My neural synapses are firing and pieces of the puzzle about the last five years are beginning to snap into place.
“Did JD tell you about his son?” I carefully ask him.
He swallows his food and puffs out a bit of air. “Yeah.”
“He’s Candace’s, isn’t he?” I ask about Connor.
He looks down, avoiding my eyes when he nods yes.
Wow. My instincts are on form today. Candace is Conner’s mother, and according to JD, she’s also dead. Died shortly after giving birth to Connor. I reach over to touch Prescott’s hand, and he turns it over so I can wrap my fingers around his.
“I’m so sorry, Prescott.”
“It was a long time ago, Rory. Young high school love. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
I can tell from his sad expression that it matters a lot. One drunken night—Prescott got wasted, not me—a couple of years ago at my twenty-first birthday celebration. He told me about Candace. How she was the first girl he ever loved, and how she stomped on his heart by breaking up with him right before senior year started, then she skipped town. He and I commiserated over how similar our situations were—him and Candace, and me and JD.
“Can you at least tell me this? Did JD cheat on me with her?”
It’s highly unlikely since she was gone by the time JD and I got together, but I need him to confirm it. I guess I’m still sensitive about the whole cheating thing after seeing Knox leave the bar and get in the car with that woman.
His face falls with a look of horror. “No! No. JD may be a lot of things, but a cheater is not one of them. He never looked at another girl, Rory. You were it for him.”
I lean back with a scoff. “Highly doubtful since he had a son with another woman!”
“You know what? Fuck JD. I don’t owe him any loyalty. You want to know what he said?”
“Yes.”
“The night after Cam’s funeral, we all got wasted. I’m talking about crawling-along-the-floor, brain-cell-destroying, possible-alcohol-poisoning wasted. JD said the next morning when he woke up, hungover as all hell, Candace was in his bed. He doesn’t remember anything from that night. Hell, I don’t remember that night either. Candace broke up with me the next week and then left. Her parents refused to tell me where she went, and I never could find her. After a month, I stopped trying. JD said she found him in Ohio around Thanksgiving. That’s where he went when he left. Finished out senior year at some school in Cleveland and then he went to OSU. He said she was already seven months pregnant when she found him.”
What the hell was he doing in Cleveland while his parents were still here? He said his aunt lived in the Pacific Northwest. It doesn’t make sense. I guess there is one good piece of news out of all this crazy. I’m glad to know all the stuff that happened with Candace was before I entered the picture. But still. The explanation seems a little too trite, and it’s full of holes and missing pieces. It doesn’t explain why JD dropped all communication with not just me, but also with his two best friends. Why he never came back to Highland, not even for holiday breaks. It doesn’t explain why Connor is the spitting image of Prescott.
I’ve seen pictures of Candace. She was a cheerleader and friends with Shelby, so I got to see a lot of photographs with her in them tacked on Shelby’s memory board and in our school’s yearbook. From my recollection, she had straight light brown hair and blue eyes. I was a whiz at science in school and know enough genetics about phenotypes and genotypes to know something isn’t adding up. What the hell is going on? I can assure you, starting tonight when I meet up with JD, I’m going to figure out the truth. No matter the cost.
“So, Austin says that Knox cheated on you,” Prescott states with a dark tone, making it crystal clear we’re done talking about him and he’s not going to allow me to change the subject.
Well, shit.
Chapter 46
As I stand at JD’s front door and ring the doorbell, my palms are sweaty, and I feel like I drank about ten cups of coffee laced with Red Bull. I hear Connor first, then what sounds like a herd of elephants racing to the door and flinging it wide open.
“Rora!” he shouts, loudly, and leaps across the threshold to cling to my legs, which seems to be his favorite way to greet me.
“Hey, little man,” I tell him and walk inside like I have a peg leg since Connor is wrapped tightly around my right calf like a koala. From his nonstop giggling, he must think it’s the funniest thing in the world.
I hear JD before I see him. “Connor, can you please stop climbing our dinner guest like a tree.”
I swear I think my insides turn to goo when I see JD in the kitchen, wearing an apron that says, “I Cook for Connor.” His hair is mussed, he’s sporting a day’s growth of stubble, and he looks sexier than any man has a right to.Is it hot in here?Must be the heat from the kitchen.
“Hi,” I say breathily.You are pathetic, Aurora.
JD dries his hands on a kitchen towel and walks over. My heartbeat picks up when he leans in like he’s going to kiss me on the cheek. Right that second, I think I really, really want him to. Instead, he lifts Connor up under the arms and pulls him off my leg, then flips him upside down and tickles his belly until Connor is snorting with laughter.
“Daddy!” He writhes and laughs hysterically but is loving the attention. JD puts his son down and whispers something in his ear. Connor rushes off down the hallway.
“You look lovely.”
