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Thiswasofficiallythescariest thing I’d ever had to do. I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants and took a slow, deep breath. It did nothing to calm my racing heart.
Part of me had been hoping he would never call. Maybe Eric was too drunk to remember what I told him. Maybe he would wake up this morning and see the phone number written on his hand, and he would think it was from some random hookup. He would wash it off and never think of it again. Or maybe hewouldremember, and he still wouldn’t call, thankful he’d dodged this bullet.
Except… first thing this morning, my phone rang.
I had picked it up with shaking fingers. “Hello?”
“Hey.” Though he’d said it with more softness and uncertainty than I’d ever heard from him, Eric’s voice sent a familiar thrill through me. It brought to mind my giddy teenage heart.
“Have you changed your mind?” I’d asked, bracing myself for disappointment. “I won’t judge you if it’s too much.”
“No!” he’d said quickly. “It’s… well, yes, it’s a lot, but not too much. I’d still really love to meet Cameron. If that’s all right?”
He could’ve pushed if he’d wanted to. He could easily afford a good lawyer and take whatever he wanted by force, but instead, here he was asking for my permission to meet his son. And he sounded nervous as hell.
“Of course it’s all right. I’ll talk with him today and make sure he’s okay with it. Can I call you later?”
“Yeah, please do.”
Which brought me to the hardest discussion I’d ever had to prepare for. Even more terrifying than telling Eric he had a son, I had to tell Cameron about his father.
“Hey, Cam?” I knocked on the doorframe and peeked around the open door. Cam was sitting on his bed, propped up against the headboard, a book open against his bent knees. “Have you got a minute? I was hoping we could talk.”
“Is this about finally getting a cell phone?” he asked eagerly, his eyes lighting up as he stuck a bookmark between the pages and tossed his book aside. He sat up and clasped his hands together. “I’ve been really good, right? I did all my chores just like we talked about. I kept my room clean—”
Geez! This was already spiraling out of control. I stepped into the room and held a hand up to stall the conversation. “Whoa, slow down! No, this isn’t about a cell phone.”
Cam sagged back onto the bed, rolling his eyes with as much exaggeration as possible, before blowing out a dramatic sigh. “Then no, I don’t have a minute.”
“Hey! Rude,” I mock scolded, but neither of us meant it. The corners of his lips twitched, and I bit down on my own smile as I plopped down beside him on the bed. He was actually a really good kid. I got lucky. Being a single parent was tough, but I’d had a lot of help along the way. Cameron was a mixture of my determination, my mom’s kind heart, and my dad’s sense of humor.
I wondered what parts of him had come from Eric…
My smile dropped, and Cam noticed straight away. He was such an empathetic kid. He sidled up to me and leaned his head on my shoulder. “What’s wrong, Dad? Is Nana sick again?” he asked weakly.
“No, no! Nana’s fine, bud,” I quickly reassured him, kissing him on the forehead. “I actually wanted to talk to you about your alpha father.” My throat felt too tight, making it hard to breathe and even harder to talk. If I weren’t already sitting down, I was sure my knees would’ve given out.
Cam peeked up at me curiously. “But you never want to talk about him.”
I nodded, staring at my hands clenched in my lap. “I know, but… I saw him last night. At the reunion.” I could feel his whole body tense up beside me.
“You did?” he asked, and I swore he was holding his breath. He’d asked questions about him over the years, because of course he did; he was a kid, and kids asked questions. And I had never lied to him about where he came from, but I’d always been vague and distant.
Guilt stabbed me hard through the chest. “I screwed up, Cam,” I admitted. “I told myself I was protecting you, but I think I was just trying to protect myself.” It wasn’t until a tear dripped down onto my shirt that I even realized I was crying.
“Don’t cry, Dad,” Cam said, wiping my cheek. “It’ll be okay.” He said it with the confidence of a child who’d never experienced anything worse than a papercut.
I braced myself. “I first met your father in high school.”
“Was it love at first sight?” he asked, trying to tease me and make me laugh.
Chuckling, I said, “Heck no! We were total opposites, like oil and water. He was one of the popular kids—he was strong and handsome, star quarterback. And I was…notpopular. We had absolutely nothing in common.”
Cam looked confused. “Then, what happened?”
“Well, he needed help passing his final exams, so our teachers paired him up with me as his tutor. We started spending a lot of time together, and I found that we had more in common than I ever would’ve imagined. We liked the same music, the same movies. And I guess I decided he wasn’t so bad after all.”
“You fell in love with him?”
