Page 32 of Her Dragon Daddy Disaster
“It’s okay, baby. The nice man just told a funny joke, that’s all. Go back to seeing if you can spot any new dragon colors, okay?”
“Okay! I’ve seen red, and blue, and ummm, yellow?”
“Orange?”
I watched the little interaction as Sarah gently corralled Jake’s attention and redirected it back to the window.
“Look, that one has dots all over it!”
Her son suitably distracted, Sarah returned her focus to me.
“What was that laughter for?” I asked.
“You’re joking, right?” Her eyes were wide with surprise. “Seriously, that has to be a joke. Please smile because now is not the time for miscommunication.”
I didn’t smile. “I’m very serious. That is my child, Sarah. Myson.”
My son. The words echoed in me like mighty hammer blows, never fading. Nothing would be the same now. Not ever again.
“I’m a father,” I whispered, still reeling, unable to keep my composure.
“Absentee.”
My head snapped up, eyes fixing a fiery gaze on her face. But Sarah didn’t recoil or shy away. She met that fire and threw it right back at me with a matching crescendo of hissed anger she’d spent nearly six years holding back.
“Do you want to know why I didn’t tell you,Levi? Would you like to know the cold, hard truth of it? The reason I didn’t say a word is because Icouldn’t. You got up one night and walked out of my life without a word, a phone call, a handwritten note,anything. You. Abandoned. Me.Us.”
Gritting my teeth, I powered through her objection. Because it changed nothing.
“What about when I saw you in the White House?” I challenged, my voice just as low and quiet as hers but no less angry. “You could have said something then. Or when you arrived here. Or I don’t know,maybe when I saw a picture of him?”
She waved my points off, shaking her head. “Why would I, Levi? Why would I just invite you back into his life? Into our life? You haven’t done a damn thing to deserve any of that knowledge. Kidnapping and forcing me to come out here sure wasn’t it.”
I had to fight back the rising tide of fury being fanned by the wings of my dragon in my mind. That was ourson!Couldn’t she see that changed the past? Why was she being so stubborn!
“Were you ever going to tell me?” I asked, not entirely sure why. I doubted I wanted to know the answer.
The long, hard stare was all the answer I received.
A corner of my mouth quirked up in angry amusement. “Well, I know now, which is a good thing.”
“Why is that good? I wish you’d never found out,” she said.
It was my turn to laugh sarcastically. “Come now, Sarah,think. You’re not an idiot. Your brains were part of what attracted me to you. What made me want you here at my side. Use them. Think about the situation.”
She shook her head after a moment.
“Do you really think you’re equipped to raise adragonchild all on your own?”
It was Sarah’s turn to grow pale and more than a little wobbly on her feet. Credit to her, however, she recovered quickly. Likely all her training with the Secret Service.
“Jakub is a dragon?” she asked in disbelief. “He doesn’t show any signs of it.”
“No? Soon, then. It could be any day,” I explained. “Somewhere around their fifth birthday the first signs start to emerge.”
“No, nothing that I’ve seen.” She looked mildly panicked.
“Unless, of course, he’s not actually my child,” I pointed out.
