Page 6 of Dragon Stepbrother's Secret Baby

“Is that what you think? You think I left because I lost interest in you?”

“What was I supposed to think? You never even said goodbye. You never once told me you were dissatisfied. What happened? Did you find another woman? Just admit it.”

I opened my mouth to argue back….and stopped myself. “None of this means anything. He’s my son and I’m his father. I’m going to be his father. If you don’t believe me, I’ll just have to prove it to you.”

She snorted. “That’ll be the day.”

I could think of a thousand things to say to get the last word, but that didn’t matter. I knew what I had to do. She wouldn’t be able to stand in my way.

Trading jabs with her was just making me angrier at her, so I walked away, but this was all temporary. I would never walk away from him. I couldn’t. My son. I had a son.

He deserved the best I could give him and he would get it. I’d missed too much time already.

I picked up my pace heading back down the mountain. I had some work to do and not much time to do it.

I reached a fork in the trail and got ready to turn right when he came running down the mountain from the left.

He almost ran me over and skidded to a stop. He glanced up the hill toward where I left Riley. “Where’s my mommy?”

“She’s back there where you left her. What happened? Did you make it to the top already?”

He burst into another huge grin. “I went up there and then I noticed this trail so I decided to see where it went.”

“You’re a really good runner.” I scrambled to come up with something to say to him. I might not get another chance. “What school do you go to?”

“I don’t go to school.”

I frowned. “You don’t? Why not?”

He shrugged and looked away. “We move around a lot.”

“Do you have friends?”

He screwed his toe into the dirt and didn’t answer.

I changed the subject. “Do you like hiking?”

He brightened up instantly. “Sure. I love it.”

“Me, too.” My heart twisted. I was talking to my son. “Maybe you and me and your mommy could go sometime.”

He frowned. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

“Not today. I have to go, but I’ll see you again very soon.”

He cocked his head and studied me. He looked a lot more closely than I could handle. “Who are you?”

Now it was my turn to shrug and look away. “I’m just someone your mommy knows. We grew up together.”

I didn’t dare to say anything else and he didn’t ask. He turned off toward the lefthand trail. “Okay. See you later, Mister…..I mean…..” He paused and met my eye. “Kingston.”

I couldn’t help grinning at him. “Yeah. You have a good memory. You’re Connor, right? Connor Strickland.”

“Yeah. Don’t forget.”

I laughed nervously. “I won’t. See you later.”

He ran off and my heart dropped again. Connor. I would never forget that name. This was the absolute last time he would ever walk out of my life. I wouldn’t let him.

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