“Livvy, what’s going on?” Mom asked. “You’ve been scowling at your phone all afternoon.”
“I’m arguing with Jace.”
“Oh no,” she sighed like this was the worst news she’d heard in weeks.
Want me to tell you that we’re also not really dating? That should help.
“Are you upset with him?” she asked.
“No,” I said, annoyed that I couldn’t just be mad at him.
He’d given me a few days to process the situation with Kayden and then he’d slowly started pushing me to talk to him about telling Kayden about our daughter. I knew he wanted to help because he was worried about me. But he was worried about Kayden’s feelings too, and in a way that made my stomach flip with jealously.
Still, I didn’t want to talk about it. I knew what I had to do. I knew the right thing to do was to tell Kayden but that didn’t mean I liked the idea any better than I had four days ago.
As soon as I talked to Jace, he would convince me to do the right thing, and I preferred living in denial for a few more days. For the last few days, I’d focused on work talk when we were in the office and avoided seeing him outside of work so I could live in denial a little longer.
“Kaylee’s father is back in town.” I sighed. “I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.”
“What?” Mom asked, leaning closer and taking my hand. “How do you know that? I thought you didn’t know anything about him.”
“Well, I know what he looks like,” I groaned. “His name is Kayden, and it turns out he’s an architect working for Acker Real Estate right now. I ran into him on my first day at the office.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Mom cupped my hand in both of hers. “Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe it’s time for him to know. It could be good for you and Kaylee.”
“You sound like Jace,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Well, Jace is a pretty sensible man,” she said, giving me a knowing look.
I glared at her.
“Livvy, Jace is probably right about this. Even your father had a right to know he had a child. What someone does with that information is up to them, but if he’s not a danger to you or Kaylee, he has a right to know she exists.”
“I know he does,” I said. “I’m just not even remotely ready to face this.”
“You don’t have to face it alone. Jace will be by your side the whole time, right?”
My stomach sank. I’d never hated my lie more than in this moment. Even still, the answer was yes. Jace would be there for me however I asked him to be.
“Go talk to Jace,” Mom urged. “Kaylee can stay here for a while. It’s a Friday night; you should be together anyway.”
“And if I agree to this and Kayden blows us off?”
Mom shrugged sadly. “He might do that. He also might be the dad she deserves.”
My voice strained as I fought back tears. “I want Jace to be that person for her,” I said, sighing. “I want him so much more than I’ve let him believe, Mom.”
“If I were you, I’d take this one step at a time. Figure out what to do with Kayden. Then you need to be honest with Jace. If the way he looks at you is any indication, I’m pretty sure he’ll be whatever you want him to be—to you and Kaylee.”
I was going to have to tell Jace how I felt. I’d avoided it for far too long. But before I could do that, I needed to deal with the Kaydensituation. I was pretty sure there was no world in which Jace would forgive me for not telling Kayden. Which, on one hand, baffled me, since he barely knew Kayden, and on the other hand, made perfect sense.
Jace was honest and he cared about doing the right thing. This was the right thing to do and if I pushed my fear aside, it was the only way to handle this situation in a way that was true to my values. I’d have to figure out a way to tell this man I barely knew about the daughter he didn’t know he had.
I texted Jace back.
Me:I’m ready to talk.Can I come over?
His response was instantaneous.
