Darren had never been so nervous and so excited before in his life. He would have rather been the starting quarterback in a playoff game with the entire franchise riding on the line than to sit in Maggie’s car while they drove the interminable distance to Tony’s.

“I don’t normally get involved in stuff,” Maggie said suddenly. “It’s kind of my thing—not getting involved, I mean.”

“Your thing is not getting involved?” Darren wasn’t sure what she was actually getting at, but he was too grateful for the distraction to care.

“Yes.” She turned and made a rotating gesture with her hand. “Like with your family. I don’t normally get involved. I wouldn’t have contacted Laredo. I just—I don’t know. It’s like with you all of my regular rules go out the window. I shouldn’t have asked you to substitute for our PE classes. I shouldn’t have talked to you about Bella’s problems with the bullies. None of that was my business.”

“I like being your business.” Darren didn’t understand how true a statement it was until the words came out. “I like that you want to get involved. I want to get involved with you too, but it’s like my whole life is some melodrama and I’m so busy trying to keep the pieces from blowing apart that I don’t even have a moment to ask you how your day was or what I can do to help you.”

She looked almost stunned, although it was just a little difficult to get the nuance of her expression since there was no light except the green glow of the car’s dash lights. Finally, she cleared her throat and moved her hands on the wheel. She was clutching it so hard that Darren could actually hear the leather creaking.

“I was just trying to explain myself,” she finally whispered. “I guess I should just say that I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He ran his fingers through his hair. His thoughts on this topic were so jumbled that he didn’t know what to make of them. “One second, I feel insulted that you didn’t think that I could handle furnishing my own home. Then the next second, I realize that you foresaw this moment right now.” He pointed to the car as though they were standing on a point in time. It felt that way almost. “You actually thought this could happen, that I could be going to pick up my son right now. And you planned ahead. As much as it feels like betrayal, it also feels like you went to a whole lot of trouble just for me.”

Actually, it was confusing as hell. But for the moment, he couldn’t focus on anything but the moment that was about to happen. He was going to see his son. He was going to see Jaeger.

“What if he hates me?” How long had he worried about this one thing?

She heaved out a giant sigh. “I’m not going to lie to you.” Then she gave a wry chuckle. “At least not about something this important. All right? There is every chance that kid has been told some very horrible stories about you. It happens all the time. Kids are told horrific things about the other parent by the main custodial parent. People lie. People withhold the truth. And sometimes it just takes time for that stuff to wear off.”

“Meaning what?” Darren was about to hyperventilate. He had faced down angry bulls on the ranch with more bravery than he felt in this moment. “I just say, oh well. My kid hates me and move on?”

“No!” She actually touched his arm, gave it a little push as though she were frustrated with him. “You have to be yourself. You have to prove to him that whatever Carly told him was wrong. Because it was wrong. I know you. I know you’re going to be a terrific father. But the hardest part of parenting is doing the right thing and being the best dad you can be even when your kid is being an ass.”

“Right.”

Darren had a sudden vision of himself as a teenager. He remembered the fighting and the constant bullshit between him and his siblings. He remembered when Jesse came to live with them and how messed up everything felt because suddenly there was another kid in the house—a girl. His dad had been a mess. The man had made a muck of everything. But Avery Hernandez had done the opposite. She had loved every single kid all the way through the craziness until the only thing that Darren knew to be true was that his mother loved him. Hadn’t he told Laredo to send Bella home with Avery Hernandez for that very reason?

“I can do that,” Darren told Maggie quietly. “I can love him even when it’s hard.”

“I know you can.” Maggie put on her turn signal and pulled into the parking lot of Tony’s. “And you’d better get ready because the circus is in full swing.”

Maggie wasn’t exaggerating. The parking lot at Tony’s was always packed with customers. But tonight there were two sets of flashing red-and-blue lights from police cars. There were nondescript black sedans from family protective services. There was an ambulance. And of course, when they dispatched an ambulance you got the fire truck as well. It was worse than the circus. It was one of those dramatic events that you usually see on television.

Maggie pulled her car up as close as possible. Then she threw it in park and pulled out the keys. “All right.” She reached over and touched his cheeks. Leaning forward, she pressed her forehead against his. “You can do this, Darren. I know you can.”

“I know I can too.” Darren was at least capable of saying that he could. “But don’t you dare leave my side, Maggie Brown. I can’t do this without you.”

Getting out of the car was frightening. Darren didn’t think it had ever been harder to do something before in his life. Yes. He was excited to see his son, but the possibility that the boy would not only not know him but could potentially hate him was daunting. The adrenaline surge in his veins wasn’t unfamiliar, but this was the first time that he’d ever felt as though his knees were trembling because of it.

It took him a moment to realize that he was just standing beside the car staring at the scene in front of him. It was like something from a movie. He spotted Carly in the back of a police car. Even seeing her was enough to make him taste bile. How could he have ever thought that he wanted to be with someone like her?

Darren wasn’t the type of man to give a thumbs-up to celibacy, but at the same time, he had to admit that not being more choosy with his bed partners had resulted in a lasting situation with consequences he could have never imagined possible.

“She sees you,” Maggie murmured. Turning her back to Carly, she faced Darren and raised her eyebrows. “Whatever you do, don’t react to what she says.”

