Page 42 of My Song for You
“Are you dating Callie?”
I shook my head. “We’re just friends.” But could we still be friends if my suspicions were right and Logan was my son? All she had done since we’d met at the store was lie to me when it came to him. Just like Alexis had done when she said she had aborted our child.
“Your responsibility to the boy would be purely financial, then?”
“Well, no. I want to be there for him as a father too.” Like my father was always there for me.
“So you’re looking at shared custody with the mother?”
“I’m looking at custody, yes. But I don’t know if Callie is his adoptive mother.” All I’d found were documents stating that she was Logan’s legal guardian.
Cameron nodded slowly. “This could get interesting. But first things first. We need to determine if you are indeed the biological father.”
“How do we do that?”
“You and the boy would go to a third-party DNA collection site. I can arrange an appointment for you if you want.”
“Will it hurt Logan?” That was the last thing I wanted to do to him. None of this was his fault.
“No. The technician wipes a swab on the inside of your mouth. It’s easy to do and painless.”
The weight of two tour buses fell from my shoulders at his words, and I nodded. “Does it matter that his biological mother is dead?”
“No. They will only compare your DNA to Logan’s. The results through the lab I deal with are ninety-nine-point-nine percent accurate. If the test comes back showing that you are his father, we can use the result in court if it comes to that.”
A small part of me asked what the hell was I thinking. Cameron was right. If Callie was keeping the truth from me, then why was I so eager to make my life more complicated than it needed to be? But a large part of me couldn’t walk away, just as I hadn’t been able to walk away when Alexis first told me she was pregnant.
“How long before we know the result?” I asked.
“Generally three to five days.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. My decision was still the same. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
Chapter 18
Jared
When we were kids and still believed in Santa, time enjoyed tormenting us. The closer you got to Christmas, the slower each second ticked by—or so it seemed. By the morning of Christmas Eve, it felt like the twenty-four hour clock had added another forty-eight hours and Christmas morning would never come.
The same could be said when it came to waiting for news that could change your life. Tony said something, but I had no idea what. I’d been like this for the past four days, ever since Logan and I had gone to the lab for DNA testing on Monday. I’d been so distracted while practicing with the band, Mason had all but told me to pull up my big-girl panties and get with the program.
Or maybe hehadsaid that. I couldn’t remember.
All I was capable of was staring at Logan on the playground slide, mentally freaking out at what the test result would mean. So far I had no idea what I would do if it came back positive—or how I would feel.
I was just relieved that Logan hadn’t mentioned the trip to the lab or the test to Callie. Guilt stomped through me at how not only had I kept the truth about it a secret from her, I had bribed Logan to keep quiet about it. I’d told him that he and I were just checking that we didn’t have what Sharon had, then took him out for ice cream afterward. That way if he did tell Callie, she would’ve had no idea what we had really been up to.
My phone rang in my back pocket. As I pulled it out, my fingers were shaky, as they’d been each time it had rung in the past four days.
I checked the number and my heart slammed hard against my ribs, possibly fracturing a few of them. Cameron. I accepted the call. “Do you have the result?”
“I do.”
“Hold on a second,” I told him. To Tony I said, “I have to take this call. Can you watch Logan for me?”
“Sure.”
I strode away from the playground equipment, far enough to talk to Cameron in private, but close enough so I could still see Logan on the kiddy climbing wall. “Okay, give it to me.”
