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At that I laugh, adjusting Teddy’s backpack on my arm.
“He tried. I can promise you he tried.”
Roger grins and reaches out to take the bags I have in my hands.
“Well, I guess I’m more thankful that you have the fortitude to stick around through his pigheadedness.”
At that comment, I glance at Colton, feeling my own sense of thankfulness.
“Me too,” I tell him, my eyes returning to Roger’s. “Me too.”
I move quickly through the small suite-style room, saying a quick hello to Sharon before getting Teddy changed into his bathing suit and pulling out his towel and floaties and sunscreen.
“And you’re okay with me taking him out to the pool?” I ask Colton once we’re all ready to go.
He squeezes my arm and gives me a thoughtful look. “Have fun. I trust you.”
I can’t help the way his words buoy my spirit for the day, and I bite my lip then spin on my heels and look at Teddy.
“You ready, Freddie?”
“Teddy, not Freddie,” he tells me, giggling as he tries to use every ounce of his strength to pull the sliding glass door open.
“Oh, my bad,” I say, tugging on the door. “Ted-ee, not Fred-ee.”
“Yup! Pool time!” he shouts, lifting both of his hands over his head like he’s flexing his muscles. “Time for foating!”
I look to Colton and roll my eyes, loving the way his smile looks on his face when the past two days have been so hard for him.
As I begin to push the sliding door closed, my eyes catch Sharon’s for just a brief second. They’re narrowed in my direction, observing me, and then they shift to her son, who is still smiling in my direction.
“See you guys in a bit,” I say, my throat growing tight.
I push the door the rest of the way closed, leaving Colton to chat with his parents about his conversation with Verona two days ago, hoping I misunderstood the look on Sharon’s face.
chapter twenty-one
colton
“And that’s all she has to go on? Some journal that, for all we know, she could have fabricated herself?”
I let out a sigh, rubbing the center of my forehead with my fingers in an effort to alleviate the headache that has been growing slowly but surely throughout the day.
“I have the journal, dad. It’s Melody’s handwriting.” I look at him. “And the fact that she cheated on me, multiple times, is not some big just-unearthed secret. It’s common knowledge.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t it?” I ask him, my chest feeling tight. “She’s been unfaithful before, and in her own writing she says she wants to tell me the baby isn’t mine during therapy so I’ll go back to thinking divorce is the best option. I might not be a lawyer, but I can’t imagine a judge seeing that information and assuming the Carpenters have no case.”
I turn and look out the window, out to where Emily and Teddy are playing in the pool together. I’ve been checking on them frequently. I was honest when I told Emily I trust her with Teddy, but I’m also a nervous parent who lost a spouse to an accident in a pool. Keeping an eye on my kid feels like second nature.
“Do we know who the father is?”
Spinning, I glare at my dad.
“I’m the father.”
My dad’s hands come up in a placating gesture. “You know what I mean. Do we know who the potential other person is? The one the Carpenters might think is a possible other father.”
