Page 98 of Love In The Spotlight

He laughed. “This isn’t a secret. I guess I just didn’t think to tell you this. But no one is going to ever find out who birthed Penelope.”

“How is that possible?” she asked, frowning.

“Penelope was born in Connecticut. I told you what I did. Mercedes had a place to live and a babysitter of sorts, but I made sure she was away from anyone she knew and her old habits. She agreed to it for the sum she was given.”

“No one she worked with knew she was pregnant?” she asked.

“No. She didn’t want them to know because she knew she’d go back to it and didn’t want to be judged for any body change.”

Laken snorted. “It’s not like she was a model,” she said.

“Whatever made her happy. My attorney drew it all up as she was a surrogate. A paid surrogate.”

She grinned. “You didn’t do much differently than a lot of people would do if they couldn’t have a child themselves. Getting a surrogate and paying for everything.”

“Exactly,” he said. “We both got what we wanted in the end. Her name is nowhere on the birth certificate. I am Penelope’s biological father. I’m not the first single father out there that had a surrogate for their child.”

“Are you going to say that?” she asked. “If asked.”

“No,” he said. “It’s no one’s business. But if somehow it ever gets leaked, that is all anyone will see.”

“Why didn’t you tell your parents that?” she asked.

“Because that wouldn’t have been any better in their eyes. They knew I didn’t have a relationship with Penelope’s mother. I’d said she’d never been in the picture. They put it together themselves. If I said I hired a surrogate, my parents would have said that was unnatural and I should have just waited until I was married. In their eyes, I think it might have been worse.”

“And it’d be a lie,” she said. “You can’t bring yourself to lie to them, can you?”

“It’s not a lie,” he said. “Legally that is what it ended up being, it’s just not how it came about. So yeah, maybe all those teachings from my father shoved down my throat stuck.”

“I’m proud of you, Jamie. You’re a great person who just got a little wild and out of control. We all go off course at some point in life.”

He laughed at her. “I’m sure I was more than you. I’ve heard how you just wanted to make your brother proud and prove how hard of a worker you were.”

She cringed. “My mother said that, didn’t she?”

“Maybe,” he said.

“I know West is proud of me. We want to make our parents proud. West is my big brother.”

“But he was like a father to you too,” he said. “He had a lot on his shoulders at a young age. When he and Abby have kids, he’ll be prepared.”

“He was like a father to me. To all of us. He didn’t get a chance to just be a kid.”

“I don’t think you did either,” he said.

“No,” she said. “That was my choice though.”

They parked and walked into a restaurant that was packed and heads turned their way.

Jamie was noticed. She reached down and grabbed his fingers like she’d said she was going to do.

“Table for two,” he said.

They were led to a table, pictures were being snapped. The show they’d just left was still on the TV so she knew there might be people in here that could have seen him.

“My choice is to do this,” she said, leaning over and kissing him. “You got to be a kid when you went to college. I could have and chose to be the good girl working hard. Now it’s time to play.”

He laughed and held the chair out for her. “I think I like this side of you,” he said.

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