“Did you tell your mom?”
“Not right away. But eventually, yes. Once my book got picked up. Since it was in there.”
“And how did that go?”
“It was weird. Not what I expected.”
“How so?”
“Turned out, she already knew.”
“She knew he was…” My voice trailed off.
“Remarried. Yeah. With a son. His name’s Hunter.”
“Wait. So she was keeping it from you?”
“She thought it would hurt me too much.”
“Shit. That’s insane.” I breathed. “Are you okay?”
“I wasn’t. But I’m fine now.”
“Are you and your mom okay?”
I can almost hear him shrug. “This is a lot of questions for the middle of the night.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Especially when I feel like there are more important things that were in the story.”
“Well, your relationship with your dad was pretty important,” I point out.
“It was. A long time ago. But that’s not what the book was about.”
“I know,” I concede.
“Can I ask you something?” he says.
“Yeah.”
“Are you calling because of what happened with my dad? Or is there something else?”
“I just—I was surprised to learn that happened to you,” I admit.
“Well, it would explain why I wasn’t on the plane.”
“True. But I didn’t know that you weren’t on the plane.”
“Huh?”
“I wasn’t on it either,” I say.
“Wait, what?” he asks. “You weren’t? Did you miss the flight?”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“Oh. This whole time I thought you were mad at me for not showing up at the airport.”
