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If anyone knew what Alma was capable of, it was me. I didn’t want Penelope anywhere near her tentacles.
For the first time in my life, I wondered if sometimes a lie was better than the truth.
JoJo dunked a teabag into her mug and wordlessly moved toward the doorway.
“Aren’t you going to eat, Mom?” Penelope patted the place between us where another bowl of slop—um,açai—sat.
I stiffened. Did I want her here? As a buffer between me and Penelope?
I wasn’t sure I could hold my tongue, and it certainly wasn’t appropriate to lash out at JoJo in front of our daughter.
A blueberry went down my throat the wrong way. I coughed and spluttered.
Penelope jumped up and patted my back. “Are you okay, Kane?”
Kane.
I bristled as I coughed.
This was a lot.
I’d nearly choked at the thought of JoJo and me having a daughter together. And said daughter called me Kane. I didn’t like that.
What did you think? She’d call you Dad?
Now that she’d addressed me as Kane, yeah, I did think she’d call me Dad.
I cleared my throat. “I’m fine.” I flashed an awkward smile for emphasis.
JoJo sank into the chair beside me without acknowledging my presence or that I’d been choking to death.
“Are you sure you don’t want to have some time alone with . . .” JoJo trailed off like she couldn’t say out loud thatIwas Penelope’s father.
“Kane and I can do that after breakfast.” Penelope tossed a strawberry into her mouth. “But it’s important we spend time together as a family too. Just the three of us.”
Our kid was acting more like an adult than we were.
I was still reeling from the news that she was mine. How odd I felt yet didn’t at the same time. Everything inside me was a contradiction. And I was having to grapple with it in front of my daughter.
JoJo’s gaze drifted to me. She was almost too painful to look at. Something had happened between us. I hadn’t believed we’d spend a weekend together and be hunky dory forever. But we had overcome something. Her mouth on mine had felt more right than anything ever had.
Then she’d been snatched out of my arms with her lie. I’d sacrificed the last twenty years with one lying Cunningham sister. Why would I want to spend time with another?
I wanted as far away from her as I could get.
And I wanted her near.
To show me how to navigate these new waters. To make me feel not so empty in the way only she could.
To keep my heart beating.
Because it had been on life support before she showed up.
“Kane, your face is really red.” Penelope pointed her spoon at me.
“I’m thinking if there are any more surprises this weekend, I might keel over.” I shoved another bite of breakfast into my mouth.
“Kane.”
