Chapter Thirteen
Jason
"Are we off?" I asked.
"We're off," Adam said, stepping back from the camera. We had just wrapped filming. It was another human-interest segment; Davis had actually mentioned something about it to me, but he hadn't reported on it. Did I feel bad that I had scooped him? No. He should have been expecting it when he had mentioned it to me.
It was about a family who had been searching for their son, twenty-five, who had come back from a term of service in the Marines but hadn't returned home. The investigation had gone on so long; they had almost stopped looking when someone who knew his girlfriend through her volunteer work for homeless veterans had seen someone who they had thought might have been the guy when they were visiting family in San Diego. He had approached him and struck up a conversation, learning that it had been the guy.
He had fallen on some hard times—addiction, homelessness—but he had finally gotten back to his family. An injury, he had lost a leg, had done a lot more psychological damage than physical, but he was on the up and up, back with his family for the first time right in time for Christmas. He could finally get the help that he needed. Those feel-good stories always did well around this time of year. Back in New York, Victoria and my producers were happy, but in a way, work was getting in the way of what I had really wanted to do here in L.A.
I hadn't stopped thinking about Shelby since a couple days ago when she had come to my hotel. My bed wasn't the only place that I wanted her back. She seemed pretty set on staying in L.A. I didn't know what that meant for us. I wanted her, and I had to figure out a way to get her back. Once I did that, everything would work itself out. I just had to figure out how to get there.
In the cab back to the hotel, it came to me. If I was going to get anywhere, I had to tackle this problem in parts. I called Davis and asked if he could meet me for lunch at a restaurant near the hotel.
"You're the last person I expected to hear from today," he said, over the phone.
"I just wrapped filming. I know I beat you to the homeless vet story; I wanted to make amends." He laughed. "So?" He ended up agreeing, not having that much of a reason to say no. Twenty minutes later, he was walking into the restaurant, coming up to my table.
"You know, I almost didn't believe you actually felt bad about what you did," he said, taking a seat. "I gotta say, thanks. I appreciate it."
"Hm. I have a confession."
"What?"
"That wasn't the reason why I asked to meet you today." He looked at me, calm, but I could tell he was a little annoyed.
"Oh no?"
"I wanted to talk about Shelby."
"What? She hasn't told you?"
"So there’s something to tell," I said seriously. He laughed a little.
"I had a feeling this would be coming," he said.
"So you can't say I blindsided you. What is it? How long have you been seeing each other?"
"I had my eye on her since she started working at KJLA. We've sort of had a thing going since more or less the beginning of the year."
"What does that mean?"
"It's on and off," he clarified. "She said from the beginning that she wasn't ready to commit to anything and I respected that. I still wanted to be able to see her, regardless, so we kept it loose."
"Are you her kid's dad?" I asked. He scoffed.
"Nope, and before you ask, I don't know who the baby's father is. She's never told me. There are rumors around the office but no one really knows, and she's never given me any hints, so." He shrugged, resigned.
"So, you dated while she was pregnant?"
"The fact that she was pregnant was one of the first things she even let me know about her before we ever went out. She thought I would find it weird but," he paused, shrugging again, "it didn't make that much of a difference to me."
"All that time, she never let slip who the father was?"
"All she told me was he was a man who was in her past and who was going to stay there."
"I've been thinking..."
"What?"
"I think it's me. I think it's my kid," I said, voice lowered even though no one was listening to us. He scoffed again, laughing. He leaned back in his seat, looking at me.
"So, it's true. You two did hook up," he said.
"It was before she left the station. One-time thing."
"I had a feeling that you two had had a past."
"If I'm right, we have a lot more than just a past."
"So, what do you want to do?" he asked, leaning forward again.
"I'm not sure. I need to find out the truth. After that, if I'm right, I want to do the right thing for her. For them."
"That's noble, really, but telling you straight, Jason, with Shelby, you're about to be fighting an uphill battle, my friend."
I frowned. "Why?"
"She's pretty committed to raising her kid alone. Whoever the kid's dad is isn't in her life because she wants it that way."
"Why would she do that if he could help her out?" I asked. He shrugged.
"It's not exactly something we ever discussed. That stuff was private so I never really asked her about it. What I can tell you is she isn't alone because she ended up that way. She's raising her son alone because she wants to."
"That doesn't make sense," I said, mostly to myself. I would have thought that most mothers would want help or at least acknowledgment from their kids' fathers, even if they weren't together. Shelby worked for a national news station so I guessed that meant she wasn't struggling financially; she wouldn't really be too pressed about getting child support. Still, I couldn't imagine growing up with just my dad or just my mom. They had balanced each other out in a way. I knew thousands, millions of people, in fact, grew up with single parents and turned out fine, but I couldn't imagine why you would be a single parent when your kid's other parent wasn't resisting parenthood.
"I never questioned her about it. I don't have kids. If she made that decision, she must have had a good reason to."
"Isn't it... isn't it hard? Doesn't she need help? I feel like I could be a good parent if I had the chance."
"If you had the chance and if the kid is yours," Davis clarified.
"I really think I'm onto something."
"Are you sure about that?" he asked.
"That he's mine?"
"That you could be a good dad." His face was serious. It almost sounded like a challenge. I wasn't nervous about him. He had said himself that he and Shelby had been seeing each other on and off for what had to be the whole year she had been in L.A. and never made it official. I didn't think she was about to now or that he would finally nut up and do something about it.
"What's it to you?"
"Hey," he said, raising his hands, "you're right. It’s none of my business. It's just something you're going to have to figure out if you want to try again with Shel."
"What about you?" I asked.
"It's not up to me," he said. "Good luck with her. She's a good woman; I hope you're what she's looking for." He got up and patted my arm before walking away. We hadn’t ordered food, so I paid for our drinks and left.
I had been ready for a little more resistance than that. I sure as hell wouldn't have given up on her that easily. Maybe there was more about their whole thing that they had had going on that I didn't know. If he was backing off, then that was better for me. What the hell had he meant saying he hoped I was what she was looking for? He had said they had been on and off, but he had still been with her for a year that I hadn't been. What the hell did he know that I didn't?
Whatever. It didn't matter. I was getting her back. I wasn't leaving this damn city till I did.