“Did you have fun with Angie?” Maya asked as she pulled Jason’s pajama shirt over his head.

“We played trucks all night! She’s my favorite.” He beamed at her and took off running around the room in his pajama top and underwear, making driving noises as he wielded his truck in the air.

“Okay, mister truck driver. Let’s get your jammies on. It’s getting late.”

“I thought Angie was putting me to bed.”

“She was supposed to, but I got him earlier than I thought I would.”

He stopped and looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face. “Were you at work?”

“No, I was out with a friend.”

“Did you play trucks, too?”

“We did not.” She held out his pants. “Now, come on, get your jammie bottoms on.”

He wiggled into his pajamas and they went to the bathroom to brush their teeth. The whole time, Jason made vrrrmmm vrrrmmm sounds as he shoved the toothbrush back and forth across his teeth.

Maya watched her son, looking over the features that looked more like Matt than her. His thin nose, his large eyes. Jason sometimes got the same intense stare Matt had. Seeing Matt tonight had really shaken her up and reminded her just how much Jason looked like Matt. More all the time, it seemed.

Jason hopped into bed and set his favorite truck on his bedside table. “Night, night, Dumpster.” Every truck in his collection had a name.

Maya pulled his covers up and kissed him. “Nighty night, Jay.”

“Night Mommy.”

She blew him a kiss before shutting off his light. His red firetruck nightlight glowed red in the dark room. She pulled the door shut behind her and went to her own bedroom.

She changed out of her dress and heels, and took off her earrings and bracelet. That was it for dating. All of the dates she’d been on lately had not gone well. Either the guy was boring or there was just nothing between them. Then Sam. What a complete disaster. What in the world might have happened if Matt hadn’t been there? She shivered at the thought.

She pulled on a t-shirt and sweatpants, then went to make sure everything was locked up and shut off. A nice, early night, and she could wake in the morning feeling refreshed and ready to start a new day. And leave this nightmare behind her for good. She’d have to warn the other nurses that although Sam was a good-looking doctor, he was not exactly husband material.

She flipped off the kitchen light and turned at the sound of a knock at the door. Had Angie forgotten something? Who else could be there at this time on a Friday night?

When Maya opened the door, panic rushed in. “Matt. How did you know where I lived?”

“I followed the cab.”

Her face probably displayed the anger she was feeling, but she wasn’t sure why he looked angry as well. “Why would—”

“I guess it’s a good thing I did. Or I would have never known I had a son.”

She felt her eyes grow wide. How in the world did he know?

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said. “I’m coming in. We have a lot to talk about.”

She stepped back to let him in and shut the door behind him, her mind spinning.

“What the hell, Maya?”

“Shh! You’ll wake him up. In here.” She took him to the living room and snapped on a lamp. “Keep your voice down.”

“Then start explaining,” he said in a harsh whisper.

“I have a son, yes. But I don’t know what makes you think he’s yours.” Maybe she could still keep Jason from him.

“You’re joking, right?”

She crossed her arms and glared at him. “You have no right to follow my cab and just knock on my door, making these accusations.”

“Okay then.” He set his jaw. “Look me in the eye and tell me he’s not my son.”

She looked him in the eye, ready to continue the lie. But it was too much like looking at her son. She gritted her teeth together and said nothing.

“So, he is my son, then.”

She couldn’t bring herself to admit it, so she made her teeth ache with the pressure of clamping them together.

“After that time we were together… You got pregnant?”

“That’s generally how these things work,” she hissed.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” His voice had been too loud the whole time he was here, despite her telling him to keep it down.

When she heard the squeak of the door and heard Jason’s voice, she spun.

“Mommy?” He rubbed his eyes, his truck in his hand at his side.

Maya froze. There would be no hiding it now. She looked at Matt. His face was pale and he gaped at Jason, his mouth hanging open, a look of utter shock on his face.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked. He looked at Matt, then back to her.

“We have a visitor,” she said. “Come and meet Matt.”

“Is this you friend?” Jason asked.

“Well, I did see him, tonight, actually. He’s a friend from a long time ago.”

Matt swallowed hard. They stared at each other for a moment. Then Matt took one step forward.

Jason clung to Maya’s legs and hid behind her, shy toward the newcomer. Maya put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, honey.”

Matt crouched down to Jason’s level. “Hi there. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi,” Jason said and moved out from behind Maya’s legs, but still clung to her.

Matt stared at him in shock. There was an awkward silence in the room. She didn’t know what to say, and it seemed like Matt didn’t either.

“Jason, why don’t you tell Matt about your favorite truck?”

