Sean

“I’d like to make another toast to my new sister-in-law, Eden,” I said from where I stood on top of the bar at the Boiler Room Irish Pub and Bakery.

I lifted the glass of whiskey I held and nodded at Eden, who beamed back. “You have a challenge with that one, but I know you’re up to it. Thank you for taking him off our hands.”

The small group of friends and family that had gathered to celebrate Michael’s wedding cried out a loud cheer. Even Michael, my brother of the perpetual scowl smiled.

It was a welcome sight.

We’d come way too close to losing him after he’d been framed for a crime he didn’t commit. But in the end, he’d been exonerated, and once he was free, he’d wasted no time in taking steps toward a future with Eden. Much to his chagrin, she hadn’t given in to him immediately, but he’d eventually won her over and now the two of them had made it official.

I looked at Michael as he smiled down at Eden, and was again reminded that she was the only thing I could remember making him truly happy. I was grateful for it. My brother was way too intense and it was good for him that he’d found someone to smooth some of those sharp edges.

Of course, there was one unintended side effect. This new, mellower, but still not quite mellow Michael was way harder to get wound up. Before, it had been like clockwork. Just the right words said just the right way and I could count on Michael getting pissed, and thus providing me with amusement.

Pissing Michael off had been one of my favorite pastimes, so much so that he often said the nine months between his birth and mine were the only peaceful ones he’d ever had.

Guess I’d have to find a new hobby.

I jumped down from the bar and threw my tux jacket on the spot I had just vacated, paused long enough to pop open a couple of buttons on my shirt, and grabbed my glass again.

I glanced over at Patrick, who had laid a protective hand on his wife Nya’s belly.

Yet another thing that had recently changed.

My first niece or nephew would be arriving in a couple of months, and I couldn’t have been more excited about it.

“That’s how you repay me for making you best man?” Michael said as he walked up to me, his voice gruff but his face smiling.

“What can I say? I’m a truth-teller. Watch out. Eden might come to her senses one day,” I said.

Instead of scowling like he would have before, Michael just smiled. “She might, but you wouldn’t have a shot,” he said, shoving me with his shoulder.

We both laughed and walked over to Patrick and Nya, who had been joined by my brother Declan.

Nya and Eden were discussing the baby’s room and Patrick hung on their every word. Even Michael seemed interested in the topic.

I shuddered but did my best not to frown. I didn’t begrudge my brothers their happiness, but that kind of life wasn’t for me. I hadn’t thought it was for any of us, but I’d been wrong on that.

Less than a year, and two of my brothers were married. I looked over at Declan. “You’re next,” I said.

He simply huffed but stayed silent, looking anywhere and everywhere but at Grace, my bartender and baker.

Grace was a little less transparent than Declan, especially since she tended not to look anyone in the eye, but I could see she was avoiding him as much as he was her.

I let myself smile and then shook my head slowly. I was used to their antics by now, and I’d long ago decided to leave things for them to figure out.

In some ways, Grace and Declan’s little routine was comforting. It always reminded me that as much as things changed, some things would stay the same.

Including me.

I spotted a blonde at the bar and decided I’d found my distraction for the night.

I stood and looked at my family. “As interesting as this conversation about paint swatches is, I’m going to head over there. Catch up with you later,” I said.

I waited for the expected laughter.

There was none.

Instead, Patrick, who had moments ago been excitedly discussing the merits of robin’s-egg blue had stiffened, stood up taller, a stern expression on his face. That expression was on Michael’s face and Declan’s as well.

I followed the direction of their gazes and narrowed my eyes on the sight that greeted me.

“Looks like you have some business, Sean,” Declan said without looking at me.

I didn’t answer because I couldn’t. I was too distracted by my mind racing to process what my eyes saw. I thought I recognized the woman who stood in the bar’s entrance, but she was of no concern.

No, my attention was focused on the little boy who stood next to her.

The little boy who looked exactly like me.

* * *

Jess

“Thank God,” I said when I finally walked out of the restaurant.

It had been an incredibly long day. I’d worked the morning shift and stayed on through dinner. Not ideal, but I was new at this job and I wanted to make a good impression.

The extra money wouldn’t hurt either, and the tips had been especially good today. Still, it was nearly midnight and I was in a hurry to be home.

The city bus didn’t seem concerned about my impatience, and after ten minutes, I considered calling a cab. I couldn’t really afford it, but waiting here was making me antsy. It would probably take the cab longer to arrive anyway, so I stood there looking down the block, half hoping I could conjure the bus with my mind.

I breathed a little sigh of relief when I finally saw it turn the corner and then I got on, anxious to be home.

I was nearly sprinting when I got off the bus twenty minutes later and headed toward my apartment. Frowned when, after I opened the door, I was greeted with silence.

I closed and locked the door, trying to keep my breath even.

It was late. Jake was asleep. Misty probably was too.

Still, it felt wrong, the silence in my home.

Even if Jake was asleep, he sometimes got scared at night when I wasn’t there, so Misty put on the TV to soothe him. I didn’t necessarily like that, but I hadn’t said anything about it.

It wasn’t my place to.

And anyway, it was better for him to have the TV on than stay up far too late worried and afraid.

Without even stopping to drop my bag, I headed to his room, anxious to see him and trying to think about what I would say to Misty about leaving him home alone.

