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“What if you change the way you think about this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about how much you’ll love the baby and how much she or he will love you. Focus on the bond the two of you will make. I’d be willing to bet your connection will be equally as strong as Kyle’s.” She paused and looked off toward the mountains. I had the sense that she was weighing her next words. “You don’t need to have the same blood to have a strong bond.”
Chapter 36
I scrolled with my right hand and reached for my ringing phone with my left. “I’m back,” a deep, booming voice said.Hank.“Have you given any thought to what we talked about before I left? Do you want to know what happened when I came back to Stapleton?” I hadn’t heard from him in so long I’d assumed he’d forgotten all about the conversation he wanted to have with me. That his call came the day after my dinner with Aunt Izzie didn’t come as a surprise.
“It’s not really my business.”
Hank sighed. “I want to tell you.”
My stomach twisted. Why was he so intent on telling me this story? “It’s not a good time. Things are crazy.”
Hank didn’t say anything. I heard the sound of gushing air and a door closing. “Your aunt told me about what’s going on with Kyle. I’m sorry, Nikki.”
My grip on the phone tightened, and I jumped to my feet. “She told you?”
“She’s worried about you.”
“So worried that she’s helping to fuel the gossip.”
“It’s not like that,” Hank said. “She thought it might help you to talk to me.”
I remembered that night back in March when Kyle and I had gone to the restaurant, the odd way Hank had spoken to Kyle and Kyle’s nervous reaction.They have some good live entertainment. That girl, shecan really sing. What’s her name? I’ll keep an eye out for you ...“You knew.”
Hank cleared his throat. “I suspected.”
My face felt like it was on fire. “Am I the only one who didn’t know?”
“Why don’t you come over for dinner tomorrow. We’ll talk.”
“No offense, but you’re the last person I’d want to talk to about this.” The words flew from my mouth, and I immediately regretted them. I was mad at Aunt Izzie for telling him and taking it out on him. “I’m sorry. I just wish my aunt hadn’t said anything.”
“I’ve known you since you were a kid, Nikki. I’ve helped you through rough patches before. I might be able to offer advice now. At the very least, I can be a sounding board.”
For a split second, I felt as if I were talking to the old Uncle Hank, the one who used to make me and Dana laugh at the diner, the man who was our rock in the days immediately after my parents’ accident.
“If you don’t want to come to the house, stop by the restaurant.”
The restaurant.Just like that, he was back to being the man who’d reneged on his promise to preserve my parents’ legacy.
My computer pinged with a new email, Elizabeth reminding me that the article I was working on was due tonight.
“I have to run,” I said. “I’m working on deadline.”
As I left work that night, my phone vibrated with a text from Dana. It was a picture of Oliver perched high in a lifeguard chair overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, a bright-orange life vest strapped around his chest and a crowd of kids gathered below him. Dana’s message read:Deeogee’s fast become the favorite lifeguard on the National Seashore.
I smiled at the image, but at the same time, my shoulders tightened.How long has he been out in the hot sun? Does he have water? Would he hurt himself if he jumped off the chair?
A car door slammed, and I looked up from my phone. Kyle stood next to his Jeep, his hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans. Seeing him at my office surprised me so much that I started to smile. The slight uptick of the corners of my lips gave him all the encouragement he needed. He strode toward me with a determined expression until we came face to face at the bottom of the stairs. He’d had his hair cut since I’d seen him last, and the stubble around his mouth had grown into a mustache and goatee. I’d never seen him with facial hair. I didn’t like it. I imagined he’d grown it because he thought it made him look younger. It didn’t. The gray specks gave away his age.
“You’re working late,” he said.
“How long have you been waiting out here?”
He shrugged. “Forty-five minutes, an hour.”
