Page 140 of Running to You

“He’s four.” When Sam said nothing, she spoke again. “You see what’s in the background?”

He tore his eyes away from the little cherub and… “Christmas baby?” He looked at her for confirmation.

She was watching him with an intense gaze, as if trying to impart some valuable information.

“What? Is that important?”

She swiveled her chair to face Sam. “Did you ever wonder why I was at the restaurant that day?”

The change of subject had him scrambling. “Um…”

“The day you were with Kylee?”

“I never really… I guess I thought it was a coincidence. Or maybe you’d come to”—he shrugged, feeling stupid saying it—“spy on me. See if you could catch me… And, you did, I guess.”

“I wasn’t spying. I knew you’d be there. You always took clients there.”

“Oh-kaaay.”

She turned back to the screen and tapped the birthday cake. “He turned four last Christmas. Meaning, he’ll be five this Christmas.”

As if he didn’t know what came after four. “Uh-huh.” He was looking at the screen, seeking the clue she was not-so-clearly trying to lead him to.

And then he started doing the math.

Counting backward from December, five years ago.

And the truth slammed into him. Stole his breath.

He turned back to Eliza. “Are you saying…? What are you saying?” Because he was afraid to hope. Afraid to even think...

“I went to find you that day to tell you.” She swallowed, straightened her shoulders as if preparing for a blow. “I was pregnant.”

Whoa.

What?

After a few seconds, the starch went out of Eliza’s spine. She leaned toward him, took his hand. Hers were cold as she squeezed his fingers. “It was just all too much. Dad’s death, selling the business, then losing my job—everybody’s jobs. And then I found out I was pregnant, and Mom had been telling me that you were going to leave me. Move on to someone else. She’d even told me to be careful, that if I turned up pregnant, you’d dump me like yesterday’s trash. But I knew, I knew you’d be thrilled—as thrilled as I was that we were going to have a baby. I couldn’t wait to tell you. That’s why I was at the restaurant.

“And then I saw you with Kylee, and it…it wrecked me. And I thought Mom was right. You’d already moved on, and I couldn’t face her. I was embarrassed and broken and I didn’t want to tell anybody. I needed time. Time to get my feet under me, to figure out what I wanted without her harping on me with I-told-you-so’s. I wasn’t going to stay gone. I planned to get Jed and Lola set up with their finances and then come back. And then I stayed for months, until almost when the baby was due. And when I told them I was leaving, Jed told me you were married, and I…I didn’t want to blow up your life. And I just…I had the baby, and…”

Her words were rattling around in his brain, trying to find a place to land.

But he was still processing that the child, the beautiful, cherubic child on the screen was…his?

Could it be true?

And just like that, he saw it.

The blond curly hair.

Sam’s hair was curly if he let it grow too long. And it’d been blond when he was that age.

The boy’s bottom lip, just a little fuller than the one on top. The cleft chin.

Features Sam had seen in the mirror all his life.

Levi did look like his father.