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The smile faded. “I’m doing better. I’m sorry about that. If I had been here, I would have noticed Bron was gone right away.”
“You would have taken me to the art exhibit. Right, Miss Alexander?” Bron asked but she didn’t give her a chance to answer. “We both love painting and she just paints without sketching sometimes. We talk about your paintings a lot.”
Winter shook her head and the smile was back in place again. “Now I get Bron’s interest and why you’re her favorite artist. Not that you’re not amazingly talented but there’s always been extra pride in there.”
Cam patted Bron’s head. “I’m proud to be her favorite.”
“You have to be really proud of Bron too. She’s so talented. Her work in class leaves me in awe. She’s a fast learner and dedicated to her craft. Sometimes, she and Ayla come to paint with me during lunch,” Winter said.
“What do you paint, Miss Winter?”
“Just Winter please. I like to work on portraits mostly.”
“She’s also a sculptor. Her work has been displayed atArtscapethe past three years. Last year she got her own booth. I bought one of her pieces forMiTesoro,” Adrianna added. Cam intuited that the women were friendly and not just in a parent-teacher way.
Winter stared at her feet and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. “Would you like to see our art lab and student stations?”
“Yes, I want to see where Bron does her magic.”
His daughter giggled. The sound, so new yet familiar, did funny things to his chest.
“It will have to be a quick tour. We are running late for our next appointment.”
Adrianna’s reminder sent a cold wave through Cam. Their next stop was the laboratory for the paternity test. He didn’t have doubts, and even though it was Adrianna’s idea, it still felt disingenuous to go through with it. As if he was trying to deny the smiling little girl next to him. He’d been telling himself to get over it since last night. This was a logical and practical step. Anyway, Adrianna seemed determined this would happen now.
His lawyer said the place was reputable and affiliated with the ones they’d worked with in the past. They could work out an expedited result. Cam just wanted to get it over with. He was the biggest of assholes, looking at Bron in the eye when they were at the lab, trying to rule out she wasn’t his.
Thanks a-fucking-lot, Elias.
•••
A day later, they flew to New York first class. Cam still refused to go anywhere near Acacia Falls, even if it was passing through on the highway at seventy miles an hour. Even though the person he’d tried to avoid the most sat at arm’s reach in the seat across from his, ramrod straight and staring out the window most of the time.
He couldn’t blame her. Though the ordeal at the Maryland Diagnostics Laboratory was behind them, it was far from forgotten. He didn’t know how they’d gotten through it. Her face had been taut throughout the visit to the facility. Her teeth clenched, despite how friendly the staff had been and the smiles she put on for her daughter.
His lawyers had arranged for a visit with the utmost privacy. One of them had taken the train down to accompany them. They’d explained the procedure and the steps they’d have to take later.
Do we need a test because you don’t think I’m really your daughter?
Cam would have preferred a baseball to the head without a helmet than to look in Bron’s eyes when she’d asked that. He wanted to say he didn’t need it, but Adrianna had stepped in and explained that this was all routine like getting fingerprinted for a passport. The little girl had smiled and said she understood.
She’d moved on to ask the lawyer if judges were as mean as they seemed on TV. Anger bubbled inside him at Adrianna for keeping her a secret and putting them all in this position. He’d turned to Adrianna, intending to blast her with the venom inside him, but the tears she blinked away so fast stopped him. The slight tremble in her lip and death grip she kept on the armrest made him feel like an asshole for even wanting to unleash his anger on her.
She’d pulled out her cell phone and texted Lauren. Cam didn’t make out the whole text but the wordsmortified, andearth to swallow me, were clear as day, even with a seat between them. Seconds later a barrage of messages kept her phone vibrating for a while until Adri chuckled and the tears disappeared.
They’d gone inside the lab room five minutes later. The rest of the visit was a blur, relatively painless. Now all they had to do was wait for the results.
But…
Adri had been colder with him since then. They returned to her place, she’d left him with Bron and gone to work. In the evening, they’d come down and had dinner at the bistro. She was pleasant but her only real smiles were saved for Bron.
Elias deserved every swear word Cam had vented during their conversation last night. He stopped short of telling him to shove his apology straight up his ass.
"Wow, is this how you always travel?” Bron’s words yanked him back from yesterday’s drama. “This is so different from when we went to Los Angeles or when we went to Atlantis, right, Mama?" Bronwyn gushed. Adrianna smiled back though it wasn’t in her eyes. That damned remote look in her face had become a new annoying norm.
Cam just didn’t get it. He had not pushed for the paternity test. But he had pushed her to come to New York, though she’d made it clear she wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable with the trip. He spent the evening yesterday and all night worrying she would back out. He hated to put her in this position, but he couldn't leave Bronwyn to think he abandoned her.
He only needed a couple of weeks and he wasn’t going to take any risks. He wasn’t going to knowingly put his child in the position to wonder why her father wasn’t around. Bronwyn never again would. His thoughts were interrupted when a set of hands grabbed his face on either side of his cheeks.
