Page 18 of Beside the Rolling Waves
“No. Don’t bother. I’m fine.” He took a breath. “If Stella has a baby, it’s not mine.”
“She’s claiming it is.”
“How old?” Rodney asked, and Jordan’s eyes changed. Just by that very question, he was admitting that there was a possibility.
“I didn’t ask. I thought she said baby, but maybe she said kid. I don’t know. I haven’t seen Stella for several years, and maybe I just assumed that if she had a kid, it was a baby.”
“I haven’t seen Stella for years either. If it’s a baby, it’s not mine.”
His voice was quiet and calm, but…inside, he was roiling. He’d made a huge mistake, which was part of the reason he’d moved out of Stella’s place. It was his biggest regret and one he’d tried hard to forget.
This was definitely not what he expected on top of everything else. It was one thing to sell his businesses and give up the dream that he had been working toward. It was another thing to know that the woman that he had done everything for now wanted to have nothing to do with him. And quite another to have agreed to act as a father figure, with said woman who wanted nothing to do with him, to twin babies who were going to be born on Friday.
And now this.
“I feel like if Stella had your kid, she would have tried to get money out of you a long time ago.”
“I feel that way too,” he said. His heart was still racing, and his hands had started to sweat.
If Becky was mad at him for ghosting her five years ago, she was going to be…disappointed and disgusted if she heard about this.
He was disappointed and disgusted. He’d been disappointed and disgusted with himself at the time. And he’d never considered the possibility of a child. The idea that he’d had a son or daughter all this time that he’d not known about, who hadn’t known he had a dad… That was even worse. But could it really be his?
Stella was not exactly virtuous, and a couple of times while he’d been there, she’d tiptoed past him while he slept on the couch and had one of her boyfriends sleep over. It was never the same one.
Regardless. It was done now, and he would have to face whatever he had to face. Whether that was the disappointment on Becky’s face. Or if he thought his mentors were going to be disappointed about him not going after the billion dollars, theywould be even more disappointed about that. All of them, to a man, had warned him about that.
And he’d listened. He’d listened up until that point. But he’d just been so low, and she’d been so kind and sweet and provocative…he had been no match for her, basically.
He still wasn’t.
Still, he couldn’t expect Becky to forgive that. She might have forgiven the indiscretion, because he would have confessed it, but to have a child? No, it would be impossible for Becky to forgive that.
Ten
“So that’s why you’re selling out?” Jordan said, bringing Rodney’s focus back to the present.
“No. I didn’t even know about that. But there are some other things. Nothing major, just life changes, you know? And Ford Hansen really, really wanted that deal. So, it didn’t take much convincing on either of our parts to go through with it.”
“I see,” Jordan said, nodding. It really wasn’t a satisfactory explanation, but it was all Jordan was going to get, and he seemed to realize that.
“Well, I’ll see you around,” Jordan said.
Rodney nodded and watched as his friend saw himself out.
He wasn’t a drinking man, but he kind of wished he were right now, because he could use something to steady his nerves. He…wasn’t expecting this turn of events.
Still, it was Thursday, and he wanted to go see Rita before she went to the hospital. She said she had to be there early in the morning. He hadn’t questioned her too hard about it, but he wanted to go see her the night before, just because…he didn’t know how the surgery was going to go, and he wasn’t entirely sure he would ever be able to have a full conversation with her again.
He offered to meet her at a fancy restaurant, figuring he would take her out for a nice meal and treat her the way he wanted to treat Becky. After all, Becky loved Rita like she was her own daughter, and him being kind to Rita was basically him being kind to Becky.
She was the one who had his heart, after all.
Always had. From the time she broke into his bedroom and crawled into his bed.
The downtown traffic was terrible, rush hour and all that, and he was almost late for his meeting with Rita. Still, he arrived at the restaurant before she did, and stood outside, waiting on her. She texted him that she was going to be a few minutes, and while it was cold and the wind from the lake whipped down the street, he welcomed the uncomfortable feeling.
It helped cool some of the burning fire in his chest. The fire that came from the knowledge that he screwed up his life more than he thought.
