Page 33 of Best Kept Secret

“We were and still are close.”

“Is she older or younger than you?”

“A few years older.”

“I just realized I never asked about Annie’s father. All this time, we’ve only talked about Emily.”

He stiffened, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. Keeping his gaze on the road, he said, “What do you want to know?”

“I assumed Emily was married, but that isn’t always the case…”

“She’s not.”

“Oh.”

“But it’s okay. They get along fine and share responsibility for Annie.”

He felt her gaze boring into his profile, but he didn’t dare turn to look at her. They were driving on the expressway, and hopefully, she’d think he was just focused on the road.

“What’s his name?”

“Whose?”

She chuckled. “Annie’s dad.”

“Rob,” he said. Emily was going to kill him. Rob was her ex-boyfriend, and his was the first name that sprang to mind. Their relationship had ended badly, and if they’d had a child, Hudson doubted they’d get along fine like he’d led Kelsey to believe.

“It doesn’t sound like you have a very high opinion of him.”

He shifted in his seat, acutely aware that the hole he was digging was getting deeper and deeper. He wondered when the earth would cave in and bury him under his mound of lies. “He’s not my favorite person,” he said, thinking of himself at that moment.

“That’s too bad, but if he’s good to Annie, that’s all that really matters, right?”

It was just like her to put a positive spin on things. Her positive outlook on life was one of the things that had attracted him to her in the first place. He hated that he was taking advantage of her good nature. “Right.”

“Turn here,” she said, pointing to the exit up ahead.

For the next few minutes, she directed him to her place, which provided a much-needed reprieve from their conversation. Soon he was driving into the parking lot of her apartment building. He pulled into a guest spot but left the car idling, not wanting to assume that she’d invite him inside. It was probably a bad idea, anyway. He really needed to have a conversation with her before anything else could happen.

She unfastened her seatbelt and turned to face him. “I had fun tonight.”

“Me too.”

“Can I ask you something?”

Uh-oh. Please don’t let it be about Emily or Annie. “Go ahead.”

“Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

She must have misread his look of surprise. “Was that too forward of me? It was, wasn’t it?”

She scrunched up her nose like she smelled something putrid, and he laughed.

“No. I just wasn’t expecting the question, that’s all.”

“The last time we talked at your apartment—”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” he said, cutting her off. “I should have called you sooner, and believe me, I wanted to.”