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“Has anything else been going on between the two of you?” Dad asked.
“Nothing like that. I told her just a few days ago I am interested in possibly dating her. At least, I was. I think that’s what inspired her to finally tell me,” I told them.
“And you’re sure she’s telling the truth? You know the baby is yours?” Mom asked.
“That’s why I want to see the pictures and get my medical records. I don’t want to be that guy, but it’s really hard not to be. She brought me in to see her. Her name is Willa. She has my hair, but I didn’t get to see her eyes or anything because she was sleeping. I know babies aren’t carbon copies of their parents, but I would really like to compare the pictures of me to her.”
“Why did you want your records?”
“To compare blood types with her. Kelly had Willa’s records, but I didn’t look at them,” I explained.
“No,” Dad said, shaking his head. “You’re not just going to compare your blood type. That’s not conclusive. You’re going to have a real DNA test.”
I took the pictures and records that Mom held out to me and glanced down at them. I didn’t see much of Willa when she was sleeping, but there was enough for me to see a resemblance in our profiles. Thanking my parents, I started back out of the house.
“Darren, do you want me to call the lawyer?” she asked. “I can let him know what’s going on and see if he has any suggestions for what you should do next.”
I thought about this for only a second before shaking my head.
“Not yet. Let me get my brain straight, and then I’m going to try to figure it out with Kelly. I need to be sure of everything before I decide what to do.”
26
Kelly
When Darren sped off on his motorcycle right after I told him about Willa, I honestly didn’t know when I was going to see him again. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he didn’t show up for work at the complex or even made sure I didn’t go back so we didn’t run into each other again. I definitely didn’t expect to see him again that night. Which was why I was completely stunned when I heard the telltale sound of a motorcycle coming toward my place a couple of hours later.
Willa had woken up from a late-afternoon nap and was sitting in her highchair as I fed her dinner. Kira had called our parents and had her phone propped up on the salt and pepper shakers in the middle of the table so we could talk to them through speaker. As soon as she heard her grandparents’ voices, Willa lit up. She missed them so much. More than I even expected her to. They were very close and had been since she was born, but she was so little I hoped she would just go with the flow. When we were getting ready for the move and I was doing everything I could to prepare her for the change, the pediatrician gave me that old trusty line: “Small children are resilient.” She reassured me Willa would be just fine as long as she was with me and that she would take all her cues from my emotions and the way I reacted to the change.
Being able to talk to them and stay in touch always made me happy, and it was taking the edge off the terrible confrontation when I heard the sound of Darren’s bike. It made my heart clench and my stomach drop. Why was he back here?
Snatching the phone up from the table, I took it off speakerphone, and Kira headed for the door to answer it. I wanted to give Willa a chance to say good night, but I didn’t want my parents hearing what was going on with Darren. Whatever he was here to say, I couldn’t imagine it was going to be super friendly. My parents had been supportive of me from the instant I told them I was pregnant. There was never any judgment, never any sense they were disappointed in me. And when I told them I was relocating here so I could tell Darren about Willa and let them get to know each other, they were nothing but encouraging. Though they didn’t say it, and I knew they never would, I knew they were nervous for me. They didn’t want me to get hurt and were worried about the way Darren would respond. I really didn’t want them to hear his freak-out. The only thing that could do was either make them feel terrible for not being there to comfort me, or inspire them to get on a plane down to defend me, and that wasn’t something I wanted right now. Everything was already confusing and complicated enough. I didn’t need to add them into the mix.
