantastic when we were done with it, but they’d had particular views on what they wanted, and while I had liked most of it and hadn’t minded working with their initial plans, some of it just wasn’t good for a Colorado climate, nor for the size of their lawn.
Not to mention the whole smell thing of those specific blooms.
I was excited to see how everything would look by the end of the project, and how closely it would match what was in my head. Most of the time, it matched near perfect, but sometimes things surprised me. Usually, I liked those surprises, other times not so much. However, I had to hope for good things with this one because while we were a bit closed-off in terms of what we were allowed to do because of the client’s wishes, the client had great ideas and I didn’t mind working with them. As long as we didn’t have to deal with smelly trees.
“Didn’t you say you have some big lunch or something?” Timothy asked as he frowned down at his phone.
I pulled mine out of my pocket and shrugged. “I’ve got an hour.”
Kennedy came up to his side and raised a brow. They shook their head. “Yet look at the dirt on your knees and your hands. You’re going to have to clean up before you meet with Laura.” They wiggled their brows, and I sighed.
“I’m having lunch with Laura and her wife. This isn’t a get-back-together thing. It’s just having lunch with my ex because she said she wanted to meet me.”
“I see,” Kennedy said as they looked over at Timothy. Timothy just rolled his eyes.
“I don’t see,” Timothy added. “Then again, while I end up as friends with my exes, I don’t usually go out to lunch with them and their new significant others.”
“Yes, you do. You make sure you bring whoever you’re currently dating at the time,” Kennedy added.
“As is only just. Because while I appreciate the fact that my exes are moving on and having wonderful lives, I have to show that I too am having a wonderful life.”
“If I show up to lunch without a date, it’s saying I don’t have a wonderful life?” I asked, deadpan.
“That’s not what we’re saying,” Kennedy said, their hands outstretched. “I mean, you’re doing wonderful. You have us.”
I looked between Kennedy and Timothy and shook my head. “That makes me feel so good about myself,” I said with a laugh.
“Ouch,” Timothy added.
“Well, you deserve it. Maybe. Okay, I guess I will go at least head home and change my pants.” I looked down at my knees and winced. “Yeah, I should probably change.”
“Don’t you have a pair of pants in your truck?” Kennedy asked, frowning.
“I always have a change of clothes in my truck, but since my place is in between here and the restaurant, I’ll just head over there. This is nothing,” I said. “Whenever Laura and Michelle are in town, I meet with them. They’re good people.”
“And you’re good people.” Timothy wrapped his arm around Kennedy, and Kennedy just rolled their eyes. “We just love you, and we want you to be happy.”
“You’re starting to sound like my mother and the matchmaking schemes. My siblings are all the ones in loving and serious relationships. I’m doing just fine on my own.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what they embroider on the singles’ napkins.”
“So what if it is? I’m allowed to be on my own. Neither of you are dating anyone.”
The two gave each other looks, and I held back a chuckle. I knew that they were dating, and had been for a while, but because they worked together, they were doing their best to pretend that they weren’t. I didn’t mind, they did their work well, and it had been six months after all. If things got sketchy, I’d have to deal with the fallout, but I also knew that both of them treated their exes well. The two worked together, and not just at work. They fit.
I was the single one out again, but I didn’t mind.
“Let’s finish this up, and then I’ll head home and get ready,” I said, pushing thoughts of relationships out of my mind. Laura had asked to meet, and I was going to go. I didn’t have a date, or even a fake date to bring, and it didn’t matter. I had eaten with the two of them before, and it hadn’t been a big deal. I had introduced Michelle to Laura about a year after Laura and I had broken up, and I had figured the two would hit it off. I had been in their wedding, for damn’s sake. I was their friend. And even though they didn’t live here anymore, I saw them any chance I could.
That didn’t mean I was lonely. I was just going to be the only true single uncle in the Montgomerys, which was just fine with me.