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Teddy looks at me, and I nod.
“She’s just going to swab the inside, like she did with my mouth,” I tell him, trying alleviate the bit of fear and discomfort that has been present on his face since we arrived at the clinic half an hour ago.
At my encouragement, Teddy turns and opens his mouth, letting the lab tech swipe the swab inside his cheek for a few seconds. Then she clips off the long stick part and drops the cotton tip into a small plastic tube, like she did with mine.
“All done! Would you like a sticker?”
Teddy smiles. “Yes, please!”
A few minutes later, we’re heading out to the parking lot where my car is parked, and Teddy proudly wears a dinosaur sticker that says I’m a Brave-o-saurus! on his shirt.
Once I’ve clicked him into his booster seat in the back, we begin the twenty-minute drive through Santa Barbara and along PCH to the house. Which gives me plenty of time to reflect on the choice I made as Teddy hums along to the music on the radio.
There’s no going back now. I had a ‘go big or go home’ moment when I was completing the form and making a list of people who needed to be made aware of the results. Once they’ve been recorded, they will be sent to me, and they’ll be sent to Verona Carpenter at her home address.
I’m not sure if that was a wise move, but it can at the very least be considered forthcoming.
The things my dad said to me at the hotel yesterday are true. What I do in this stressful time, when faced with these difficult circumstances, will be what defines me as a father and as a man. And I can only hope and pray I will have the rest of my life to show Teddy how important it is to do the right thing, even when it’s hard.
When I pull up in front of my house a while later, I’m surprised to see my mother’s car parked out front. Once I’ve unclipped Teddy from the back, we head inside. Teddy races straight upstairs to his room to play with some of the Legos he got for his birthday while I check in with my mother, who is watching TV and sipping tea in the living room.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were coming over,” I say, crossing the room and placing a kiss on her cheek. “Did I know and forget?” I add on a laugh.
She smiles at me. “Nope. Just thought I’d come by and see how your nanny is getting along at her job.”
Something about the way she says it makes me uneasy, and I glance around, looking for some kind of evidence that things aren’t what they seem.
“I like her,” my mom continues. “She’s got…spirit.”
I blink a few times then narrow my eyes.
“What did you do?”
She shrugs and takes another sip of her tea, returning her eyes to the television.
“This is why I thought moving across the country was an excellent idea,” I tell her, backing away and heading into the kitchen for a bottle of water. “Because you wouldn’t be able to just stop by and break into my house.”
“I didn’t break in. I have a key.”
I snort. “Okay, mom.”
Once I’ve grabbed my bottle of water, I walk through the house looking for Emily, and when I don’t find her, I end up sending her a text to see where she is. Back yard is all her response says.
Her head flies up at the sound of the door sliding open, her shoulders falling when she sees me.
“Okay, just so you know, I wasn’t trying to get into a fight with your mom,” she tells me. “She was just…there and she saw me almost naked and then had all these questions about—”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I interrupt, waving a hand between us. “My mother saw you naked?”
“Almost naked. And coming out of your room this morning.”
At that, I smile, my head falling back as I let out a laugh from somewhere deep in my soul.
“It’s not funny,” Emily says, smacking me on the arm. “She had all these questions about us.”
“She did, huh?”
Emily nods.
