Page 19 of My Redneck Baby Daddy

"I know it." He rubbed his thumb along the edge of the table. "She writes me. Still."

I didn’t know that, but I also never took the time to ask.

"I've been seeing somebody," I said.

His eyes came up and he must’ve heard something in my voice.

"Schoolteacher over at the high school. Her name's Rue."

"She know about you?"

"All of it. I told her myself."

"And her people?"

I gave him a look. "You really gotta ask?"

Danny Joe went quiet. He didn’t defend himself and he didn’t make a face. Not that I’d driven two hours for that anyway.

"Her daddy stood across his own counter Thursday and told me about a set of tires you never came back for."

For a moment my father looked thoughtful. "I remember them tires."

"Course you do."

"Bobby Jo." He set both hands flat on the table. "I ain't gonna sit here and tell you it was the sickness and none of it was me. I chose it over your mama and over you more times than I can count, and I lied about it every time. She did more than she ever should have had to, and I let her."

"So why didn't you stop?"

"I did stop. Four times." He smiled without any humor in it. "Then I started again, and the fifth time I didn't have to decide anymore, because the Commonwealth decided for me."

"He thinks I'm you," I said.

"Can't blame him."

I stared at him and watched Danny Joe swallowed. "Man's got a daughter. He knows what I did to your mother. He's scared you'll do the same to his girl. He ain't got a reason in the world to believe otherwise except your word."

"I ain't you."

"I know that."

That stopped me cold, because he did not argue. He didn’t ask me to soften it.

He just took it.

"You ain't me, Bobby Jo," he said. "I've had ten years in here to think about the difference. You went down once at twenty-two and you got up and stayed up. You built something with your name on it, you got men feeding their families off it. And, you take care of your mama." He tilted his head. "And apparently you got a schoolteacher that's got you driving two hours to complain to your daddy about your feelings."

I stood up immediately at that. "Fuck you, I'm leaving!"

He grinned. "Sit down."

I sat down.

"Listen to me." His voice dropped. "Don't spend your whole life proving you ain't me. That's still me running it. Figure out who the hell you are."

The guard called time a while later.Danny Joe stood up ready to march back to his cell. "What's her name again?"

"Rue."