“I’m clearly the better one to have,” he joked. “No offense, Vega.”
“A little taken,” Vega joked back, and the two men chuckled.
“Vega, can I ask you some questions?” Landon inquired.
“Of course,” he replied.
“Why don’t you all move to the living room, and I’ll take care of the dishes?” Jalen suggested. She wanted to give her sisters time to ask Vega whatever questions they may have first because she knew he’d be leaving in a couple of days.
“I’ll help you,” Rohan volunteered, and they all dispersed from the table.
When they were alone in the kitchen, she turned to Rohan. “Listen, about what Nathan said.”
“What about it?” he asked as he turned the water on in the sink.
“It’s just, you know how kids are, I don’t want you to feel as if—”
“You plan on getting rid of me, Jalen?” he asked, cutting her off.
“What? No.”
“Then what she said wasn’t wrong. They have me. All five of them, even though we already know Vega is Kodi’s father.Youhave me.”
He leaned over and placed his lips on hers. The kiss was soft, slow, and Jalen felt as if her heart was full.
27
Rohan watched Jalen pace the expanse of her living room. He wasn’t sure what, if anything, he could do to calm her down. She’d gotten the call to pick up the paternity test results that now sat on the coffee table. She would glance at them now and then, but hadn’t touched them since they’d picked them up.
She, her sisters, and Vega had gone on Monday afternoon once the girls had gotten out of school to give their samples. It had taken three days for the results to come back in, and Jalen had called him asking if he would take her to pick them up. Since she was working the night shift that evening, she’d allowed Kodi to drive them all to school.
Rohan was sure that if he didn’t distract her somehow, didn’t get her mind off of the envelope, she’d more than likely be pacing for the next hour until her sisters got home from school. She hadn’t wanted to check them out early, and since they only had an hour of school left, she decided there was no harm in waiting. He knew she hadn’t thought of how the anticipation would get to her.
Mostly, Jalen hadn’t been concerned with what the results would tell her. She told him as much. Her biggest concern wasfor her sisters and how, whatever the conclusion was, it would affect them.
There was a part of him that knew she was curious about whether Vega could also be her father. Though she was the oldest, he knew that didn’t take away from her having hope in the possibility.
Getting up from where he sat, he went to her, grabbed her wrist, pulled her into his chest, and wrapped his arms around her. Leaning down, he placed a soft kiss on her lips.
“You’re going to work yourself up,” he told her.
“I didn’t think I’d be this nervous about what a piece of paper says.”
“That piece of paper doesn’t change things. Vega’s already told you and the girls that, regardless of what it says, he plans on being a part of your lives. I don’t see him going back on that.”
Jalen nodded at him as she exhaled. “You’re right.”
Rohan pulled her over to the couch and down beside him. Picking up the remote, he turned the television on and left it on whatever was playing. He just wanted something to take her mind off the manila envelope on the table.
It was about twenty minutes later when there was a knock at the door, and Jalen got up to get it. They’d called Vega when they’d arrived back at her apartment. She’d been so anxious to get the results that she’d ended up leaving her phone, and Rohan didn’t have the other man’s number.
When the two entered the living room, he and Vega greeted one another as the other man sat on the loveseat. Jalen retook her original seat, and nothing was said between the three of them as all eyes turned to the television. He was sure that Vega was anxious too, but was keeping it at bay because he could tell that Jalen was as well.
The minutes seemed to tick by slowly. Even for him, and he assumed it was because he could pick up on what the other twowere feeling. While he was curious and wanted to know if Vega could be Jalen, Landon, or Mikal’s father, the weight of it didn’t sit as heavily on him as it did with the other two in the room.
He was invested because it would affect Jalen and her sisters, and because Kodi had been right. His feelings for the woman beside him ran deep. So, he was always going to have a vested interest in anything that had to deal with her or her sisters, because Rohan cared about them too.
He was sure the concept of time was far more distorted for the other two than it was for him. Which meant that when Kodi unlocked the front door and the five of them walked through it, it felt like hours to him even though it had only been one. He was sure it felt like days for Jalen and Vega.
