Page 38 of In The Game

“Could you send some over? Like from when I was four or five?”

“What do you need them for?”

I catch the puck in my hand while I formulate a response. “Um… the team wants them for some social media thing.”

“I see. Well, don’t be surprised if they start getting letters from women wanting to know who that cute little kid is. Maybe it will help your love life.”

“Nobody mails letters anymore, Mom.”

“Whatever, emails and MDs.”

“DMs,” I correct with a chuckle and resume tossing the puck in the air.

“You know what I mean. Anyway, your uncle digitized all your photos and put them inside the cloud. I’ll email you the link and password and you can look through them all.”

“That’s perfect, thank you.”

“You bet, kiddo. Are you coming up next week? Maybe with a girl?”

“Holy shit, you don’t eventryto hide it anymore.”

“I’m sorry! But you’re almost forty, if you want to get settled, you need to hurry up.”

I pause for a moment and consider keeping it a secret, but I can’t keep my excitement buried anymore. “Do you remember me talking to you about a girl named Raleigh?”

“Of course, you’ve mentioned her a few times. Why?”

I bite my lip. “I ran into her the other day.” I leave out that she has a son and he looks like me. She’d probably get so excited she’d have a coronary.

“Invite her!”

“Yeah, Mom. I haven’t seen her in years, but the first thing I’ll do is invite her to hang out with my family.”

“That sounds like a great plan. I don’t see any problem with it.”

Of course she doesn’t. I laugh. “Why don’tyoubring a date? It’s time you get out there again. In fact, after you send me the info for the photo album, you should sign up for one of those online dating things.”

She scoffs. “I will when you do.”

I shake my head. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be there next week for dinner. Is Paul going?”

“Yes, and he’s bringing Daphne.”

I roll my eyes. Ever since my brother got a girlfriend, she’s been trying to use it to convince me to do the same. “Okay, well I gotta get going, but I’ll see you next week.”

“Okay, take care of yourself. Check your email!”

“I will, thanks. Love you, Mom.”

Leaving the couch, I plop down at my desk and start up my laptop. While I wait for it to load, I grab a blue sports drink from the mini fridge underneath and untwist the cap with a crack and take a sip. My eyes pan to the closet Raleigh hid in all those years ago—the night Arthur was conceived.

I check my email, and as promised, she sent the info. After logging into the photo album, I search through the folders.Damn, Uncle Ernie is one organized son of a bitch.Clicking on the year I turned five, I lean back in my chair while all the photos load on the screen. Scrolling through, it doesn’t take long to find photos of me when I was roughly Arthur’s age.

Chills break out over my entire body when I enlarge three or four thumbnails. I laugh without humor and take another sip, shaking my head. That kid’s mine. There’s no way he’s not. He’s got my same face shape, the same white-blonde hair I had when I was younger, same exact dimple.I’m going to be sick.

“Jesus Christ, Raleigh. What the fuck were you thinking not telling me?” I mutter. “You really think I wouldn’t find out?”

Now I’m pissed. How could she keep this from me? How could she keep this fromhim? And she’s got the gall to ignore my emails? She better get ready for a hailstorm of messages. I pull up every social media site I can think of, but there’s no trace of her. Except for LinkedIn. I dig through to find any other details about her life. She’s kept it pretty private… Oh look, Rob Waters left her a shining recommendation back when she was a receptionist. I hate that asshole. I hate the way he looks at her. I hate the way he talks about her. And I hate that he knows my son better than I do.

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