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“It wasn’t Farrell pulling me over. It was his buddy. He gave me some bogus excuse and gave me a ticket. Then he said I had a warrant out for my arrest that was miraculously cleared up at the police station twenty minutes later. When I got ready to go, Farrell met me at the door and told me I wasn’t allowed to leave town while I was carrying his child.”
Kobe growled under his breath.
“That was the first of four attempts to go hiking, all at different times of the day,” I continued. “The last time was the last straw for me. After getting pulled over yet again, and this time threatened with house arrest if I didn’t cooperate, I realized that they weren’t going to fight this fair. If I ever wanted to see my child again…”
“You had to do something drastic. Like run,” he guessed.
“Yes,” I said. “When I was six months pregnant, I took a small backpack filled with clothes, as much money as I could cash out of the bank without looking suspicious, and a set of fake IDs that would get me where I needed to go. Then I walked out of town in the dead of night and never went back.
“I did really okay for the first month. Then you came into the picture.” I smiled, remembering that memory. “The first time I saw you, you were at my job asking questions about me. You had a picture of me with all of my stats and my first name, and you were standing there flashing it to my boss, who was blind as a bat. When you left that day, I realized that I needed to play a lot smarter and dirtier to stay ahead of you. So then I started hacking into your computer and changing all the information you were getting from your leads. If I could get to a text before you read it, I deleted it and then resent it with false information.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Dammit. I knew that there was something going on. I guess I never really thought that it was possible. Not until I met you, at least, and I never connected the dots.”
His laughter gave me hope.
His laughter also caught JP’s attention.
She turned and studied him for a few long seconds.
Then she walked up to us.
She walked right up to Kobe, poked him in the chest, and said, “My mama says you delivered me.”
Kobe blinked.
I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.
“What?” he asked, turning to me.
His eyes were wide and surprised, and I knew that she’d shocked him for a second time that day.
“I’m also supposed to go to you if anything bad happens. I’m supposed to go to the nearest mom and tell them your phone number. Tell them to tell you my mom’s name, and you’re supposed to come get me.” She held out her tiny hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
They’d met before on a few occasions. But not “met” met. JP was all about meeting officially.
Kobe reached out and took her hand. He shook it twice.
Once she’d gotten her introduction, she turned and left without another word, heading back to her friends.
“One thing that I can say about her coming here,” I said, “is that she made a lot of friends. And her nose isn’t buried in an iPad twenty-four seven anymore.”
He made a slight choking sound, and I turned to find him staring at me with wide eyes. “It was you?”
I smiled. “Really weird twist of fate, huh? You being right where I needed you when I needed you most.”
He shook his head. “That was the scariest moment of my life.”
I grinned. “Mine, too. And just sayin’, but you have no idea how dangerous it is for a woman with hemophilia to give birth.”
“I’m glad that I didn’t know.” He shook his head. “How did you wind up there?”
“Funny enough, I met another woman through an online hemophilia group. Though she has von Willebrand disease. Her husband, Sebastian, is Sam McKenzie’s brother. She sent me there for ‘help’ getting ‘away,’ and that was where I was headed when I went into labor three and a half weeks early. They forgot about me, FYI. Something really bad happened, and I’m not sure what, but I was left at that bus stop for hours. Then you came along.”
He shook his head, already flabbergasted.
“Why tell me now?” was his final question.
Why tell him now?
