I take a sip of the wine. “I guess we stick to the swimming pool, the kitchen, and the bedroom.”
“Not bad, but here we are now.”
“Why do I feel like the video thing is the least of our worries?” A heavy feeling hits me that in the grand scheme of things, it’s minor.
“Probably because it is, or maybe because you knew I always did everything in my power to protect you so the video wouldn’t be leaked. Okay, I delayed some information, but it was only because you grew on me faster than I could have imagined, and I couldn’t think clearly.”
The sincerity in his tone pulls near my heart, our eyes holding again.
“Does my mom know? Is that why you two were talking so close the other night?”
A laugh escapes him. “About the sex tape? Nah, she doesn’t know.”
“Oh, okay. Guess I can go back to being the golden only child again,” I attempt to joke and swirl the wine in my glass.
“She knows something else, though, and I want to lay everything on the line because I don’t want to lie to you, because we are going somewhere.” I sense that he is about to burst.
I don’t want to make this hard for us. “You mentioned you wanted to share something else, but I may have been alittlehasty in my 'get out of my apartment' spiel,” I say, admitting defeat.
Spencer takes hold of my wine glass and sets it on the low table, along with his own glass, before scooting closer to me on the sofa.
“You’re right. Honesty is important, and I don’t want to lose you, so I…” He interlaces our fingers and focuses on our connection. “I need to tell you the truth about Hadley.”
“What about Hadley?”
His eyes strike up and pierce with so much emotion that it spills into me when he says, “Hadley isn’t my daughter.”
26
SPENCER
Her eyes flick up to land on me, and I sense the shock in her, especially when her mouth opens yet no words come out.
I wait a few seconds to allow her to grasp what I said. My deepest secret that I’ve never shared with anyone whom I’ve also shared a bed with.
“You said you shared the same blood,” she mentions with her voice rasping.
“I do.”
“I don’t understand.”
I rub my thumb in a circle on the back of her hand. “I’m her uncle.”
April’s head tips gently to the side, with her eyes squinting with confusion. “I didn’t know you have a brother or sister.”
A ping of guilt strikes my heart. “A brother… I had.”
Her hand squeezes my own tightly, and she waits patiently for me to continue.
“Cameron. My twin, actually, not identical, and we were different in so many ways. I was sporty, and he was into motorcycles and skipping school. The photo I have on my living room wall from high school… that’s him.”
Her mouth forms an O shape.
I continue, “He disappeared for a while, working in a bar on the west coast and partying a lot. We kind of grew apart, and it had been a while since we spoke, but one Christmas he told my folks that he'd become a dad. Hadley’s mom, she was a fling, took off after a few weeks and signed away her rights to Hadley, but Cameron turned his life around. I saw him once after he became a dad, because baseball kept me on a schedule, and I didn’t get many opportunities to see him.”
I don’t even know if I’m explaining this right, it’s odd to say it aloud. My parents and I just live, we make no effort to say the words, we just acknowledge the situation in our own way.
“What happened?” April moves closer to me, her hand landing on my shoulder for comfort.
