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“She must be a delight to be around, Emily,” I say, just wondering what the little one is like.
And if she really could be mine.
I shake my head.
That’s ridiculous. She already told you who the father is.
But seriously?
Patrick freaking Shire?
“Where are you? It’s so noisy,” Emily complains, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“At a sports bar in Missouri, watching the Glaciers game.”
“You’re playing them next, right?” she asks with interest.
“U-hum,” I reply. “You’ll be watching?”
“Yes, or Alissa will kill me,” she giggles.
“Listen, I…” I consider my words. I have an offer to make, but she might take it badly. “I can fly you two here to watch the game.”
She falls silent. She finally talks again. “Alissa has school and I have work, Andrew,” she says dryly.
“You’d be back home the same night!,” I plead. “My jet is stationed at the airport.”
“Of course, you have a private jet,” she snorts. “No, Andrew, I can’t possibly accept that. I bet a whole village in a third world country could live a year with the price of that trip.”
“I already donate a lot of my money to charity, okay? The rest of it is to make the people I love happy,” I rationalize.
“Oh, so you love me now?” she retorts, daring me to answer.
“I never stopped loving you, Emily Mitchell,” I instantly reply, dead serious.
Emily goes silent for so long I have to ask, “Hello?” just to be sure the line didn’t cut.
My heart thumps in my chest and cold sweats run down my body. I’m just about to hang up when she murmurs, “Then why did you never come back? Why did you disappear? Why did you ignore all my messages?”
Now I’m the one to go silent, but my silence is far more brief.
“I was twenty-one and all of a sudden, my life changed. They put tons of money in front of me, and told me I could do whatever I wanted with it. The fame and getting all caught up in the NHL… well, I hate to admit it, but I got lost and forgot what really mattered. By the time I decided to reach out to you, you had already me blocked everywhere. I assumed you didn’t want to talk to me anymore.”
“And you think that’s a valid justification?” There’s sorrow in her voice, and it fills me with sorrow too.
“No. No, it’s not,” I say. “I completely understand why you didn’t wait for me. I was an idiot, Emily. Can you forgive me?”
I hear her sigh, and then she goes silent for a while. It’s worse than if she was yelling at me.
She finally responds, “Andrew, I still don’t know if I can forgive you. But you were a big part of my family’s life, and if they want you around, I’m willing to try to fix things. Let’s just figure things out a day at a time, okay? When can we schedule that meeting with Alissa?”
“Way to put me in my place, huh?” I chuckle nervously. “But fair. I can live with that too. And I’ll be back in a week. Can I call you then?”
“Of course,” and I finally hear that smile again. “Now I’ll let you go watch the game.”
“Alright,” I’m smiling too. “See you.”
I hang up, and Candis is right there where I left her, waving at me. I walk over to her, and deliberately stuff my phone back in my pocket, much to her chagrin.