He proudly held the truck out. “This is Dumpster. He’s a dump truck and he goes around picking up trash and dropping it off, then he fights bad guys.”

Matt’s eyebrows raised. “The truck fights bad guys?”

“Yup.” Jason set the truck down and drove it across the floor toward Matt. “When someone is doing something bad, Dumpster drives over to them”—he drove the truck until it banged into Matt’s knee—“then he scoops them up and drops them off at the dump, too. With the trash.”

Jason drove the truck away and Matt nodded. He glanced up at Maya as Jason continued around the room, making truck noises. “Does that mean I’m a bad guy?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “He didn’t make you go to the dump. You’re fine.”

Matt stood and watched Jason for a moment. Then he said quietly to Maya, “He’s… incredible.”

She chuckled. “He is.”

“Tell him who I am,” he whispered.

She shook her head. No way was she going to open that can right now, with no preparation, when Jason should be sleeping. “Not now. When the time is right.”

“The right time would have been about six years ago.”

“We’re not doing this now,” she said. “I need to get him back to bed.”

“I want to help.”

“He doesn’t know you.”

“Well, who’s fault is that?” Matt crossed the room to where Jason was and sat beside him. They struck up a conversation about trucks.

Jason warmed to him immediately. He animatedly talked all about his truck collection, running in and out of his room, bringing out various vehicles and driving them around.

Maya wanted to stop it, but Matt was right. She had kept this from him, and Jason was an amazing kid. It would be ideal for him to have a father in his life, obviously, but she wasn’t going to just thrust Matt at him after six years and let Matt be part of their lives. They’d survived on their own all this time. And Matt certainly hadn’t gone out of his way to find her or anything. If he’d never vanished, he would have been there the whole time.

As she watched, she couldn’t help feeling a mixture of things. Seeing Jason and Matt interact was touching. She couldn’t deny that. They looked so much alike and she saw them making the same expressions and gestures. It was uncanny. Slightly unsettling, really. She was used to having Jason all to herself. With her parents gone and her aunt having written her off years ago, they had no family. Some close friends were the next best thing. Matt was the first real family Jason had met. The only real family either of them had left.

There was some guilt. Jason deserved a father and she hadn’t given him one. Matt deserved to know about his son, and she hadn’t told him. But still, it was both of their faults. She’d had no way to contact him even if she had wanted to. But a father was something missing from Jason’s life. And judging by the way they played and interacted, it could be something Jason benefitted from. So long as Matt was going to actually be around. If he was going to vanish again, then he wouldn’t be allowed to see his son. She wouldn’t put Jason through what Matt had put her through.

After some time, Matt got up and walked over to her. “Tell him who I am, or I will.”

“Matt, let’s just wait a little. Let him get some sleep and be rested before we throw something like this on him.”

“Jason,” Matt said. “Come here. We have something to tell you.”

“I said no,” Maya said through gritted teeth.

Jason came over and stood facing the two of them.

“Are you going to tell him or should I?” Matt asked.

Maya shot him a glare and knelt down to Jason. “Honey, I’m sorry to have to tell you like this.” She looked back and shot Matt another angry look. “This is going to be a little shocking.”

Jason’s face grew serious, and he set his truck down. “Okay.”

“Matt isn’t just my friend. He’s your dad.”

Jason looked confused, but stared up at Matt. “My dad?”

“Yes, honey,” Maya said. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. Remember how I told you that I didn’t know where your dad was? Tonight, I found him.”

They let this sink in for several minutes. Jason’s expression changed several times from confusion to excitement to concern.

“Is he going to live here now?” Jason asked.

Maya almost choked. “No, he’s not.”

“Oh. Will I ever have a dad that lives with us?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Maya said. She hated that this conversation was taking place in front of Matt and like this. She never would have done this to him. But then, Matt didn’t know what was best for him. He better not think he was going to come in and start calling the shots. No way in hell was she going to let him just take over and make the calls. Not when she’d been doing it on her own for so long.

“Jay, Matt and I have a lot to talk about and it’s very late. Your bedtime was hours ago. It’s time to get back to sleep now.”

“I can’t sleep now! I have to show Matt—err—” He looked at them both, confused again. “Umm, I have to show my daddy Matt my room.”

Maya’s stomach turned at the way he said “my daddy Matt.” She wasn’t ready for this to be happening. But Matt beamed.

“I’d love to see it, buddy,” Matt said and got to his feet.

“I think it would be best to do that another time,” Maya said firmly. “Let’s say goodnight now and we’ll show Matt your room another time.”

“Okay.” Jason’s face fell, but he walked over to Matt with his truck. “Bye.” He waved, paused, then turned to run into his room.

When Maya walked in, he was already under the covers.

