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Chapter Six
Sicily
“Holy shit,” Amber blurted out. “Daniel? As in…the guy. The California one night stand turned into a lifelong responsibility?”
I opened three cabinets before finding my trusty travel coffee mug. I set it down and poured the coffee into it, the phone lodged between my ear and shoulder. “Yes, that one. The…you know what, to my you know who.”
“Is Harper in the room?”
I glanced over the breakfast counter at Harper sitting in her favorite bean bag chair in front of the television, watching cartoons. “Well, considering my house is like one big room, yes.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Amber asked. “Do you need to come back? I can have everything packed up for you. You don’t even have to go back to your parents. I just bought a house and there's plenty of room for the two of you here.”
I put the lid on my coffee and shook my head. “No, no. I just got here. Harper loves it, I love it. I can’t just turn around. Yes, this complicates things, having him here, and having no idea, but it’s not like I’m going to see him very often. I work in my own department, and over the last few days, I haven’t seen him once. And even if I do have to pass him in the hall at some point, it’s not like he was some bad guy. He was just a guy I met, young and wild, we had a good time, and…”
“Nine months later you became a single mom,” Amber sighed. “I knew you should have told him then.”
I shook my head, lowering my voice. “No. I mean, I barely remembered his name. He was a wild child. I made the right choice, and I think I’m making it again. Everything will be fine.”
I wasn’t sure how many lies I could tell in one conversation but I was overflowing. I did remember his name, his first one at least, and his face, and his hands, and the way his eyes creased at the corners when he smiled. I remembered the sound of his voice, and the stupid Chucks he had apparently traded for flip flops. I had no idea how much I would see him, or if I had just landed myself in an impossible situation or not, but the job was crucial to my plan for the future, a future for not just me but my beautiful handful of a child too.
Amber sighed. “Man, for you being so low key, you really do have the craziest luck. Ohio is boring as hell. I’m getting my gossip from you.”
I chuckled, glancing at the clock as Josie walked in, smiling and waving at me. “Hey, I gotta run. I’m still not sure about the traffic. But I swear I’ll catch up with you soon.”
“Mhmm,” she chuckled. “Stay out of trouble. Or get in some for God’s Sake.”
I laughed. “Good bye.”
Hanging up the phone, I chatted with Josie for a few, kissed my girl bye, and headed to work. As I sat on the bridge in traffic, I looked out at the water, seeing the spotted bobbing of surfers on the coast, catching their early morning waves, wondering if Daniel was down there. His hair wet, sand speckled over his shoulders, water dripping down his chiseled chest… The honk of a horn shook me from the daydream and I moved forward in traffic. I had to get him off my mind. The coincidence was nothing but that, sheer freakish luck. I had kept our daughter a secret for a reason, and I knew nothing about Daniel. I didn’t come all the way across the country to end up in some crazy custody battle, and jobless to boot.
He was there, yes, but so was I. I had a plan, and I wasn’t going to get sidetracked. It was one night, a long time ago, and my life had moved forward. It needed to keep doing that.
When I got to the office, I went to my desk and checked my emails, realizing I was actually starting to fall into a really good routine. I wasn’t fully caught up on all the projects we had going on, but that would come, and they were very realistic with those expectations. That day would be full of check-ins with the team, meetings with Clint and the Project leads, and at some point I would need to finally get my badges. I had been so busy with work I had forgotten to stop by and get them.
About twenty minutes into my replies to emails, my phone rang. “This is Sicily.”
“Hey Sicily,” Shelly’s voice sang. “How ya doing up there?”
I smiled. “Good. Very good. Just getting up to speed on everything. What can I help you with?”
“I know you’re busy, but could you run down to floor 17. The head of our janitor team, Ernest has been cleaning the office there and he said you could drop by and grab your badges. He knows where they are. The floor is empty except for that office. Everything else is under renovations, but you get off the elevator, turn left, go to the end of the hall, turn right, and the door says admin control on it. If he’s not in there, they will be in the bin on the desk. Just sign them out for me.”
“Absolutely. Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t get down there to pick them up before now.”
Shelly laughed. “Please, it takes some of our people a year to get their badges. This office throws you right in. Is there anything you can think of that you might need?”
I shook my head. “No, but thank you. I’ll go grab those now. I have just enough time before my first meeting.”
“Perfect,” she replied.
I finished up my email reply and grabbed my elevator key and visitor badge, heading to the elevator. Joel, a member of my team stuck his head out the door. “Hey boss. Do you have the security key for today? They didn’t send it over this morning.”
I paused, pursing my lips. “Actually, no. Weird. I have to run down to 17, and I’ll stop by security on…”
“Twenty,” he chuckled.
“Yep. I’ll stop by there on the way back down and get that to you guys,” I replied.
