Page 13 of Sliding into Home

“No shit.” Jeff couldn’t agree more. Everything about this day sounded messy and confusing. Hopefully tomorrow, when he met with Kia, he would start getting some answers.

What he needed right now was a distraction. “Who wants to play pool?” Jeff asked the group.

Chapter Five

Thefollowingmorning,Kiawalked down Market Street a couple of minutes before 10:30. Looking up, she spotted Jeff walking toward her. He flipped her a little wave in acknowledgement.

“Hey,” she said when he stopped in front of her.

“Hi.” He held open the door for Bean Scene. “What do you want to drink?”

Her nerves were shot. Adding caffeine to the mix was probably a bad idea, but what the hell? “Chai latte please.”

“You want to grab a table while I get the drinks?” Jeff glanced at the display case, then back at her. “You want anything to eat?”

“No, thanks.” She pointed toward a secluded table by the window. “I’ll be over there.” The table was the only one in that section. There was a stage set up beside it that was used in the evenings but was always empty during the day. It would allow them to not have anyone else close by while they talked.

Jeff nodded, then walked toward the counter.

Kia slid into the seat against the wall, leaving the other chair open for Jeff. She tapped her foot anxiously on the metal table leg as she waited for him to join her. What was he going to say today? She hadn’t been able to sleep at all last night, wondering if he wanted to be a part of Max’s life. If he did, their entire world was about to change. If he didn’t. Well, that didn’t even bear thinking about, but honestly wouldn’t alter their current day to day at all. But would make for a tricky conversation in the future.

Watching Jeff as he walked toward her with a drink in each hand, she sucked in a breath. For her son’s sake, she hoped she hadn’t been wrong to tell Jeff the truth.

He set the coffee in front of her as he sat in his chair. “So, you want to dive right in or—” he asked.

“May as well dive right in.” Kia dug the fingers of her left hand into her thigh as she braced for what might be coming.

“Okay, so I’m going to be a dick and get this out of the way first. I talked to my agent and lawyer this morning and they strongly encouraged me to get a paternity test.”

Kia’s gut clenched. “Makes sense.” She’d been expecting him to say that, but it still hurt a little that he didn’t fully believe her.

Jeff’s foot bounced against the table leg, and the whole table moved. “Sorry.” He winced.

As awful as this situation was, it was nice to see that he was as nervous about everything as she was.

“Once we get the paternity out of the way, I’d really like to set up a time to meet Max as his dad. I’ll respect however you want to make that happen since you know him best. But I want to do it as soon as possible. My lawyer said the paternity test could be done anytime and we should have the results back the same day, next at the latest.”

“Wow, that fast? I just assumed it would take longer than that.”

Jeff shrugged. “It’s a private clinic that he knows about.”

“Sounds expensive,” she mumbled. She didn’t have money kicking around for things like paternity tests.

“I’ll pay for the test since I’m the one asking for it.” He rubbed his forehead. “It’s just a formality, since I don’t think you would have told me Max was my son if he wasn’t.”

“Thank you. I appreciate you saying that.”

“Of course.” Jeff shifted in his seat. “Okay, so what’s the plan here?”

“You tell me.”

“What do you mean? Obviously, I want to get to know him.”

“There’s nothing obvious about this, Jeff.”

He reared back like he was offended that she’d even suggest he wouldn’t want to be involved. “Yeah, there is. If Max is my son, then I want to have a relationship with him, get to know him. But…” He paused. “I’m flying blind here. I don’t know what your life is like. I don’t want to… I don’t want to mess things up for him if he… if he thinks someone else is his dad or something.” He scrubbed his hand across his face again. When he looked back at her, the lines on his face made him look as tired as she felt. Maybe he’d lost sleep over this as well. That had to be a good sign that he was taking this seriously.

“He doesn’t have a dad, well I mean obviously he does since I’m talking to you, but he doesn’t have anyone currently in that role in his life.”

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