Page 23 of Call it Fate

“You’re kidding! After all this time, you just stumbled across her. That’s just…wow. That’s crazy.”

“What did she say? Did she give you an explanation? Did she at least seem embarrassed? Did you ignore her? God, I wish I wasthere. I’d have—well, never mind. Whatdidhappen?”

A part of me wished Clayhadbeen here. I heard the scorn in his tone. He knew how long it had taken me to move on from Emalee, and he definitely wasn’t her fan; more like, he was president of the “ditch the bitch” club, even though he’d never met her. And Clay, being an extremely loyal friend, was firmly in my corner. He’d have interrogated her until he had all the answers I longed for, and then, he would have thrown the proverbial book at her and described to her, in detail, just how bad she’d fucked up all those years ago. Clay might be laid back in his time off, but in his profession as a prosecutor? He was a Rottweiler with a bone.

“What did she say?”

I scrubbed a hand over my face and filled him in on how she seemed to think I’d ditched her.

“Well, shit.” There were several seconds of silence. “Fuck, dude. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe you can finally move on.”

His words grated. “Ihavemoved on, asshole.”

“Yeah? So, why haven’t you dated anyone seriously?”

“I date. Besides, I’ve been busy building my career. You know how competitive those internships are. Once I get that, I’ll move on.”

Clay pretended to cough. “Bullshit. You know you’ll get the internship and residency. If not with Anders, then someone else will snap you up. You’re brilliant. But when that’s done, there will be something else, some research article to write, some animal rights cause to champion, or something else. When’s it going to be enough?”

I bit my tongue. I had called him for sympathy, not a lecture. “There’s more.”

“Fuck. Let me guess. She’s married with kids.”

“You got half of it right.”

“Dude, if she’s married, let her go. That ain’t right.”

I dropped my head onto the back of my chair and stared at the ceiling. “She’s not married.”

“Oh. Wait, so, she’s got a kid?” There were a few seconds of silence. “Hey, you don’t think she was pregnant when she met you, do you? It would explain so much. Maybe she hoped you’d be her kid’s daddy.”

“Nope, she definitely wasn’t pregnantbeforeI met her.”

There was another lengthy pause. “You’re not saying she hadyourkid, are you?”

“Ding ding ding. Give the man a cookie.”

“Ooooh. Fuck. Give me another minute. This is deep, man.” I could envision him squeezing his eyes and rubbing his forehead like he did when he was trying to solve a problem. “Wow, dude. You’ve got a kid.”

“I have a son,” I breathed. “His name is Iain. I’ve only seen him for a few seconds, but he seems incredible.”

“Are yousurehe’s yours?” Clay asked.

“He’s the right age, and he definitely has my eyes.”

“Shit. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I need to head back there soon. I walked out pretty angry this morning, but I plan to talk to her. Obviously, I want to get to know my son.”

“Hell, yeah, you do.” He hesitated, and I knew he was trying to choose his next words carefully. “Obviously, I don’t know exactly what this is like for you, but you need to talk to her without getting overly angry or emotional. She ran once. You don’t want her to run again.”

I heard his sigh through the phone. “Look, I know I haven’t been a fan of hers, but you’re connected now, regardless of the past. If she’s really the girl you believed her to once be, maybe there’s more to this story. Figure it out.” He paused. “How’d she seem to you?”

Beautiful. Captivating.

“Not too happy to see me.” I thought back to the shock on Emalee’s face. Her beautiful brown eyes were still as expressive as ever. I’d seen the shock, the anger, then fear flash through them.

“Think about it, man. For about six years she’s been raising a son all on her own, and suddenly, you pop back up? She’s probably scared you’re going to take him away from her. She’s going to be super protective of him, so don’t be a dick and spook her so she doesn’t let you see him without a fight.”

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