Page 12 of In this Moment

She didn’t trust him. She hadn’t trusted him then, and she certainly didn’tnow.

“What are you doing here, Tony?”

He didn’t answer right away, looking instead to his wife. “Lauren, why don’t you go wait outside? There’s a bakery down the street.”

“Dream Puffs,” Evie provided.

“Dream Puffs,” Tony echoed. “Wait for me there.” She pouted so he added, “Please.”

Lauren looked as though she wanted to say something, but instead, she gave Tony a kiss on the lips that was borderline inappropriate and left them alone.

As soon as she was gone, Evie turned to him and asked again, “What are you doinghere?”

“I want to see Jonah.”

All the air pushed from her lungs and for the briefest moment, Evie thought she would pass out. Somehow she managed to find air and fill her lungs again and find a breath. She’d known the day might one day come, but she’d always assumed it would come from Jonah when he got older—that it would be his determination that drove the meeting. Tony had never shown any interest.

“Lauren and I are trying to start a family, and it’s important to her, to us, that Jonah’s part ofthat.”

That made more sense. It wasn’t coming from Tony at all. But his newwife.

“So you’re movinghere?”

“We were thinking of it, yes.” Tony paced to the other end of the store. “It’s a good place to raise a family and from all accounts, it’s booming. Could be lots of opportunity here. You’ve realized that, haven’t you?” He waved his arms to encompass her store.

She didn’t bother answering him. Instead, she set her mouth in a line and glared at him. He couldn’t intimidate her with his confident swagger and arrogant attitude about everything.

“I want to see Jonah, Evelyn.” His voice was softer this time. If he was trying to appeal to her human side, it was working. Not because she felt any sort of goodwill to Tony at all, but because letting Jonah meet his father was the right thing to do. She knew that. And she also knew Jonah would want to meethim.

“Okay,” she said. The word was sour on herlips.

“Good. Thankyou.”

“But just once and it has to be supervised and…” She searched for another condition to add to her agreement. “You can’t tell him you’re considering movinghere.”

“Okay,” he said. “The first visit will be supervised but there will be more, Evelyn. He’s my son. I want to see him and I want him to be part of our lives.”

Evie could feel her hands starting to shake, so she tucked them farther under herarms.

“Tomorrow,” Tony said. “Five o’clock. At that bakery. I’ll buy him a cinnamonbun.”

“That’s before dinner.” She knew she was hanging on by a thread, making ridiculous objections, but it was all she had. “We’ll figure something out. But not tomorrow.”

He looked as if he would object, but instead he nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you a day to figure it out, but no longer. I want this, Evie. I want Jonah to be part of mylife.”

“Okay.” Her mind raced. She’d figure something out, but she wouldn’t be able to put Tony off indefinitely.

Tony moved to leave. But before he did, he turned around again. “And Evelyn, just so you know. I meant it when I said I want Jonah to be part of my life. I think it’s time to readdress our custody arrangement.”

What? She opened and closed her mouth but no words cameout.

“I’ll have my lawyer get in touch with yours. The sooner we get the details worked out, the better.”

And with that, he was gone. The bells over the door jingled and the sound echoed in her head as she stood in place and her whole world crumbled.

“What can Ido?”

Evie didn’t know how long it had taken to compose herself, but when she finally snapped out of her stunned state, she went to the door, flipped the sign to read Closed and went straight to her cell phone to call Russ Vince.

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