Beau’s mouth parts, his thumb scrolling through my photos without hesitation. “What the fuck?”
I lick my dry lips, whispering softly. “I had no way of contacting you.”
Beau swallows harshly, shaking his head. “I know. I know that. I don’t blame you.”
Guilt still eats me alive on the inside. I’ve soaked up every moment of Theo’s life, and Beau missed it all. It hurts me, and I know it must be hurting him.
“When’s his birthday?” Beau asks.
“September 17.”
He nods, his nostrils flaring, and I see water lining his bottom lash. I clear my throat and point over my shoulder.
“I have to finish putting up the ornaments so we can put away the Christmas decorations. You’re welcome to keep looking.” I wave for him to keep my phone.
Beau raises an eyebrow, a mischievous gleam shining in his eyes. “I’m not going to run into any naughty photos, am I?”
My cheeks heat, and I shake my head. “Uhm. No. After I got knocked up by a stranger, I kind of swore off…all that.”
His tongue sweeps along his bottom lip. “Makes sense.”
“Mhmm,” I get out before basically running out of the kitchen.
I just admitted that he’s the last person I had sex with, and I don’t know why it embarrasses me so much, but it does.
I’ve thought about getting back to dating as Theo got older, but it never really seemed important. Suddenly, he’s three, and his baby daddy shows up on the doorstep married to my sister.
Chapter 3
Beau
I can’t look awayfrom the woman who has occupied my thoughts for years. And it makes me face something I’ve been reluctant to recognize.
I don’t love the woman I call my wife, and I think I was trying to place a subconscious familiarity because she’s the sister of the woman I truly want.
Kendall was easily available, and I was ready to settle. It’s a sad truth, and it makes me a bastard. I would have never gone through with the wedding if I had known about Kayla, and now…my son.
I rub a hand down my face, looking at the photos I’ve forwarded to my phone. I have a son, and I desperately want to meet him. Kayla doesn’t realize it yet, but I’m going to fully integrate myself into their lives. I want to know him, and I want to know…her.
After our time in Costa Rica, I’d become obsessed with finding her, but failed.
“I tried finding you, too,” I tell her, moving into the living room from where I’ve been standing in the doorframe between rooms.
She looks up at me, a flush growing on her cheeks again. “We really took the whole vacation fling to an extreme.”
I let out a chuckle, sitting on the couch across from the tree. “Yeah, and it doesn’t help that I don’t really do the whole social media thing.”
Kayla grimaces. “Me either. Well, not anymore. I found out I was pregnant and deleted everything after a few comments.”
I frown, an angry protectiveness rising within me. “What comments?”
She raises an eyebrow. “You may not know this, but single mothers are not looked upon all that kindly in small towns. Particularly small towns where their faith is their whole life.”
I hum under my breath; I wouldn’t know all that much. My family has always lived in a large city where we were hard pressed to know anyone’s name, even our neighbors. Instead, I move on to what I really want to know.
“How come you and Kendall aren’t close? She never brought you up, only in passing that her sister was going to be at the cabin as well,” I ask, mostly out of frustration that all of this could have been avoided before vows were exchanged.
Kayla tenses and then slowly sets down an ornament she was about to hang. She wipes her hand on her jeans and then moves to sit across from me on the couch with a sigh. “It’s a long story. You sure you want to know?”
