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She wasn’t surprised he’d felt that too. “It’s up to you,” she said. “Why don’t we start with something simple. What do you do for a living? You said you worked remotely. And I know the woman who watches Max is named Dee and the wife of a coworker.”
He moved over and sat in the chair, her eyes on his long legs. He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees so he could look at Max who was moving toward him. There was tenderness in his eyes.
A look she’d seen aimed her way so many years ago.
She was jealous and hurt at the same time.
“Max has time yet for bed. I’m a software developer for a firm out of Boston. I lived in Boston for years and used to work in an office. I was recruited out of MIT, stayed about five years and then recruited to my current company.”
“I’m sure you are good at what you do.”
“I like to think so,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips. “Anyway, this company I work for now, I began in the office. It was a startup company that I took a risk with. I figured why not and got a lot of company stock on top of a huge jump in salary. It’s taken off and more than tripled in size. They outgrew the space and real estate is expensive and hard to come by in Boston. Barely a third of the staff are in the office daily, the rest of us at home.”
“I bet you like that,” she said. He’d never been one that wanted to go with the groups or the crowds. It was one thing that was different between them.
“It has its perks. But there are times it’s better to be with people on a project. Colin, that’s Dee’s husband, he and I work together a lot. We were hired about the same time. Him a few months after me. When we all went remote, they’d bought a house about an hour away from the office. You get more for your money and he had a kid. They were looking for the white picket fence and nice schools.”
“There are people out there that like that in life.”
“I know,” he said. “I never said I didn’t want that.”
“Just not here,” she said shortly. “Let’s not go down that road right yet.”
“Colin managed to convince me to move out by him. Said we could work together at times and not always on video calls. I’m about five minutes away. My house, that is. When Max showed up, I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be that close.”
“Showed up?” she asked, frowning.
“First, Max’s mother died four months ago. I had no idea I had a child.”
“How is that possible?” she asked.
“It’s very possible. We dated on and off for about two months. She was more into going out and partying and drinking and I was working a lot. We went on our own way shortly after we started to date.”
“What was her name?” Zara asked. She’d get to the dying part soon.
“Rachelle Wilson. I hadn’t heard from her again until about five months ago. I’m working and there is a knock at the door. I’m thinking no one knows I’m home, I could care less, but it started to get louder so I went to see what was going on.”
“How did she know you were home?”
“She knew I worked remotely. I barely went to Colin’s at that point. I’m not sure she even knew I did. We didn’t talk much about our jobs.”
She could only imagine the type of woman this was but was keeping that opinion to herself.
“So she’s on your doorstep?” Zara asked.
“She is. I’m shocked to see her and then I noticed the car seat next to her on the porch. She tells me Max is my son and she can’t do it anymore. He’s better off with me.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? She just left him with you? Two months of dating and no word in close to a year. It’s like you were strangers and she left her kid with you?”
“I know you’re appalled. I was too. Max is sleeping, Rachelle is crying and she looked like shit. I mean like she not only got run over by a bus but her shirt was clipped to the bumper and it dragged her around town.”
“Gee,” she said. “That’s a description.”
“It’s the truth. She pushes past me into the house and says she doesn’t want anything but someone to watch Max. She was pretty positive he was my kid.”
“Pretty positive? She didn’t even know for sure?” she asked. Zara’s voice rose and she didn’t realize it until Max let out a shout next to her where he’d been playing. She reached her hand out to soothe him and he went back to what he was doing.
“I’ve taken all the DNA tests. He’s mine. If he wasn’t I have no idea what I would have done. Moving on, she walks out the door on me and I’m thinking she’s leaving me just like that. The baby in a car seat with nothing else. I don’t even know his date of birth, his full name. Nothing.”
