Zandra
The steering wheel felt odd in my hands as I pulled away from Kane after our son stalked off, angry at his father. My mind was numb from all the new information.
I’ve got my son back!
In a matter of a few minutes, I’d become a mother to a ten-year-old boy. It defied the imagination. And the odds, too.
The odds of Kane’s aunt and uncle finding where my parents had relocated us hadn’t been good. The odds of them finding the adoption agency my parents had signed me up with were just as slim. The odds of Kane turning out to be a good father weren’t all that good either.
But even with all that going against this situation, somehow it all had worked out in our favor. It didn’t make sense to me. Mostly because I wasn’t used to good things happening to me, I guessed.
My life had shown me that, more often than not, bad things happened to me. Like being a virgin and getting pregnant after having sex one time—and at barely sixteen. Like being born to parents who’d made me give up the baby I had loved so much. While working as a waitress had helped me gain my freedom from my parent and make ends meet, it wasn’t easy, and I’d had a lot of difficult nights and found myself in more than one shitty situation.
It definitely wasn’t a job that a shy girl like I’d been would’ve ever thought of doing. Well, not until push came to shove and I’d had no other choice.
Pulling into the apartment complex, I spotted Taylor’s BMW parked in front of our apartment. Glad to have someone to talk to, I hoped she was awake. With so much on my mind, I figured talking to her would help.
As I went into the apartment, I smelled burnt toast. “I’m home,” I called out.
“Good.” She rounded the corner from her bedroom to the living room. “I tried to make some toast in the oven then forgot about it. I wanted to go out to get something to eat, but I didn’t want to go alone.” She picked up her purse as she looked at my hand. “Did they give you stitches at the hospital?”
“No.” I pulled the bandage off my left hand. “I got butterfly bandages. Well, that, and a son.” I waited for her to catch on to what I’d said, watching her face for her reaction.
She stopped, put her hand on her hip, and looked me in the eyes. “Give me that last part again, will ya?”
“I found my son, Taylor. The one my parents made me give away. The baby I told you about. I found him.” My heart pounded as I said it out loud for the first time. “I’ve got him back, Taylor.” The dam burst, tears pouring down my cheeks and a few sobs slipping through.
Taylor had me in her arms in no time, hugging me as she cried too. “Oh, Zandy! This is amazing. You’ve got to sit down and tell me everything. I want to know all the details, girl.”
“Wine. I need wine,” I gasped.
After helping me take a seat on the sofa, she left me to go to the kitchen to get what I’d requested. “Screw wine. I’m making us some mimosas. This is champagne kind of news. And since I don’t like it on its own, I’m mixing it with orange juice.”
I tried to gather myself and stop the waterworks. “Thanks, Taylor. This is something to celebrate.” Going to the half bath off the living room, I grabbed some toilet paper to blow my nose and some more to dry my tears.
Staring into the mirror, I looked at my red-rimmed eyes and saw something else there that hadn’t been there before. I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but I would say it had to be something akin to joy.
It was hard to tell. I hadn’t ever experienced so much joy in my life. But something was definitely different with me.
“Come on, Zandy,” Taylor called out. “I’ve got the drinks, and I’m dying to hear about your day.”
Heading back out, I took the champagne glass she’d set on the coffee table and took one long drink, hoping to steady my nerves. “Okay, the guy who got me pregnant is now a doctor. Dr. Kane Price, to be exact. And you’ve met him.”
“I knew it!” She pointed at me. “You lied to me. It was that guy from last night. You bitch!”
“I know.” Another swallow of the drink helped me steady myself to go on. “I’m sorry. I have no idea why, but I didn’t want you to know that he was the one. None of that matters anymore. The whole town knows that I had a baby. The whole town knows that Kane is the father.”
Perplexed, she asked, “And how is that?”
“He told me that one of my neighbors overheard my family when that whole thing went down. My parents screamed at me a lot, so I can’t say I’m surprised by that. She went to school when it started up again and told Kane about what had happened. She was pretty sure he was the guy, since she’d seen us together at that party.” I took another drink, finding my glass empty. “Well, hell.”
“I made a whole gallon of it.” Taylor jerked her head toward the kitchen. “On the counter.”
I got up to go refill my glass. “Great thinking. This news is a bit overwhelming.”
“I bet it is.” She put her glass down, watching me. “Okay, so somehow this guy was able to track you down, without you knowing, and he was able to get the baby you’d been forced to put up for adoption?”
“Well, technically he didn’t do it—at least not alone. He said his aunt and uncle did the research and were the ones to officially adopt the baby. His aunt was even in the delivery room when Fox was born. She took him shortly after the delivery was over.” I filled my glass up then looked at it. “I bet most moms don’t drink as much as I do.”
“Who knows,” Taylor said, then laughed. “Maybe they drink even more than we do. I mean, dealing with kids doesn’t seem like a picnic.”
She was right. The exchanges between Kane and Fox didn’t exactly look easy. “Yeah, I bet it’s not a picnic at all.”
“So, this kid’s name is Fox?” She nodded, as if she approved of the name. “Pretty cool name.”
“Fox Colton Price,” I murmured. “My son’s name is Fox Colton Price. I’m a mom.” Now that just feels weird. “Am I ever going to get used to this, Taylor?”
“How the hell should I know?” She leaned forward as I passed by her, holding out her glass. I clanked mine against hers. “Congratulations, Zandra Larkin, on becoming a real mother today. So, what’s the plan now?”
