Page 4 of Dirty Little Secret
Chapter 2
Kane
The crack of the bat connecting with the baseball made my heart swell with pride. “You did it, Fox! Now run, son!”
On my feet as soon as the ball started soaring, I clapped as my ten-year-old son threw the bat down then ran to first base before anyone could get a hold of the ball. “Go to second,” I called out to him, seeing that he looked a little confused about what he should do.
The coach shouted, “Go on, Fox. This could be a home run!”
My son’s first home run!
Standing, watching, not daring to breathe, I crossed my fingers, hoping that he would make it. Moments later, he slid into home base. All the parents on the bench let out a cheer, as my son run had earned his team, the Bears, the one point they needed to take the lead against their biggest rivals, the Tigers. “Way to go, boy!”
Fox waved at me with the biggest grin on his face I’d ever seen. “I did it, Dad!”
“You did!” I knew I had to be beaming.
With a nod, he headed back into the dugout where his teammates gave him high-fives and pats on the back. He’d earned them too.
Taking my seat again, I looked over at the man sitting next to me, my Uncle James. He and my Aunt Nancy, who sat on the other side of him, always joined me to watch Fox’s games.
My mother and Aunt Nancy were sisters. I owed everything to Aunt Nancy and Uncle James. They’d done the biggest favor anyone could do for another person, and they’d done it for me. They’d found the girl I’d accidentally knocked up in high school and had adopted the baby.
If it hadn’t been for a friend of mine, Bess Peterson, who’d lived next door to the Larkin family, I wouldn’t have ever known that I’d gotten Zandra Larkin pregnant. Bess had overheard the awful shouting that had taken place when Zandra’s parents had found out that she was having a baby.
Zandra and Bess weren’t friends. Zandra was mostly a loner, probably because of her parents’ strict religious beliefs. Those beliefs were probably what had put them into panic mode, whisking their only child away a few weeks after Zandra and I had hooked up at a party one night.
I’d always thought Zandra, who was a year younger than me, was pretty. Her long, dark hair, deep blue eyes, and pretty pink lips had caught my attention more often than they hadn’t. But she was shy, reclusive, and kept to herself.
That one night at that party, which I’d found out one of her few friends had dragged her to, had given me the chance to get to know her. And boy, did I get to know her!
She didn’t give me her phone number before she left me that night in my friend’s bed. I fell asleep, and she took off without waking me up. It was the end of summer, so there wasn’t any school the next week. And knowing how strict her parents were, I wasn’t about to just show up at her house unannounced.
Everyone knew how strict her mother and father were. I was afraid I might get her into trouble if I just showed up. I planned on catching up with her when school was back in session. But I never got that chance.
It was Bess who came to me when school started again. She’d seen Zandra and me together at that party, and she was pretty sure that I’d been the one to do the deed that had put Zandra’s family in such turmoil.
It seemed that Zandra’s mother kept track of her periods, and when Zandra failed to start on time, she took her to the doctor. Bess told me that she overheard Zandra’s parents screaming that she wasn’t going to get to keep the baby and blaming her for ruining all of their lives. They repeatedly asked Zandra for the name of the boy she’d been with, but Zandra refused to tell them a thing.
Some other boys in that position might’ve counted themselves lucky that they didn’t have to deal with any of it. Instead, I went home and told my parents what I’d done. I told them that I knew Zandra had been a virgin before me. She’d told me so, and the fact that she’d bled told me she hadn’t lied about it.
I’d gotten her pregnant the very first time she’d ever had sex. Along with that, I shared the responsibility of her being taken away from her hometown. It wasn’t fair, and I knew that. I also knew it wasn’t fair to give our baby to strangers.
Mom had called her sister right away, knowing she had the connections that would make tracking the baby a possibility. Aunt Nancy and Uncle James did the investigative work, and our son was given to them in a closed adoption. Neither Zandra nor her family even knew the names of the people who adopted the boy. And they would never know it was my family who took him.
“Handing custody over to you was the best thing we could’ve ever done for Fox,” Uncle James said as he bumped his shoulder to mine. “We’re damn proud of you, Kane. We’re very proud of you for finishing your doctorate last year and earning that position at the clinic. Twenty-seven is pretty young to be so well established and settled down.”
“Well, Fox was all the incentive I needed to grow up quick.” I had to sigh as I watched my son cutting up with his teammates. “From the moment you guys brought him to see me when he was just a week old, I knew I would live my life for him. I just wanted to make sure I could be the father he deserves.”
I clapped my uncle on the back. “Thanks for always letting me be there with him, you guys. I can’t thank you enough for giving a seventeen-year-old kid the chance to prove that he could be a stand-up father. Letting me take custody of him and actually make him mine last year was a dream come true for me.”
“And for Fox,” Aunt Nancy added. “That kid has always loved you, Kane. It was only fair that he be with his biological father.”
Nodding, I thought about the fact that my aunt and uncle had decided from the start to have Fox call them aunt and uncle. They’d told him I was his father right from the start. It made things easier when I finally had a home to bring him to, making the transition a smooth one.
Fox knew the whole story, now that he was old enough. We never planned on hiding the truth from him, so it was just a matter of waiting until he could understand. His mother was only sixteen when she got pregnant. Her parents made her give him up, and we jumped in to make sure we never lost him.
“He’s looking more and more like his mom every day,” I commented as I looked at my son. “His dark hair is the exact same shade as hers was. And those freckles across his nose come from her too.”
