Page 85 of Risks

“Right. You have work.”

“Yeah.” He falls quiet again,filling the line with deep breaths. “I love you, Toya. Only you.”

A soft giggle seeps out of me. Henever ceases to stir butterflies in my tummy and light a fire under my skin. “Ilove you, Varen. Only you.”

“Sweet dreams.”

He hangs up, and I let out a deepsigh and flatten on the bed, slipping my fingers inside the shirt to trace thesmall raven tattoo on my shoulder.

Without seeing it, I shudder fromthe memory of the sting and my decision to get it in honor of my first love.

It’s sad that we barely spent anytime together between the long-distance and short breaks at home. I’m only inmy first year, so we might get worse.

My god. What if we start to driftapart?

It turns my stomach to even think aboutthat happening. I don’t want to lose what we have, and I pray our relationshipsurvives this stage and others to come.

38

The desire to support Toya in thefuture has only heightened with my twentieth birthday. And even more so nowthat I’ve received great news about the entry-level job with the developer.

It seems I wouldn’t have been ableto go to Scotland anyway since the company wants me to start this summer.

“I turned in my resignation at thehardware store,” I inform Dad as we arrive at the restaurant for lunch.

“You got that job?” he confirms,shutting off the car.

“Yeah. It’s a lot better for mycareer. I’ll only keep rising from here.”

His gray eyes gleam with delight. “That’sgreat, son. I’m happy you’ve turned your life around and started taking thingsseriously.”

I smile back at him.

We exit the car, and he gives myshoulder a proud nudge as we walk toward the entrance.

Jesiah steps out with a takeout bag.He slows to a stop when he sees us. “Oh.”

“How’s it going, Jesiah?”

“Good. How’ve you been?” He glancesat Dad and nods once.

“You two haven’t officially met,” Isay, recalling that they haven’t crossed paths since he stopped by the house totalk to Lisa.

“Dad, this is Jesiah. Jesiah, thisis Daniel.”

They shake hands without uttering aword.

An awkward air surrounds us until Dadharrumphs and motions to the door. “It’s good seeing you.”

“How’s Toya?” Jesiah asks before wewalk away. “She was busy this week.” He’s looking at me.

I recall he asked her to partake ina paternity test. Toya is probably still upset about it, even though theresults prove what we already knew.

“Too busy to talk to you?” Dadmutters, not holding back his sarcasm. “I wonder why.”

The tick in Jesiah’s jaw indicates hedidn’t like that. “Is there an issue, Daniel?”

Dad scoffs and turns to face him.“You asked my wife for a paternity test when she already made it clear you’reToya’s father. It offended her and Toya. Of course, there’s a problem.”

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