AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Laura! James!” Jacob’s deep voice boomed from the backyard. “Food’s ready!”
James lifted Foxy in his arms. “Come on. You must be starving.”
I followed him up the stone bank. He set Foxy on the ground and took his right hand while I took his left. We crossed the backyard to the sitting area. As if on cue, the entire family turned around, and the patio was silenced. I saw what they all saw: a happy family walking hand in hand, except the picture was so wrong. The secret was eating me from within and after dinner, when Foxy went down for his nap, I would finally tell James the truth.
Allie arrived with Tristan and sat near the end of the table. I couldn’t wait to catch up with my friend. The long wooden table underneath a pergola overgrowing with vines extended at least twenty feet, seating three large families. My parents gaped, along with everyone else in on my secrets, and I avoided eye contact. Emma sat with Kensi and Laila, helping them to a smaller table. They had set sunflowers and candles in the middle, igniting a warm family ambiance. James pulled out my chair.
Foxy squeezed my hand. “Mama, pee pee.”
“Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
“The powder room is being fixed. You can use the upstairs bathroom,” Jacob said.
I lifted Foxy into my arms and went inside, heading to the second floor. We hurried to the end of the hall, and I knocked on the bathroom door.
“Sorry, it’s taken,” Wilma called out. “There’s another one near the boy’s old room.”
“Thank you.”
We turned around and crossed the hall to the other end of the house, but stopped at one room where Tiffany was standing, facing a wall. She turned around when she heard us.
“Hey, I’m looking for the second bathroom,” I said.
“Your parents call your son Fox.” She stepped closer. “I heard them talking to Teresa.”
“I don’t know what you heard.” I turned my son in my arms so he wouldn’t be facing her, and she flipped over a picture frame she was holding.
“This is Fox when he was a baby. At first I thought to myself, why would Teresa keep a picture of Ozzy in Fox’s room? Then I realized it wasn’t a picture of Ozzy, but of his father, who looked just like him when he was a toddler.”
I kept silent as my throat screamed for water. Foxy came closer to my ear. “Mama, pee pee.” I rubbed over his back and stepped back out into the hallway.
“He said he met someone in Colorado, but she left. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“I wanted to stay out of the way. You were pregnant, and I didn’t know you weren’t together, so I stayed away.”
“And kept his son from him? James doesn’t know about him, does he? And his name isn’t Ozzy, is it?”
“Tiffany—”
“How could you?” She pushed past me.
“Tiffany, wait!”
I rushed after her until a warmth dripped down my shirt and jeans.
“Mama, pee pee.”
We didn’t make it to the bathroom. I stopped and turned around to Teresa’s room, where she kept a change of Foxy’s clothes for his sleepovers. I laid him down on the bed and undressed him in a hurry. My heart battered my chest and hands shook, making dressing a giggling toddler nearly impossible. An argument from the backyard drew my attention to the window.
Fuck.
I pulled up Foxy’s pants and took him back into my arms, peeking through the curtains. Tiffany hadn’t made it down yet, and James was standing by the barbecue, talking to my parents. My father waved his hand up and down as they argued.
“What the hell is going on?”
Holding my son tight in my arms, I ran downstairs and stepped out onto the patio. Everyone’s attention turned my way, and the back yard fell quiet. Tiffany was standing beside James, and my heart stopped.
My mother and Teresa walked up with the girls.
