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I shuddered at the thought.
One day in the distant, distant future.
JoJo hooked Alma by the elbow and dragged her out of the kitchen with a strength of someone twice her size.
Alma blinked in surprise before she came to her senses. “Let go of me.”
JoJo didn’t speak. She simply kept moving until Alma’s screeches became barely audible.
“She is on another level in person,” Penelope said as she sipped her tea.
“You’ve talked to her?” I leaned on the counter. Alma had kept a relationship with her?
Penelope smirked. “I’ve eavesdropped on a million conversations. That’s one good thing about landlines. There’s usually more than one phone in the house.”
My gut clenched. Did she know? That Alma was her biological mother?
“Snooping can be dangerous.”
She made a disappointed face. “In our house, it was mostly boring. I knew pretty much everything going on already.” She tilted her head. “Except about you.”
I wasn’t at a loss of words very often, but around my daughter, I seemed to struggle for explanations. Ones that would assure her none of this was her doing.
“I already know it isn’t my fault,” she said. “Mom had her reasons. One day, if I feel like it, I’ll ask. But life works in the time it’s supposed to. Who am I to question it?”
I stared. Penelope was the wisest person I’d ever known. And that was saying something, considering I was pretty damn smart myself.
“Kane?”
“You are going to be a brilliant attorney.”
She beamed. “I know. But what brought that on?”
“You’d kick my ass because you render me speechless.” I sat in the nearby barstool.
“It’s just the initial shock. Soon you’ll be blabbering, and I’ll be rolling my eyes.” She grabbed my tea and put it in front of me. “Drink.”
“I’m terrified of how alike we are,” I said honestly.
“It’s kind of fun.”
“You’re handling this whole thing better than any of us.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think I needed a father. Time will tell if that’s true or not.”
“No pressure,” I muttered.
She motioned toward the empty doorway. “Is that what you lived with?”
“That really wasn’t so bad.” I gulped some now cool tea.
“I like you and Mom together.”
Were all children this honest with their parents? I thought they avoided them mostly, but this one was straight to the point.Because she’s your daughter.
I smiled to myself.Of course she is.
“We aren’t together.” I had no business kissing her. Not until I sorted out how I felt about . . . everything.