I took my seat again, pondering her question. “I’m not really sure. Kane wants me. I know that much. Fox wants me around—I know that too. What I don’t know is if Kane actually wants me around all that much.”
One of her brows arched in confusion. “Wait. Kane wants you. The kid wants you. But you didn’t feel like Kane wanted you around? I don’t get it.”
“Me neither.” It was true. I didn’t understand everything yet. “Fox asked if I could take him to school in the morning. Kane shot that down.”
“Be thankful.” She nodded. “That school traffic is a nightmare. Not that I’ve ever been in it, but I’ve seen it.”
“Yeah, I suppose so,” I agreed. “But there was something about the way Kane looked when Fox asked that. Like he didn’t think it was a good idea. And just before I left, Fox asked me to go over to their home for dinner and to stay the night. Kane shut that down too, and quickly. And I don’t know why he did that.”
“I thought you said he wanted you,” Taylor said, taking another sip of her drink as she contemplated my words. “Did you mean sexually, he wanted you?”
“He did. Before he told me that Fox was my son, the two of us were alone in his office for a little while, and Kane was all over me. He asked me out on a date then, too.” My body got warm as I recalled the way it felt to have that man’s hands on me again. “At first I said no way. You know, because of the whole secret baby thingy. But once I found out everything and he asked me again, I said yes. So, we’ve got a date sometime.”
Taylor seemed to be deep in thought. “So, he wants to see you. But he doesn’t want you to be at his home with him and your kid. That’s odd. Don’t you think that’s odd?”
“Kinda.” I thought about it a bit. “But then again, it’s not. You know?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. He wants you, but he doesn’t want to share you with your son?”
“I think he’s just being cautious.” I put the glass down then looked at the tattoo on my wrist. “He’s always been out of my league, Taylor. He still is. He’s a doctor, and I’m just a cocktail waitress with no aspirations. He asked me if I was waitressing while going to college. I had to tell him that I wasn’t doing anything, and I saw the disappointment in his gorgeous green eyes.”
“Those eyes are like emeralds,” she mused, her lips curling into a dreamy smile.
“Hey!” I made her look at me. “I know he’s not mine, technically. But he’s mine. So no thinking about which gem his eyes most resemble. And by the way, our son has his eyes, too. He’s such a handsome little guy.”
“I bet.” She chewed her lower lip. “That man is built, too. Oh, Zandy, am I jealous.”
“Stop it.” I gave her my take-no-shit expression. “I don’t like the look you’ve got on your face right now.”
With a laugh, she changed her expression. “Sorry. I would be mad too if you went on about some guy I’d been with.”
“Good. So, we understand each other then.” Picking up the glass, I took a dainty sip. “I’ve got so much to learn about being a mother. If Kane allows that, I guess.”
“Do you honestly think he won’t let you be a mom to your own kid?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Is there something you can do about that if he does try to keep you out of the boy’s life?”
“I don’t think there would be anything for me to do about it. I signed away my rights when they made me give him up.” The thought hit me like a punch to the gut. “What if Kane thinks I won’t be a good influence on Fox? What if Kane has a problem with my job or something, or the way I live my life? What if he just wants to screw me now and then, but won’t let me be anything more than an occasional lay?”
Taylor shook her head adamantly. “No. You can’t let him treat you that way. You’re going to have to up your game, girl. We need to mother you up. We’ll get you some mom clothes to wear around the kid—things that are less sexy and more casual or something. Maybe trade that Mustang for a minivan. Is the kid into sports of any kind?”
“Yeah, baseball. He’s an athlete, just like his dad.” The thought of a minivan made my stomach clench. “But I don’t want a minivan. That’s going too far, Taylor. But maybe something kind of sporty, but more like something a mom would drive.”
She tapped her chin with her index finger. “My Beemer is kind of like that.”
“Yeah!” I agreed with enthusiasm. “Something along those lines. I like the way you’re thinking.” But then I thought about the fact I would need to keep my current job to make that kind of a payment. “Or maybe something a bit cheaper. I’ll have to look around, and maybe look around for a more suitable job, too.”
Clucking her tongue, Taylor went on, “You know what the bills are here, Zandy. Not every job will pay well enough to keep the lights on.”
She was right about that. There weren’t many jobs that paid as much as I made at the club. Not for people with nothing more than a high school diploma, anyway.
Running my hand through my hair, I felt a bit of a headache coming on. “I should really think about expanding my horizons if I want Kane to see me as a woman who’s fit to be the mother of his son.”
“He’s not only his son, Zandy,” she reminded me. “He’s yours too.”
“Not on paper,” I reminded her. “Fox is his alone and has been all this time. I wonder how Kane is going to feel about sharing him now.”
“Oh, hell,” she whispered. “I didn’t even think about that. You said it’s been ten years. That’s a long time for it to have been just the two of them. I bet they’ve got their whole routine established. And where the hell will you fit into that?”
“I know.” I took a long drink as I thought about what the future would hold for me. “This may only end up bringing more pain to my life, and not the joy I was thinking.”
With a sad nod, she agreed. “Yep.” She finished her drink then got up to refill it. “I hate to say this, but I’m not feeling as great about this anymore, Zandy.”
Looking at the beverage in my hand, I thought about dumping it out. When my bouts of depression hit me, alcohol only made them worse. And I didn’t want to fall into a pit of despair right when I’d just found my son and reunited with the only man who’d ever been able to push my sexual buttons.