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“Blake, not long after we broke up, I realized that I was gay. I’m not the mother of your child. I haven’t been with another man since you,” she said. “Henry is my lover.”
With a sigh, he couldn’t help but think had he caused her to become gay. Was he such an insensitive lover that she’d gone to the other side because of him?
A smile creased her face. “No, it was not your fault. I’d never found a man who made me feel whole. There was always an empty space in me. Henry fills all my needs.”
Shaking his head, he said, “Do you know how many girlfriends I’ve spoken to in the last couple of days? You’re the fourth and every one of them has told me that I was a good friend but not a good boyfriend. And now to hear that you became gay after me, well, it makes me doubt myself even more.”
She stood and came around to his side and hugged him. “No, it was me. It wasn’t anything you did. You were a very good lover. You were a little distant, but I always thought it was me.”
He laughed. “No, that’s what the other women told me. That I was distant.”
“Henry tells me that as well. She tells me that sometimes I go into my cave and she has to come in and rescue me.”
“What makes us this way?” he asked her. “I really want to be a good husband and father. And yet, I’m not doing a very good job of being a decent boyfriend.”
Henry came in and set drinks on her desk.
Staring at the woman, it was hard to believe that one of his old lovers was now gay. And yet it didn’t bother him if she was happy.
“Sometimes when things are on my mind, I don’t give Henry the attention she deserves.”
“That’s true,” Henry said. “It’s like she’s on another planet, and no matter what I say, she doesn’t hear me.”
Had he done this to his girlfriends?
“So now we have date night. On that night, nothing gets between us. It’s our time to talk and laugh and just be grateful for being together. It’s really strengthened our relationship,” Henry said.
The woman glanced at Lizzie and he could see the love radiating from her eyes. He wanted someone to look at him that way.
“Henry, Blake is here because one of his old girlfriends is believed to have had his child. So he’s trying to find out who that is and he thought it might be me,” she told her lover.
Henry smiled. “No worries. I know it’s not you.”
The woman turned and left and they sat in Lizzie’s office staring at one another.
He finished off his glass of water. “Thanks for seeing me today, and making me feel better. I’m so happy for you and Henry.”
“Thanks, Blake,” she said. “I hope you find your child.”
“Me too,” he said. “See you at a reunion.”
“See you,” she said and he walked out of her office and outside into the humid air.
Damn, that was everyone but Taylor who he refused to consider, and yet he had no choice. When he got back to Oakdale, he would see if she somehow managed to snag him by getting pregnant.
But if she’d gotten pregnant, she would have been shouting it all over town. She’d come expecting a wedding ring on her finger. So that still didn’t seem right.
If it wasn’t Taylor, who could it be? Or was this just a mean hoax?
CHAPTER 6
Hauling his carry-on between the seats, Blake found his seat in first class and lifted his luggage overhead to put it in the bin. Exhaustion rode him hard, and he knew it was more emotional than anything, though he couldn’t wait to get back to the ranch and maybe chop some wood. Something physical that he could take his frustration out on.
If Taylor was the mother of his child, he would just shoot himself right now and put himself out of his misery because that woman was nothing but trouble. But something told him she would be shouting this from a speaker traveling up and down the small town they lived in. She would have called him and gleefully said you’re mine. I caught you.
If it was a hoax, he’d better never learn who did this to him. There would be hell to pay and he’d make their life miserable.
He picked up his cell phone and texted his future sister-in-law Madison, the lawyer his brother was marrying, to ask if they could meet and talk without his older brother. He wasn’t ready for his brothers to learn how stupid he’d been or even how someone was causing so much trouble.
