Page 24 of Vodka and Chocolate Drops

“Which time?”

“She dated him more than once?”

John nodded.

Why would they get back together? Because Gloria was pregnant and she thought Philip might be the father? Or she was pregnant by someone else and Philip thought he’d try to help, but then bailed? Or he’d found out after they were back together that the baby wasn’t his?

So many questions. One big secret.

“The time my mom got pregnant with me.” Amber gripped her cup of coffee so hard she feared she was going to break the handle. “Who did she date before Philip Powers?”

“Me.”

* * *

Amber had hightailedit out of John’s office, just about getting run over crossing the street, she’d been moving so fast, completely freaked out by John’s revelation.

He was her father?

There was no way.

No. Way.

In terms of dads, he was well out of her league. He was steady, strong, smart, confident, and more.

Then again, he’d been divorced twice, and it wasn’t as though she was faring particularly well in the dating world. However, she could already lay the blame for that on her mother’s side of the family.

But a man like him still couldn’t be her dad. He’d practically received Father of the Year for the way he’d raised his daughter, Marisa, as well as half the kids in the community. Men like that didn’t beget children like Amber, who could barely keep her life together and dated all the wrong guys, hoping against hope that things would lead to a happily ever after.

That moment in John’s office though… she hadn’t known what to do other than panic and flee. But back in the safety of her house she realized she had to be mistaken. As in way wrong. She’d completely misinterpreted what he’d said. He’d dated her mother before she’d hooked up with Philip. Big deal. Amber remembered someone mentioning that ages ago. Gloria had also dated Mandy’s uncle and nobody thought he was Amber’s father.

If John was, people in town would have known.Shewould know. There had to be a mystery man. A mysterious figure John must know something about if he was bringing up the subject. And she’d blown it by running out.

The poor man was probably sitting in his office right now wondering what had scared her off, or else was trying to correlate Amber’s birthday with the last time he’d been with Gloria.

Thank goodness Amber hadn’t said anything.Thatwould have been embarrassing.

She puttered around the house, having managed to stumble her way through her conference call despite her distraction.

Someone knocked on the front door, and she peered out the upstairs window as her mom called out, “Anyone home?”

“Up here!” Amber scrambled down the stairs to greet her. They hadn’t talked since the sister revelation. She hoped her mother had come to say they should look for her.

“I heard you talked to John today,” Gloria said with no preamble.

“I did.” Amber smoothed her shirt. “Russell didn’t have insurance and wants me to pay for his trailer.”

Her mother picked a USB cable off the kitchen counter, coiled it, and set it down, moving on to straighten and tidy other objects Amber had left out.

“He said he may have upset you while talking about your father.”

“He said you two dated.”

“We did. You knew that.”

“I’d forgotten.”

“What else did he say?”

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