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“I don’t know if I am staying,” I blurted out and everyone’s eyes zeroed in on me.
“You have to stay,” Jurnee said sweetly. “We want you to.”
“Why wouldn’t you stay?” Teal asked.
“I think you’ll like it here and you came to seek out Gyth for a reason,” Summer added.
“You fit in,” Gemma told me.
Everyone fired off questions or comments one by one and my head was spinning. But when Alley spoke again, well, I thought about running.
“If we are being honest, we all have our theories about you and Rowan. It may not be our place to butt in, but as we said before we’ve all had our share of hard times, reunions, and pasts to get through. Reconciliations too.” She looked at me but I remained quiet, not sure what to say. “No matter what happened before or didn’t, and what could in the future, we'll help you through it.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t we eat, have a nice time, and you think about my offer? But just know we all want you to stay,” Alley said.
With the emotional lump in my throat and fighting back tears, I couldn’t speak. I croaked out a small, “O-Okay.”
Everyone smiled, food arrived and the rest of lunch had gone on without any more intense conversation. But my mind never stopped spinning or thinking about everything that was said.
What was I going to do with it though?
ChapterFourteen
BRINLEY
I frozewhen I walked into Summer’s foyer.
While I expected my son to come flying at me, excited I was back, I wasn’t prepared for him to be dragging Rowan along with him. Hand in hand they came toward me, and with every step panic swept through my entire body.
Oh crap.
After my conversation with Zander earlier, I intended to grab my son and get the hell out of the house as fast as possible.
But that didn’t happen.
“Mommy, you’re back. Look, Rowan came over so now you can ask him.”
All the air left my lungs in one big swoosh.
Rowan’s brows knitted in confusion. “Ask me what?”
Finally getting my feet to move, I closed the last few inches that separated my son and me, reaching over to take his hand so we could leave. My fingers brushed Rowan’s and an electric shock raced up my hand. How could he have that effect on me?
After pulling my son from his grasp, I tucked him in close to my body and turned to leave. Summer was right behind me, a puzzled look on her face. I couldn’t blame her, I was acting a bit crazy. Before we moved, Zander broke free and ran right back to Rowan.
Looking up at him, he asked, “Can you be my daddy?”
Shock stretched across Rowan’s face, Summer gasped from behind me, and Gyth had just walked into the show with a strange look across his face. As for me, well I didn’t have the first clue what to do, but none of that mattered because my son was on a mission.
“I want to have a daddy too. Like Dexter does.”
I didn’t know where Dexter was right then but I was glad he wasn’t there because it would probably have confused the poor kid. The audience we had was hard enough and it spiraled even further out of control from there.
“Luke was going to be my daddy and Mommy said he would’ve been a really good one, but he went to Heaven. Since we don’t know where my real daddy is either, I thought maybe you could do it?”
Zander didn’t know the bomb he had just dropped at Rowan’s feet. While he didn’t come out and tell the full secret I carried, he had told enough that it wouldn’t be long before either Rowan put pieces together or he’d demand the answers to the questions I could clearly see on his mind.
