Page 57 of Chasing Honor

“Thank you.”

“It’s just coffee, handsome.”

“No. Thank you for not freaking out and running a mile.”

“Lucky for you I already did three this morning.” Honor winked and walked back into the kitchen leaving me with my chuckling dad.

“I’m gonna help the girls.” My mom excused herself.

“I see it’s starting to sink in,” my dad said.

“Please don’t start talking in riddles. I haven’t even finished my first cup of coffee.”

“Fine, I’ll lay it out for you. That woman in there loves you and loves your daughter. Straight up, Ethan, she’s not freaked out, she’s not gonna run out on you and Carson, but she’s looking to you for direction. So the question is, how are you gonna play it? Sit on the fence and twiddle your thumbs or are you going to claim it and fight to keep it?”

There was another knock at the door, and before I could get up Honor yelled out. “I’ll get it.”

Now was not a good time for someone to come to my door and try to sell me something. I didn’t want to buy Girl Scout cookies, I didn’t want to find God, and I didn’t want to install solar panels. What I did want to do was figure out how I was going to have a very important conversation with my daughter and woman.

“Ethan. There’s a woman at the door who would like to speak to you. She said her name is Christina,” Honor told me and walked back into the kitchen.

“Did she ask for me or the homeowner?”

“You. Ethan Lenox.”

Christina? I didn’t know anyone named Christina.

With my irritation at an all-time high, I stomped to the door like a two-year-old, pouting. I opened the door and my irritation morphed into red-hot rage.

“What the fuck?”

I stepped onto the porch, closing the door behind me.

“That’s the greeting I thought I’d receive,” she said.

“What the hell are you doing here, Chrissy?”

“Wow. No one’s called me that in a long time.” Her lips tipped up in a tentative smile.

“Did you come all this way to talk about what people are calling you now?”

“I need to talk to you. May I come in?”

“Hell no. And there’s nothing we need to talk about.”

“There is, Ethan. We need to talk about our daughter.”

Was she out of her fucking mind? I knew this day would come. I fucking knew it. It didn’t matter that Chrissy had signed away her parental rights, that she’d refused to hold or even look at Carson, I knew the day would come when she’d have a change of heart and show up. In actuality I was shocked it had taken this long.

“You mean, my daughter. The child you signed away your rights to,” I reminded her.

“You don’t need to be so cruel.”

“Cruel? I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. You were there, remember?”

“I was sixteen.” Chrissy began to cry.

“So was I. Yet, I stepped up. I took responsibility for my child. I took her home by myself and learned how to be a parent, both her mom and dad. I stayed up nights with her. I’ve raised her. You chose to leave. It’s been eight years. You’re too late.”