“Will I get to see my daddy Matt when I wake up?” Jason asked.

The excitement in his voice made Maya’s heart and head hurt. She sat on his bed. “I’m sorry for just throwing this all at you like this. I don’t know what will happen. Matt won’t be here when you wake up, no. I’m not sure when we’ll see him again or how often. That’s what we have to talk about. He hasn’t been around for years, and this is the first time you’re meeting him. I don’t know if we’ll see him much at all.”

“I want to see him, though.”

“I know.” Maya leaned down and kissed his forehead. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”

She closed the door softly behind her and returned to the living room, ready to let her fury free.

“You had no right to do that!” She whispered, but it was more like a hissed shout.

“Me?” He was on his feet and stood a few feet from her. “You had no right to keep him from me!”

“I had no way to get ahold of you! Or did you forget that you took my virginity, then never called again?”

He ground his teeth and glared. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No? So you didn’t just screw me then never call? Vanish completely for six years, leaving me along to raise our son?”

“I didn’t want to do that. Maya, I haven’t stopped thinking about you.”

She put her hand up. “Oh no. You stop right there. I am not going to stand here and listen you ramble on about some bullshit reason you were missing for six years. There’s no acceptable reason to do that to a person. How do I know you’re not going to just vanish again? And this time, break Jason’s heart, too?”

Her throat thickened and she swallowed hard to keep the tears back. Too many emotions came back to her. That time had been so hard. Feeling used and abandoned, being pregnant, getting kicked out and having nowhere to go. It had been the hardest year of her life, and now he was going to claim there was some great reason for it?

“Trust me when I say that it was the best thing for you.”

She shook her head. “I don’t trust anything you say. You’re nothing but a liar and a manipulator. You tricked me into sleeping with you, into thinking we were going to have something real.”

“I didn’t trick you. I tried to stop it, remember? But you wanted me. And I did want to have something real. When I told you I wanted to be with you, I meant it.”

“Right. You wanted to be with me so badly that you vanished completely!”

“I can’t tell you why. I wish I could, really. But it was to keep you safe.”

“Oh right.” She shook her head again. “Let me guess. The dangerous group that sounds like a gang, but isn’t, right? They were going to come after me to keep you in line or some crap? Is that it?”

“Sort of, but you have no idea what it was like for me then.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry if I don’t have the most sympathy for a guy who screws someone, lies to them, then disappears. I was too busy trying to finish school while not having a place to live because I got kicked out of my house since I was pregnant with your baby and was all alone to handle it all. Gosh. I can’t imagine how difficult things were for you.”

“Maya—”

“Save it. There is literally nothing you can say to make this better. It’s time you left. I never want to see your face again.”

“I never meant to hurt you. Please. I had no idea you were going through all that. If I would have known… I would have found a way. It was the hardest thing I ever did to walk away from you like that. It hurt me, and I know it was nothing compared to what you’ve been through, but my life has been hell, too. When I saw you tonight… I thought maybe it was my chance to have something decent in my life. The only time I ever felt right was when I was with you.”

“Then I guess you should have tried a little harder. I saw you, you know. Just after you slept with me. In a car with some woman, looking rather cozy. You were so heartbroken that it took you less than a week to find someone else. You are the biggest liar on the planet. Get out of my house and out of my life.”

“Now, just wait a minute. That’s my son in there and I have a right to see him. I don’t want this to get ugly. It doesn’t have to be like that. But, let me remind you that I do have connections, and they’re not exactly the law-abiding kind.”

“So, you’re going to threaten me now? Are you serious?” Her hands tightened into fists so hard that she thought her knuckles would split open.

“I don’t ever want it to get to that. I’ll help you anyway I can. I’ll give you money, whatever you need.”

“We don’t need anything from you.”

“Not true. A boy needs his father. Any kid needs both parents and I’m sure after losing yours, you know that’s true. You can’t keep him from me. And it’ll be bad for you if you try. It’s not a threat. It’s just what will happen.”

“I’m going to say this one more time. Get. Out.”

“Okay.” He put up his hands up in surrender. “This has been a long, crazy night and we both need to cool down. I’ll leave, but I will be back. I will see my son and be part of his life.”

She crossed her arms and glared at him, refusing to speak another word.

“I’m leaving my number.” He walked to the notepad on the kitchen counter and scribbled it down. “You’ll call me tomorrow?”

She continued to glare and say nothing.

“Okay.” He walked to the door and stopped with his hand on the knob. “Call me tomorrow and we’ll talk more. Goodnight.”

He walked out and Maya ran to the couch to grab a pillow. She stuffed it over her face and screamed into it.