Page 24 of Saved by my Baby Daddy Spy
If Holden is going to be around her, I’m going to need to build a wall around my emotions.
I take a deep breath of the evening air as I tie my hair back into a ponytail. My evening run around the park is the only alone time I get in a day. Audrey and Preston watch Kerrigan while I run and try to escape everything that’s running through my mind that day.
The breeze ruffles the leaves on the trees as I start with a stretch and a light jog down to the park. It’s only once I’m through the gates and running down the path that I stop dead in my tracks.
Holden smiles as he comes to a stop in front of me. Sweat glistens on his forehead and the corners of his eyes crinkle. “Hey, imagine seeing you here. I’m sorry the other night was so awkward. Preston didn’t mention that you were living with them when I told him that I was coming for dinner.”
I shrug, not knowing what else to do. “It’s fine.”
“It really is good to see you again, Hannah.” His gaze travels along the length of my body, igniting a fire in my core that had been nothing but fading embers since the day he walked out.
Get it together.
I can’t allow a little smile and some kind words to send me spiraling out of control. “Yeah, it’s good to see you too.”
“So, you had a baby?” He chuckles and shrugs. “Audrey mentioned that the father isn’t in the picture.”
I raise an eyebrow and he continues, “Sorry, I just thought that I would throw that out there. It seems like the elephant in the room.”
“I don’t know,” I say, tucking my hands in my pockets and walking down the path. Holden falls into step beside me. “I thought the elephant in the room was why you disappeared from your family without a word for two years.”
The last thing I want to do is talk about Kerrigan when I don’t know why he couldn’t be bothered to answer any of my messages. Hell, the only message he did answer was the one from Hampton.
I’ll be back soon.
That’s all the message said. Nothing to tell us where he was or why he wasn’t answering any other attempts to contact him.
“Soon” turned into a whole year, and then one year turned into two.
“I was in witness protection until a trial could be held for some pretty horrible people.” Holden’s voice is strained, as if even talking about it is a difficult thing for him. “It was a tough time, and the result of some even tougher things. Those people are locked away now, though.”
“And for two years you couldn’t contact anyone? Other than that one message you sent Hampton the first week you were gone?”
He clears his throat. “I only had my phone for the first week while I was being housed in a government building. As soon as they got ready to move me to the safe house, my phone was taken away.”
“You could have told someone something other than I’ll be back soon. ‘Soon’ does not mean two years. Your family has been sick with worry.”
I hate the way my voice catches, as if I’ve been worrying about him for the last two years too.
I haven’t.
Although, that’s a lie. I’ve been worrying about what Kerrigan’s life would be like both with and without a father. I’ve been worrying that she may never have a chance to meet him.
Or, she could meet him and be told that she isn’t wanted.
“Look, I’m sorry. It’s not my place to talk to you about this kind of thing.” I give him a polite smile and take my earphones out of my pocket, putting them in and pulling out my phone to crank the music up. “I’ll talk to you later. Have a good evening.”
I take off running before he can say anything else.
Holden is just another one of those things for me to run away from.
Chapter Eight
Holden
“Ican’tbelievesheran away from you the other day,” Brodie says, grinning at me as I take a seat in the recliner by his bed. “You know, I thought my life was going pretty bad, and then you told me that a woman literally ran away from you.”
I roll my eyes, the corner of my mouth twitching. “I thought we were done talking about this two days ago when I first told you?”
