Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 89324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
My stomach sank. “What does Juliana make of Blair?”
“You mean, is she jealous?”
“Well, yeah. A male-female friendship like the one you have seems rare.”
“She was a little suspect of me having a female best friend at first. I can’t blame her. But she and Blair get along well now. Over the years, she’s seen the kind of friendship we have.”
“That’s good.”
“Anyway…” he said. “I gotta start getting ready to go out tonight. You want to take a look at the car?”
“Yeah, of course.” I gestured for him to lead the way.
My mind whirled as he popped the hood and I helped him change his spark plugs.
Am I making a mistake by waiting to tell him?
Maybe getting closer to him will only make it more of a betrayal.
Who’s watching Nicholas while Blair goes out with them tonight?
Would Blair actually like this Adam guy?
How will I handle it when she inevitably gets a boyfriend?
It was a wonder I could focus at all on the task before me.
After we finished the plugs, I closed the hood and turned to Taylor. “Well, that’ll do it. Have fun tonight.”
“I will. Thanks again for stopping by. I appreciate it.” He paused. “Maybe you can work on teaching me how to fix these things myself so I don’t have to keep bugging you.”
My heart filled with pride. “I’d love to. You just let me know when you have time for some lessons.”
“I guess that can be a perk of having you close by again, huh?”
“And to think I thought you’d be annoyed to have me back in town.” I winked.
“Bye, Dad.” He gave me a quick hug, which I tried not to prolong, though I wanted to.
“Bye.” I turned and headed back to my car, still smiling, but also swallowing past a lump in my throat.
Taylor didn’t call me Dad all that often, and when he did, it made me emotional—especially now. I was desperate not to return to the way things had been with him in years past.
Guilt hung over me the entire ride home, and it worsened when I pulled up and saw Leah waiting in front of my place. Yet another person I was about to let down. But the situation with her I could control.
“Hey,” I said as I exited my car.
She smiled. “I just stopped by and knocked before I realized you weren’t home. I came by to see if you were interested in grabbing dinner.”
Between confirming I was Nicholas’s dad, having to lie to Taylor today, and my lingering jealousy over Blair’s setup tonight, I had no energy to attempt to give this woman what she deserved. I couldn’t spend another second pretending everything was normal. I needed to let her go. I’d been dreading this, but it had to be done.
“Actually, Leah… Do you think we could go inside and talk?”
Her expression dimmed.
She knows.
How could she not with the way I’d been acting lately?
As she followed me inside, I wished this was the toughest talk I’d have to have this year. But it was only the tip of the iceberg.
***
After the devastation of breaking Leah’s heart and ending our relationship, I sat in my living room, staring at the wall for most of the evening. Always one to sense when I was down, my German shepherd, Khloe, stayed right by my side.
“Girlie, I wish you could talk because I’m holding a secret right now that’s killing me.”
She rested her head on my shoulder.
I rubbed between her ears. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been around kids. I know you’re gonna be a sweet girl around Nicholas, though. We need to make sure of it. He needs to fall in love with you, just like I did.”
Khloe closed her eyes.
“I know you get excited with new people, but we don’t want to scare him away.” I smiled. “He’s technically your brother.”
I paused for a moment, realizing how nuts I sounded. I needed to talk to someone other than Khloe about this before it drove me insane. Someone trustworthy. I wondered how Blair would feel if I told my mother what was going on. Mom was the only person I’d trust with this secret, and I could use her advice about how to handle things with Taylor. She’d been close to him for years, and in many ways, she knew him better than I did.
I realized I’d been dozing on the couch when my phone rang at almost eleven PM. It was Blair. I picked up right away, panic rising. “Blair, is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Everything is fine. I’m sorry if I worried you.”
“I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight, that’s all.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
I hesitated. “Taylor told me you guys were going out.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. I went by his house earlier to help him fix his car. He mentioned that he and Juliana were having dinner with you tonight. I was planning to call you to talk about the DNA results, but I figured I’d catch up with you tomorrow morning. I’m happy you called, though.”