Page 64 of Brazen Obsession

“Of course, I came. I hate missing your games.” Drew wraps his arms around the boy and hugs him before stepping back beside me. “I brought my girlfriend, Sara, too.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Elijah turns and holds his hand out to me like a little gentleman. Up close, I can see the differences between him and Drew, but he has Drew’s eyes and the resemblance is still a little eerie.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I shake his hand.

“Let’s go get some pizza.” Drew wraps his arm around my waist and leads the way to the waiting car and driver.

Drew

We’re on our way back to our house when Sara turns to me.

“You knew what I’d think. Why didn’t you prepare me?” Her green eyes are curious. There’s no censure in them. Some women would have thrown a fit, but not Sara. Everything she does is done with grace.

I shrug. “It’s not my secret to share. My father does the bare minimum for them and sometimes he forgets to send the monthly payment. He resents she kept Elijah. I didn’t want you to think badly of Leah. She made a mistake with a married man, but she does what she can for her son.”

“I wouldn’t think badly of her, but I’m curious about your father,” she admits.

“You’ll meet him eventually. I think he’s embarrassed of his indiscretion more than anything else.” I take her hand and brush a kiss across her knuckles.

“Does your mother know?” she asks, weaving her fingers with mine as I lower them to my thigh.

I blow out a breath. “Not that she would admit. My family is complicated.”

“Whose isn’t?” Sara smiles.

She has Tom and a younger sister. The minute she saw Elijah, she focused in on him. We look enough alike that I’ve been mistaken for his father when we go out to dinner occasionally. I find it hilarious.

Elijah is always quick to correct them.

Maybe it was a small test to see what she would do. How she would react if I actually had a child with someone else. The women I’ve dated before would have reacted badly, but Sara was just curious. I don’t think I could love her more.

“Leah hasn’t married and she’s raised Elijah on her own. I didn’t find out about him until five years ago when my parents were arguing and didn’t realize I was home and could hear them. My mom implied that my father’s mistake was costing them too much.” I shrug. “I’m not sure if she knows about Elijah or she assumes Dad is paying Leah hush money about their affair. But when I learned about Leah, I sought her out. That’s when I met Elijah.”

He’s a good kid and was starving for attention from a father figure. My dad wasn’t going to step up, so I did. We share blood and that means something to me.

Sara rests her head against my shoulder. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this on your own all these years.”

“Leah doesn’t have family. They disowned her when she decided to keep the child.” I look out the window. Everyone wanted her to get rid of Elijah, but Leah was stubborn. She could have given him up for adoption, but she didn’t.

I’m glad she didn’t.

“He’s a good kid,” Sara says.

“He’s smart and athletic.” I grin. “I’m hoping to make sure he has a job in the company that he should be part of when he grows up. It’s his inheritance too.”

When we reach the house, I help Sara out of the car and hug her to me.

“Thank you,” I say against her hair.

“What for?” she asks.

“For being you. For not jumping to conclusions⁠—‍”

“Oh, I jumped to conclusions,” she teases.

I brush my thumb across her lips. “But you didn’t act on them. You waited for an explanation without just deciding I was the worst.”

She reaches up and cups my jaw. “You’re not the worst, Drew. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”