“The best,” Dan said with a gentle smile. “Now, how about you tell me why that phone is pressed to your chest and you lookall bent out of shape about something. You haven’t even seen the doctor yet.”
“I can’t tell you,” Blue said. She hated lying and wasn’t going to start now.
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t.”
Dan’s gaze flicked to the hand that held the phone and then back to her face. He didn’t rush her. That was the thing about him. He didn’t fill the silence just because it existed like many in this town. Plus, he was a cop, so he knew how to interrogate people.
“Is it to do with Jay?”
Blue didn’t nod or speak. In fact, she barely drew in a breath.
“I’m going to ask you a question now, Blue Jay, and I want you to answer me, okay?”
“What if I don’t want to?”
His smile was gentle. “I think it’s in the best interests of your man and my best friend that you do.”
“Oh god,” Blue whispered, knowing she was going to crack and tell him.
“The woman in that picture had some similarities to Jay, Blue. Is she his sister?” he asked quietly.
Blue’s chest was so tight now, it hurt. She would be betraying Jay if she told him.
“Tell me the truth now, Blue.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “We looked through his DNA results and found he had a half sister. I wasn’t going to look,” Blue said, which was a lie, and they both knew it. “But I kept thinking about what he said. About her being like their mother and him not wanting or needing that in his life. And I just… I needed to see because I felt sad he had a sister in his life but had always thought he was alone.”
“Let me see her again.” He held out his hand, and she passed him her phone.
Dan studied the photo again. “Is she bad, Blue? Will she hurt Jay?”
“I don’t think so, but how can we be sure?”
Dan looked through the page and read the comments. When he was done, he handed it back to her. “You planning to message her?”
Blue’s fingers tightened around the phone. “No.” The word came too fast. She softened her voice. “I don’t think so. I just…. I don’t know how to help him, Dan. He shuts down. Walks away when I push him about her.”
“That doesn’t sound like the tough Blue Jay McAllister I grew up with. The big New York fashion designer.”
“He’s special to me, Dan. I think really special, and that is freaking me out. Plus, there’s the baby messing with my hormones.”
“Already blaming your kid for shit.” He tsked.
She snorted at that.
“I don’t want him living his whole life scared of something that might not even be real,” Blue said a few seconds later.
Dan rested his forearms on his thighs. “You push a man before he’s ready, he’ll dig his heels in harder. Or he’ll bolt.”
“I’m not trying to run him off,” Blue said quickly. “I just…. He deserves more than the mess he was given by his parents.”
Dan’s eyes softened slightly at that. “I don’t know a lot about that, but I know enough to say that his childhood was bad.”
She nodded. That wasn’t her story to tell. Not that she knew much anyway.
“I was going to visit him after the doctor’s, so maybe I’ll talk to him.”
