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“Maybe we should’ve done a better job teaching you about how all those things work,” Jack said, a sharpness to his words. “Where’s your mother?”
“She’s inside with the twins.”
I kept my hands raised, letting Jack know as best as I could that I wasn’t a threat.
“So, you’re telling me that you were…withmy daughter, and didn’t know it was her?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“How do I know this isn’t total bullshit?” he asked. “That it’s not some insane story that you both came up with, so you’d get off the hook?”
I shook my head. “There’s no way you’ll know for sure. Either you believe us, or you don’t.”
“Dad, I promise,” she said. “That’s what happened. There’s a reason why Noah wasn’t involved in any part of this for the last eight months until a couple of days ago.”
“So, what happened?” Jack asked. “You finally have a change of heart?”
“He saw my tattoo after the delivery,” she said. “Otherwise, I would’ve kept right on lying to him.”
“But now I know. And we decided there’d be no more lies,” I said. “We’d come clean with you, and I’d let you and Annette know that I want to do the right thing.”
“The right thing, huh? And what’s that?”
“I’m going to step up and be a father to those twins. I’m going to look out for Sadie, make sure she and Andy and Emmy have everything they need.”
I could tell that the fire was fading from Jack, that his righteous anger was dimming by the moment.
Jack’s jaw worked as he absorbed what I’d said.
“You going to marry her or what?”
I shook my head. “No idea. I can’t even get her to move in with me.” I grinned after, trying to add a little lightheartedness.
He didn’t go for it.
“My daughter’s a damn single mother to twins – this shit isn’t funny.”
“Fine, fine,” I said, not wanting to push the matter. “You’re right; bad time for jokes. But I can tell you this, regardless of what Sadie decides to do, those kids aren’t going to want for a damn thing. And you can be certain they’ll get more love than they can handle.”
Silence hung in the air. I had no idea what Jack was going to do. Sadie stood over by the corner of the house, her eyes wide as she waited to see what would happen.
Jack stepped toward me, closing the distance. When he stopped, he was mere inches away.
“You’d better do what’s right,” he said, with glaring eyes.
Without another word, he turned and marched away, blowing past Sadie and back toward the house.
Sadie rushed over to me, tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around me.
“God,” she said. “I thought he was going to kick you in the teeth.”
I hugged her back, relief washing over me at her touch.
“That’s one down, one to go.”
She let out a snort, shaking her head.
When the hug was over, I looked up to see that Jack and Annette were standing at the corner where Sadie had been only a few moments before.
“The kids are inside,” Annette said. “Both sleeping.”
That was it. They turned and started across the lawn, following the path all the way to their car. Silently, they got in and started the engine, driving off.
