AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That got Chance’s attention in a hurry. “A sniper? What the hell?”
I explained about the thief and everything that had gone down. Chance let out a low whistle, shaking his head. “Sounds like something out of a movie,” he said. “But I’m glad it had a happy ending and that no one was hurt—aside from the thief.”
“Yeah, well…there was one more plot twist,” I said. He must have heard in my tone that this was serious, because even though we’d gotten downtown by then, instead of pulling over to let me out, Chance pulled into a parking lot, put the car into park, and turned to give me his full attention.
“What happened?” he asked, voice dead serious.
“One of the hostages in the store was Carolyn’s baby. Our baby.”
I told him the whole story. He knew she was my ex, knew a little about our break up, but it had all happened before we’d connected as family, so he didn’t have the full scoop. Everything spilled out, from the fight that had ended in our break up, to the miserable state I’d been once it was over, to the new phone number, the attempts to move on, the shock over seeing her again, the gut punch of realizing that we had a child she hadn’t told me about, and finally, the conversation we’d just had.
I pulled out my phone to look at the screenshots, and we read through the messages together. They started out a little tentative. Hey, we need to talk about something. Could you give me a call? But after a few more, they started getting angry. Answer your damn phone, asshole. I don’t want to tell you this news in a text. There must have been some voicemails too—she mentioned them in her messages—but it seemed like her last communication had been a text, along with a picture. Your son was born this morning. The doctors say he’s healthy. I’ve named him Austin. And since you’ve made it clear you want nothing to do with either one of us, this is the last you’ll be hearing from me.
“Well…shit,” Chance said after he’d read through them.
“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh. “Shit.”
“So…what are you going to do about it?”
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? “I want to be part of my son’s life,” I said. That much, I knew for sure.
“And his mother’s life?”
I shrugged helplessly. “She’s the one who ended things. We were engaged, and I was so sure that we’d be together forever—and then out of nowhere, she was telling me that she didn’t want to be with me anymore.”
“Was it really out of nowhere?” Chance asked. “Because I gotta say, from what you described, you and Carolyn sound a lot like Mandy and me.”
For a minute, all I could do was stare. “Are you kidding me? The two of you are the most solid couple I’ve ever seen. Nothing’s ever going to break you up.”
“Not anymore,” Chance agreed. “But we did split up for years after high school. You didn’t know about that?”
“No, I…I had no idea.” Chance was three years older than me. We’d gone to the same high school, but I’d been a freshman when he was a senior, so our paths hadn’t really crossed. I’d known in a vague way that he and Mandy had been together back then and had just assumed that they’d gone the distance together all these years.
“I signed up for the Navy and then went to tell Mandy, so excited for the life we’d have leaving this town behind, going to live on military bases all over the world. There was just one thing I forgot.”
“What was that?”
“None of that was her dream,” Chance explained. “She didn’t want to go away. She wanted to stay right here, with her dad and their garage and the life she’d imagined for us. But she didn’t want to spoil my dream for me either and force me to stay, so she broke up with me. I was blindsided, heartbroken. I carried a lot of hurt over that for a damn long time until I came back for Dad’s last days and she and I finally worked things out. I’d spent years trying to figure out why she dumped me, and when I finally got the answer, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it sooner. I knew how close she was to her dad, how much she loved the garage. Not to mention, there were a million little things she’d said over the years to show that she saw our future here in Springwell. And I’d managed to ignore all of it because I was so focused on what I wanted our lives to be.”
“You think I did the same thing with Carolyn?”
“I don’t know,” Chance said. “Did you?”
Did I? It wasn’t quite the same—Carolyn had stayed with me for years while I served. But had I ignored the signs that she wasn’t happy, having me away most of the time? Had I missed the hints that she was reaching the end of her patience with our lives moving along separate tracks? Maybe so. It seemed like Carolyn and I had a lot to talk about—not just about Austin, but about what had happened between the two of us.
I wasn’t in the Navy anymore. I was ready to start a new life…and I wanted that life to be with her and Austin. Was there any chance that she might want that, too?
I only snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a warm hand clasp my shoulder. “Take your time, think it over—and then see if you and Carolyn can talk things out, okay? That’s my advice.”
I mustered a smile for my cousin. “It’s good advice. I appreciate it.”
He grinned at me. “Anytime, man. And hey, congratulations on being a dad! Once things have settled down, you know you can count on me and Mandy as babysitters, right? Gotta get some practice in before our sprog comes along.”
“I might take you up on that,” I said, unfastening my seat belt and opening the car door. “Thanks again for the lift. And don’t forget Mandy’s ice cream.”
“Oh, no danger of that,” Chance said with a wicked smirk. “I have plans for that ice cream.”
There was nothing for me to say to that, so I just laughed and headed to my car, giving Chance a final wave before he disappeared into the ice cream shop.
