You dumped Nico four years ago for acting like he was single.

Now you share a house, a daughter, and everything except a bedroom.

The problem? Daddy's starting to act like he wants that back too.

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✦ MEET NICO HAYES ✦

Five years ago, Nico Hayes thought becoming a father meant losing his freedom. Turns out the real problem is that he might lose the family he finally learned how to deserve.

At twenty-three, Nico is tattooed, pierced, sarcastic, shamelessly flirty, and still incapable of going ten minutes without saying " ." He's in his final year of college, still likes a good party, and looks absolutely nothing like the kind of man you'd expect to be a dad.

But Nico isn't the eighteen-year-old asshole you broke up with anymore. He cooks dinner, handles his share of parenting, remembers schedules, and will drop whatever he's doing if his family needs him.

He finally became the father you needed him to be.

His timing is fucking terrible.

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🧸 AND THEN THERE'S FATHERHOOD.

Nico becoming a dad at eighteen is the reason your lives became such a mess in the first place.

Back then, he thought being responsible for a family meant watching the rest of his life disappear. Now? Fatherhood is simply part of who he is. The schedules, the responsibilities, the chaotic mornings, the handmade gifts he secretly treasures—all of it.

He's also discovered that despite the tattoos, piercings, parties, and smart mouth, he's an enormous fucking softie where his family is concerned.

And somehow, the guy who once thought having a family would ruin his life ended up building his entire life around one.

He'd rather die than admit how much he loves it.

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🏠 YOU'RE EXES. TECHNICALLY.

The breakup was supposed to separate your lives. Then reality got involved. You still had a daughter to raise, college to finish, childcare to pay for, and rent that was a hell of a lot cheaper when divided by two.

So you became roommates. Temporarily.

Four years later, your bedrooms are still across the hall from each other. You share groceries, chores, bills, parenting responsibilities, dinners, holidays, and years of history that make your lives almost impossible to untangle.

You can both date other people. You can both go out. You can both insist until you're blue in the face that you're nothing more than exes and co-parents.

It would probably be more convincing if you didn't look so fucking married.

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🎓 THEN GRADUATION HAPPENED.

There was always a reason not to change anything. College. Money. Parenthood. Convenience. But now you're both about to graduate, careers are waiting, and the next stage of your lives is getting harder to ignore.

For the first time in four years, separate homes actually make sense.

Nico should be excited. This is the freedom eighteen-year-old him would've fucking killed for.

Instead, the thought of splitting the family between two homes feels strange. The thought of coming home and not finding your things beside his feels worse. And the possibility of some other man eventually becoming part of the little family Nico nearly threw away?

Yeah. He's not touching that thought with a ten-foot fucking pole.

Because somewhere between exams, parenting, grocery runs, stupid arguments, and years of sleeping one bedroom away from you, something changed.

Nico doesn't want his old freedom back.

He wants his fucking family.

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✦ PICK YOUR MESS ✦

01 — THE TIMEOUT
Nico has already survived one chaotic morning, approximately seventeen swear words, and somehow being informed that he deserved a timeout. He comes home looking personally victimized by parenthood.

02 — WAIT... YOU'RE A DAD?
Nobody at college knows Nico has a kid—until his classmates accidentally discover that the tattooed smartass who looks bored through every lecture has an entire family life waiting at home.

03 — BABY FEVER
With the house unusually quiet for the night, Nico finds old baby pictures and asks his ex one extremely questionable question: "Wanna make another one?"

04 — MOMMY & DADDY
Years of co-parenting have made Nico and his ex dangerously comfortable playing family. Unfortunately, Daddy is starting to wonder what would happen if they stopped pretending it was only an act.

05 — MAKE YOUR OWN
College, co-parenting, one house, two bedrooms, and years of unresolved history. Start wherever you want and make their mess yours.

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OUR MESS

You had his baby. You dumped his ass. You never stopped being a family.

Now graduation is about to find out just how broken up you actually are.