I stopped in my tracks when I found his bed empty, my mind instantly beginning to churn as I tried to keep myself calm.

Maybe Jake had gotten hungry and Misty had taken him for a late-night snack.

Even as I thought it, my mind dismissed the idea and then began to churn harder. But that was the most benign reason I could think of for Misty and Jake being gone at this hour.

All of the others were things I didn’t even want to entertain.

I twisted my hands for a moment but then forced them down by my sides, determined to stay calm.

This was my fault.

I knew better than to leave Jake with her for so long. She could handle short spurts, a few unbroken hours here or there, but I’d been gone since before Jake had gotten out of bed. I’d gotten greedy and seen the money that those shifts would bring, let her halfhearted promise to look after him convince me.

And now this had happened.

I clenched my jaw down tight, forced back the tears that threatened as I reached into my pocket and grabbed my cheap prepaid cell phone. It felt insubstantial in my hand, but in this moment it was the most valuable thing I’d ever owned because it was the only way I would reach Jake.

I’d given Misty an identical version, several, in fact, so that I could get in touch with her.

Now she just needed to answer…

I impatiently listened to the sound of the phone ringing, willing her to pick up, not surprised when she didn’t.

I stood, frozen, the living room that also served as a play room and guest bedroom spinning around me.

I breathed in, breathed out, told myself to calm down and think.

Where would Misty be?

My mind couldn’t even really fathom where she was and didn’t want to fathom where she might have left Jake.

I tried to think of her boyfriend, her Dick of the Month as Misty had dubbed him. I could easily picture him, his tall, thin form, equally thin face, with muddy blue eyes that I’d never trusted. Exactly Misty’s type.

Walton? No. Walker. His name was Walker.

My shoulders slumped. A name wouldn’t help me find Misty or Jake.

I looked at my phone, determined not to give up.

I dialed Misty’s number again and again, dialed until my battery started to die. I even toyed with the idea of calling the police.

Rejected it out of hand.

Jake wasn’t mine, and if I called the police, Misty might get upset, and I had no idea what she would do then.

I threw the phone down, disgusted at myself, feeling powerless, knowing that I was powerless.

Turned fast when I heard the door unlock. I rushed to it and pulled it open without looking out to see who it was.

Misty sauntered in nonchalantly, though Misty did everything nonchalantly. Her heels were muffled on the carpet but I could hear the soft swish of her short denim skirt as she entered.

I took her in quickly, her red-blond hair tossed casually over her shoulder, the tight men’s T-shirt she wore showing what she called the perfect amount of cleavage. She looked exactly like she always did. Which left me even more frantic and confused because her son—my heart—was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Jake!” I asked, knowing that I sounded panicky. Not caring about that at all.

Misty frowned, looking at me like I was insane. “What the hell is your problem, Jess?” she asked. She pushed the door not quite closed behind her and then flopped on the couch.

“Where’s Jake!” I screamed this time, wondering why the hell she was so calm, and determined to pry the answer out of her however I had to.

Misty flinched but then waved me off. “I took him to his father,” she said as she kicked off her shoes, speaking like we were discussing something as unimportant as the weather and not the location of her four-year-old son.

“His father! You told me you didn’t know who his father is,” I said.

When Misty had told me she was pregnant but didn’t know who the father was, I hadn’t questioned her. Over the years, I’d met more than a few of the men she’d dated and knew that no one who would catch Misty’s eye would be father material. That she’d left Jake with one of them was one of the scariest, most absurd things she’d ever told me.

Misty rolled her eyes. “I told you I wasn’t completely sure. But I’m pretty sure he is, or I really hope so, so I left Jake there.”

I looked at her like she was out of her mind and then circled the couch and kneeled in front of her. “You left your son with a stranger?”

She scowled at me, her green eyes a little cloudy, her pupils definitely dilated. “Not a stranger, his father,” she said, emphasizing the last word.

“Misty,” I said, keeping my voice calm, as soothing as I could make it, “where is Jake?”

She held my gaze for a moment, then flopped back on the couch, the place that served as her bed when she was here. Technically, Misty lived with Jake and me, but she only slept here occasionally. Most often, she’d pop in for a few hours every couple of days and then be off to wherever, or whoever, was preoccupying her at the time. “You really need to calm down. He’s fine. Think I would leave my kid with just anybody?”

An answer that would have derailed this conversation was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it back and instead said, “Of course not. But he’s afraid. Even if this person is his father, Jake doesn’t know him,” I said, trying to take the reasonable approach but knowing I was a few heartbeats away from losing my cool. That wouldn’t help, but with each second that passed my panic increased.

“So this will give him time to get to know him,” she said.

“Maybe,” I replied, calling on all the calm that I could muster, fearing that I would soon throttle Misty. “But he probably wants to sleep in his own bed tonight. And you know tomorrow is that field trip he’s so excited about.”

“Yeah,” Misty responded, though it wouldn’t surprise me if she had no idea what I was talking about.

I looked at her and waited.

She looked back and I braced myself.

“I need twenty bucks,” she finally said.

“What?” I asked, though I had heard her perfectly well.

“I’m going out tonight. I need twenty bucks,” she repeated.

I retrieved the bill without hesitation but held it just out of her reach. “Where’s Jake?” I whispered.