He was about to tell Maggie something along the lines of no chance, but then he heard what Carly was spouting. “You’ll never get to keep my son! Do you hear me? You’re nothing but a washed-up football player. Men like you have to pay! They’re no good for their kids. No good at all! Jaeger will hate you, Darren Hernandez! Do you hear me? He’ll hate you because you ditched him all these years just to play football!”

At that point, one of the arresting officers got tired of listening to Carly. Or at least that was what Darren figured because the guy went and pushed the button to put the windows up in the car.

“Why is she still here?” Darren asked, swallowing back the retort that wanted to bounce off his tongue.

“Good question,” Maggie murmured. She was busy looking around the parking lot. “Oh! There’s Cara!” Maggie began waving furiously at a tall, thin woman in a rumpled pencil skirt and matching blazer. “Good Lord, she looks tired!”

Maggie grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the woman named Cara. Darren got the feeling that Cara was around Maggie’s physical age but a million years older in experience. Her limp brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her face had a sort of careworn expression.

“Thank God you got here!” Cara pulled Maggie in for a hug. Then she looked at Darren. “Is this the father?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Darren offered his hand. “Darren Hernandez.”

“No offense, but you really know how to pick them.” Cara wrinkled her nose and put her hands on her hips. “That woman is a piece of work. Apparently, she’s been leaving Jaeger in her car and coming here to the bar every night since her mother has been in the hospital.”

“But we saw her here just a few nights ago,” Maggie murmured. Darren could see the moment Cara’s words sank into Maggie’s brain. He was still having trouble processing what he was hearing. Maggie gaped. “Are you telling me that Jaeger was in the car just a few nights past when we were here?”

“My guess would be yes.” Cara began walked toward the ambulance. “He’s healthy enough, at least from what the EMTs can tell. The bartender got us a burger and some fries for the poor kid. It doesn’t seem like she’s been feeding him much. We can’t get an answer out of either of them about that.”

“So, his mother has programmed him,” Maggie said bitterly. “Is that what you’re thinking?”

Darren wanted to stop the women so that he could get a better understanding of what they were saying. Programming? What in the hell was programming and why did his brain insist it was really bad? Were they saying that Carly had convinced the kid not to tell the truth about things if it made her look bad?

It was too late to ask any more questions though. They were quickly approaching the ambulance, and Darren could just make out a tiny boy with the trademark Hernandez black wavy hair. Shit. His kid looked like him! It seemed unbelievable, but he’d never actually thought about that before. He had a son. He had a son, and that kid looked as though he belonged to Darren.

“Jaeger?” Cara’s tired demeanor disappeared as she spoke to the boy. Darren suddenly realized that this woman was probably really good at her job. Cara gently ruffled Jaeger’s hair. “I know this is going to seem a little strange, buddy, but your dad is here to see you.”

“I don’t got a dad.” Jaeger’s response was immediate and almost robotic. “He plays football and he doesn’t want to see me.”

Cara squatted down on the little boy’s level. Flanking Jaeger on either side, two male EMTs were smiling at Darren as though they were trying to infuse him with as much confidence as possible. Their body language suggested that they felt protective of the kid. Darren sucked in a shaky breath. It was time for him to do some deprogramming of his own.

“Jaeger?” Darren spoke as softly as he could, but he didn’t want to seem wishy washy. This was harder than it seemed. “My name is Darren Hernandez.”

“You got the same name as I do.” Jaeger looked up at Darren with interest. “Do you know my dad?”

“Kiddo, I am your dad.” Darren knelt in front of Jaeger. He could feel the eyes of everyone present and hoped he wasn’t totally blowing this. “And I can promise you that I have always wanted to see you. There are lots of reasons that I haven’t been able to. They’re grown-up reasons. And you know what that means?”

Jaeger’s blue eyes were wide. He shook his little head, and a black curl fell across his forehead. “No. What does it mean?”

“It means those reasons don’t make any sense,” Darren admitted. “Because I wanted to meet you. And I wanted to play with you and laugh with you and make jokes with you, but I couldn’t. And now all of that is going to change. How do you feel about that?”

Jaeger lifted one little shoulder. It was hard to tell what he was feeling from his expression. And it was even more horrifying to think that this kid was five years old and had a better poker face than Darren had ever managed to perfect. Finally, Jaeger yawned. “I’m really tired. Can I go home now?”

“You can’t go to your grandma’s house, kiddo.” Darren pursed his lips. This was hard. It was real hard. “She’s sick right now. You know?”

“Yeah.” Jaeger’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m scared for her.”

“How about if I take you to see her tomorrow morning,” Darren told Jaeger. Then he realized he better not ever make a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep. “I don’t know if they’ll let us visit because she’s real sick, but we’ll at least go to the hospital and try.”

“Okay.” Jaeger bounced his head up and down.

“Until then, will you come home with me?” Darren felt weird not telling the kid that he would never be spending another night with his mother again, but now wasn’t the time for that battle. It was obvious that Jaeger was smart. They were going to have to work with that and not treat him like an idiot.

“Yes,” Jaeger decided. “I’ll come to your house with you.”