Page 74 of Regrets

I hear the door to the house open but don’t look up. “Are you okay?”

P walks out, her hair in a haphazard bun, wearing my t-shirt, not his. She has a coffee mug in her hands as she sits in the chair next to me, pulling her feet into the chair and tugging the shirt down over her bare legs. “I’m fine.”

She points to my cheek, where she slapped me yesterday. “I shouldn’t have hit you.”

“I’m fine.” I turn to look at her. “Really. Not the first time I’ve been bitch-slapped and probably not the last.”

She takes a sip from the mug, holding it with both of her small hands. “Where did you go yesterday?”

“To Kansas City to take a DNA test.” I leave out that after that, I went to see my father.

I take a drink from my coffee, and her eyes still on my hand. “What happened?”

Fuck, I forgot my hand is bruised from its meeting with my asshole father’s face. “Nothing.”

“Linc . . .”

She’s not going to drop it. “I punched a prick in the face. One who deserved it.”

“Who?” She looks confused as a familiar car pulls up.

We both look at Lola as she flies out of her car and up the stairs, hands in the air. “You punched Dad?”

“What?” Now Penelope looks horrified. “Why would you hit your father?”

Well, shit. I could probably have handled one pain in the ass this morning but not both. I look up at Lola and sigh, nodding to the bench on the porch across from the chairs. “Sit.”

And of course, she doesn’t. She just lifts her golden sunglasses to sit on top of her head and places a hand on her hip. “What’s going on?”

Penelope stares at me as she sits the mug on the table in between the chairs. “Linc?”

I look at my sister, handling her first. “Colt had sex with a chick from school. He got Vivienne Crenshaw pregnant right before he died.”

I can feel P flinch even though I’m not looking at her. Lola sits down on the bench now, gasping deeply, “What?” She turns to P. “You didn’t know?”

Penelope shakes her head. “No. I knew he was acting strange, but I had no idea he cheated.”

Lola shakes her head, her hand gripping her hair at the roots. “No. He would not do that to Penelope.”

I swallow the tension and try to remember to breathe. It’s all so fucking unreal. “He did. I took a DNA test yesterday, which she had no objections to because she’s certain.”

“Did it come back yet?”

I shake my head at my sister, feeling P’s eyes on me. “No, but you should see this kid. He’s Colt’s.”

Lola is shaking her head in a robotic gesture, and I know she’s in complete shock. “He wouldn’t do that to her.”

“He did.”

I’m an asshole, but I think we need to get out of the denial phase.

“Why did you hit Dad, then?”

Not surprisingly, he didn’t tell her. I turn my head slowly to look at P, knowing this next part is going to hurt, but I can’t keep it from her. It’s not fair for her not to have the whole story. Colt did that to her. I won’t.

“Colt went to Dad to tell him he was going to propose.” Penelope’s jaw drops, and I hear Lola make a quick gasp as I turn to look at her. “You knew?”

Lola nods her head. “Not that he was going to tell Dad, but that he was going to propose.” She turns to Penelope. “He wanted me to help him pick out the ring. We were going to wait until I was home for the summer.”

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