Page 49 of Already Callin’ You Mine

“Paternity.”

Margeaux’s eyes go wide, shock taking over her features. Right on time and as expected. Everyone always expects the custody answer, completely disregarding the paternity one. I manage to catch everyone off guard with that.

“Margeaux!” a lady in a hairnet calls, holding up the plates with our food.

Margeaux turns to grab them, placing them on a lunch tray and turning back to me.

“Not at all my area of law expertise, but you have no idea how curious I am.”

“What do you want to know?” I ask, silently thankful for her lack of judgment.

Because there is one thing that almost always comes after I tell people it was a paternity suit—the look. The one where they are trying to hide their assessment of me, suddenly wondering how colorful—and crowded—my personal history is. Like they might as well be watching me on a daytime talk show waiting on the catchphrase “you are not the father!”

My real life is anything but. Daytime talk show hosts would be very bored with my story.

Actually, that’s not true. But not for paternity reasons.

Making our way back to the table, I launch into the story, keeping it high level enough to not make it seem like daytime TV should be my next phone call. To my surprise—and my absolute relief—Margeaux isn’t judgmental at all. At least not toward me. She has plenty of questions about how the lawyers handled things.

“Christ on a bike. That’s…that’s special.” Exasperation flows out of her like a waterfall, her whole body slouching as she pops a French fry into her mouth.

I shrug. “You’re telling me. I guess Cody thought that if he just fought me enough, I’d eventually give up. Proves how well he didn’t know me. To be fair, my own ignorance really thought that putting his name on the birth certificate would be enough. But nope. So I spent more than a year fighting with him until I finally broke and told him we’d settle it with lawyers. Another six months to get everything going, and a year of trial dates, etc.”

“Meanwhile, you’re a single mom and trying to have a career.”

“Yup.” I nod, taking a big bite of salad. I’m hungrier than I realized, my salad already more than half gone, Margeaux’s dressing recommendation squarely on point. “We missed our first trial date because Cody claimed he had duty, so he couldn’t show. Never mind that I had taken the day off work. Thankfully, the judge wasn’t having it. Scheduled it for the next week and told him on duty or off, she expected Cody to be there. Cody also tried to delay taking the actual paternity test itself, but our judge gave zero shits and told Cody she would send someone to the precinct to swab his cheek if that’s what it was going to take.”

“Good for her.”

“Thankfully my bosses were understanding. Still, I couldn’t have done it without my parents. They were an incredible support, one or both of them flying up to Raleigh for every trial date, or if Otis was sick, or I just needed to be able to catch up on some sleep. Leaving Conety PR was tough, because I was on track to take over my department in the next few years, but after all that, we needed a fresh start. To be some place that Cody wasn’t tainting everything. Plus, my Dad is Otis’s favorite human on this planet, so…”

I trail off, knowing that while my statement is one hundred percent true, there is now an asterisk on it. Like the sports records where the player was juicing.

Jace might be a close second…if not about to pass him…

I keep that part to myself though. Partially because it has no place in this conversation. Partially because I do not want to admit it out loud. I hate admitting it in my head as it is.

“Awww, I love that. My grandfather is also my favorite person—other than my husband—so I fully support that. And I know how excited your dad is to have you two here. He talked about it nonstop this summer. Even had a little countdown going on his phone.”

Wait, what?! That part I didn’t know. Doesn’t surprise me though.

Laughing, I sit back, my insides easing. The noticeable difference in my muscles makes me suddenly very aware that I was holding on to more tension than I realized, waiting on the other shoe to drop somehow. Like Margeaux was here with some secret mission. A spy for the family.

Nope. She’s just that nice.

“Dads…” I lift my shoulder, trying to be nonchalant when really I don’t know how else to respond.

“We are really excited that you joined the team though. And not just because of your dad. Bronwyn showed us some of the companies you worked with while you were at Conety, and seriously, I love some of the stuff you came up with.”

“Thank you. Some of it is luck—having a trend that fits your brand really well or even simply timing in getting a post to go viral. Some of it though is really taking time to make sure you understand your audience and what you’re trying to communicate.”

“I need to introduce you to the girls.”

Errr, come again?

I furrow my brow, not following how my last comment got Margeaux there. Or who the girls are.

“One, I think you’d fit in perfectly, but also, the boys are not always the best at knowing things. I kid you not, Ewan didn’t realize people would buy store-branded merch if it had a dirty, double entendre on it.”