Page 3 of Accidental Baby Daddy

I was sure they’d been in touch with Gillian, though, my little sister. I guess I was hoping that my family would take me in regardless, at least for a few months until I could get back on my feet. I prayed that they would.

When Lily stopped at the next gas station to fill up, I walked inside, buying myself a bag of chips and a stick of beef jerky. I hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday; I’d been too nervous last night and this morning.

After I devoured my snacks, Lily offered me a thermos full of cold water, and I gulped greedily as if it were nectar from the gods.

By the time we arrived at the airport, I felt a lot more human.

“Are you on your way back home to Texas?” Lily asked as we approached the terminal. She hadn’t spoken much on the way there. It was about a half an hour drive, so I was more than grateful that she picked me up. Although, in truth, I probably could have made it there quicker on foot.

“I am,” I said, and reached into my dress, pulling out my cash. I tried to offer her some but she immediately pushed my hand away. “No need for that. I’m happy to help get a fellow Texan back home. I hope to get there myself, someday.”

“If you do, look me up. Lexie Tripp of Wagontown,” I told her as I jumped out of the cab. She gave me a sloppy salute and a wink.

There really are angels on Earth, and people like Lily proved that. I watched her drive away before heading into the terminal and toward the ticket booths.

The cashier didn’t even blink an eye, clearly used to seeing somebody like me showing up at her station while working at JFK.

“International or domestic?”

I was able to get a one-way ticket for Dallas, thank God, and once I got through security, I wondered who I knew still living in Wagontown.

Specifically, I wondered if Oliver was still there.

Oliver Stanhope. My first love. My first heartbreak.

Surely, he wouldn’t still be in town. He was probably married now with kids, he’d always wanted a family. The thought was a little bittersweet, even with how things ended with us. Nevertheless, I still wished the best for him.

Besides, the odds that I’d run into him were a million to one.

Chapter 2

Oliver

My father looked pale and withdrawn when he opened the door, and I couldn’t say I blamed him.

“How are you holding up, old man?” I asked gently, and he shrugged.

“Been better,” he admitted, his voice hoarse. He had bags under his eyes, as if he hadn’t been sleeping.

I walked past him into the living room of his new apartment. An empty, smelly pizza box sat on the coffee table, and I wrinkled my nose.

“Anchovies.”

My father laughed. “Your mother would never let me order them.”

With good reason, I thought but didn’t say.

My father’s penchant for smelly fish wasn’t what made my mother want to separate, but it certainly didn’t help. Neither did his long hours working on the oil rig.

“Trent’s out in the car,” I said. “Ready to go to dinner?”

He looked ready, his button-up shirt wrinkly but clean.

My father nodded, clearing his throat, and sliding on hisshoes at the door. “I appreciate you coming over to visit, Ollie. I’m sorry I’m in such a bad way.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s all right, Dad. It happens to the best of us.”

Hell, it had even happened to me though it was a long time ago. Not after thirty years, luckily, but still. I couldn’t think about Lex now, that would just send me into a spiral. I needed to be there for my dad, not wallowing in my own past hurts.

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