Page 78 of Hard To Leave

He grinned while scratching his jaw. “A little birdie told me.”

I laughed. “I’m sure. Tell my former best friend I said hello.”

He playfully scolded me. “Now, now, you should be thanking her.”

“Oh, yeah, why’s that?” I found myself smiling and falling back into easy banter with him. My eyes followed his thumb as it dragged along his bottom lip. The lips I kissed a thousand times.

“Because we never got to finish our conversation last night. I’m actually going to be in town for another day or so, and I was hoping we could get together to talk.”

Just then the bells jangled as the restaurant door opened again. Everything started to happen in slow motion like I was watching an oncoming train wreck knowing there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop it.

“Mom!” Tanner shouted and waved from across the restaurant. He ran up and folded his arms around my waist.

I was aware that there were people around me, but at that moment I just wanted to make the world stop. My mind couldn’t focus on anything other than the disaster that was about to unfold.

“Hey, sweetheart.” Jack leaned in and brushed a quick kiss on my mouth. My heart felt like it was caving in. I guess this was really happening.

Fuck!

I pressed my lips to the top of Tanner’s head and spoke through my panic. “Hi, guys.”

Brogan was staring at Tanner with an intensity that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

One look at Tanner and there was no way he couldn’t know. The resemblance was undeniable.

“You’re a mom?” Brogan asked, never taking his eyes off of our boy. He must have felt like he traveled back to his youth. They were carbon copies of each other.

Grabbing Tanner’s shoulders with sweaty palms, I turned my son to face his father. I forced my voice to come out as calm and even as I could. “Tanner, this is an old friend of mine. Tanner, meet Brogan. Brogan, this is my son, Tanner.”

Tanner reached out for a handshake. “Hi.”

Brogan shook Tanner’s hand slowly. “Hey, little guy.” For a split second, our eyes met. I could hear the questions in his head before he even spoke. His eyes moved back to Tanner. “How old are you, son?”

I knew it was just a commonly used term, but hearing that word coming from Brogan’s mouth felt like my knees were going to buckle underneath me.

Tanner stood tall and puffed his chest out with pride. “I’m almost eight now.”

I watched all the color drain from Brogan’s face as he started to put the pieces together. I desperately wanted to explain, but I couldn’t find my voice.

Jack moved closer and placed a protective hand on Tanner’s shoulder. “Hey bud, can you go grab me a blueberry muffin from the back and make sure you get yourself a chocolate one too.”

“Sweet!” he yelled, as Kristen came over and grabbed his hand. She shot me a confused look over her shoulder as she walked away with my son in tow.

Jack stood at my back. Normally, his presence brought me comfort, but not this time. I was too shell-shocked from having to stand between both men.

“Are you going to introduce me to your friend?” Jack asked as his fingers tensed on my shoulders.

Brogan’s jaw was clenched tight as his hard eyes pierced into mine. I hadn’t even opened my mouth yet, but I knew I was screwed no matter what I said. My belly flipped with the realization that I made a horrible mistake by letting things get to this point. I was going to face the consequences of my actions whether I was ready to or not.

“Jack, this is Brogan. Brogan, this is my boyfriend, Jack.”

Brogan folded his arms across his chest. His eyes narrowed into slits. Never in a million years did I picture him finding out like this.

So much for controlling the situation.

Chills raced up along my scalp when he spoke. “You have some fucking explaining to do, CC.”

I wasn’t prepared to deal with this. This wasn’t how I had pictured this conversation going.

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