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“Turns out the barn manager is pregnant with my baby.”
The eyebrows flew up in surprise this time. “Um…congratulations?”
“Yeah, no. It was an accident, and I don’t know if she’s decided what she wants to do about it.”
“So what are you going to do?” Ford asked, confusion obvious in his voice.
“Me? Nothing. Get away from here for two weeks until she leaves.”
“Eagle is letting her go?”
“No, she wants to go.”
“Oh.” He paused before continuing. “Are you going with her?”
Sunny let out a derisive laugh. “Definitely not. You met my old man. I do not come from a line of father material.”
“I see,” Ford said, and Sunny heard many things in those two words. His anger rose fast and harsh.
“What the fuck would you know about it? You didn’t even know the old bastard. I promise you didn’t miss anything.”
When he realized he was yelling, he clamped his mouth shut and took a step back. “I’m sorry. I—”
“It’s fine. You’re right, I didn’t know him.”
Sunny nodded and turned away, but Ford’s next words stopped him. “But I do know what it was like to grow up not knowing who my father was, and that was no picnic either.”
Without turning around he asked him, “So you’d rather have had a shitty father who never thought you were good enough?”
“No, but I can imagine if I’d had that kind of father, my only goal if I had my own kids would be to do the exact opposite.”
Sunny closed his eyes, a lump forming in his throat. He swallowed hard around it. “And how would you do that?”
“Just love them no matter what.”
It sounded so simple. “Did you have someone in your life like that?”
“My mom was amazing. She worked two and three jobs sometimes, but I always knew she loved me.”
“Was that enough?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it sounds like you guys had it rough, and she probably wasn’t there much.”
“True, but yeah. It was. I always wished for a dad, but my mom never really dated again. I think…” He trailed off and Sunny turned back to him. “I think our dad broke her heart.”
Sunny wondered if that was what would happen to Laura. She’d never said she loved him, but she’d stayed with him in the hospital, and they always had fun together even just at work. Did either of them even know what love was to recognize it? Sunny was pretty sure he didn’t.
What would happen to her if she left? Would the men at her next job respect her? Would she even be able to find a job pregnant? Discrimination because of that was illegal, but it would be next to impossible to prove.
His thoughts drifted to the child she carried. If Laura tried to raise it alone, the kid would be loved. She was one of the hardest working and nicest people he knew. He couldn’t imagine her ever being cruel to a child, especially since she herself had been hurt in so many ways.
Then he thought of some unknown, faceless people raising his child. Would it be a nice family? Or one of those in the broken system who collected kids to get the cash? That made him so angry he felt his blunt nails digging hard into the palms of his hands.
Forcing himself to take a breath he relaxed his fists.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said.
