Page 11 of Cougar

“So?” he drawled.

“The attorney is Mike Easton.”

He frowned. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because he’s married to Elizabeth Parker.”

“Well shit.” He took a step back and raked his hands through his short hair. “This doesn’t make any sense. And how did he get our address?”

I raised a brow.

He sighed and shook his head. “Your mother.”

Marcus grabbed the letter off the desk, then picked up the phone. An hour later, we had our answers.

“His name is Alex Reyes. His mother is Sophia Reyes.”

“Do you remember her?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I sank back against the sofa and blew out a breath. “Is she an old girlfriend you failed to tell me about?”

He scoffed. “No, Emerson. I met her at a diner. It was late, and the guys and I had gone there after a show. She was there with her friends. They’d been out drinking and celebrating her twenty-first birthday. We hung out with them in the diner until the early morning hours. The guys went back to the hotel and I went home with her.”

I hated the story. Even after all these years of marriage, I was still jealous that there were other women before me. I held up my hand, not wanting to hear any more. “Enough with the details, Marcus. I get it. She rocked your world and gave you a son.” She gave him the one thing I couldn’t.

Marcus moved to stand in front of me, dropped to his knees and slid his hands up my thighs. “That’s not why I remember her. Let me finish.”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. “Fine.”

“Yes, I had sex with her.” He exhaled through his nose as if it irritated him having to admit it. “I lost track of time, my cell phone was dead and by the time I charged it, the bus had already left without me. Thank God I had my wallet on me or I never would’ve been able to book that last-minute flight out of Tampa to LA. And I never would’ve met you.That’swhy I remember her.”

Fate.

A few weeks later, the DNA results came back and confirmed that Marcus was, in fact, Alex’s father.

Jay was leaving for a two-week vacation with my parents, so we arranged for Alex to come to California while she was gone.

The moment I laid eyes on Alex, the wind had been knocked out of me. He was the spitting image of the young Marcus I met on the plane that fateful day.

Marcus and Alex bonded instantly. He was in awe over his son, his interest in music, his talent.

“Hey,” I say as I walk toward them.

“Hey, Em,” Evangeline greets me as she gets to her feet and brushes the sand from her dress. “I’m gonna go check on Jay,” she tells us as she starts toward the house.

“I was wondering where you were hiding.” I sit in the sand beside Alex, propping my hands behind me and crossing my feet at the ankles. Alex sits with his legs bent, arms draped over the tops of his knees, and a joint pinched between his fingers.

Alex exhales a humorless laugh, and a cloud of smoke drifts through the air. “Isn’t that what Marcus would’ve wanted?”

“Hey,” I chide. “You know that’s not true.” I swipe the joint from his fingers and bring it to my lips.

Alex shrugs.

“Do you really believe that?”

He sighs. “No.”

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