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“Just one?” she asked, careful to keep her voice light and teasing. She wanted him to keep talking.

“Okay, more than one, but this particular one was more significant. Her name is Anne, and she was . . .” He paused, then studied her. “A lot like you.”

“Everything you’ve ever wanted in a woman?” she joked.

The smile returned. “It was more a personality thing. Or maybe attitude is a better word. Anyway, we were a thing for six months, but then I wanted to move and she didn’t. The parting was amicable enough and I headed to Austin.”

He sipped his wine. “I liked it there. I got a steady job, still in construction, rented a decent apartment instead of some crappy room, and decided I would settle there.”

Interesting, considering he was now back in Wishing Tree. “And?”

“About ten months later, I got a text from Anne. She wanted to see me.” He shook his head. “I assumed she couldn’t live without me and wanted to talk about moving to Austin so we could get back together.” He glanced at Reggie. “I was wrong.”

“She was pregnant? No, wait. Ten months later means she had to have already given birth.”

“Yeah, that. We agreed to meet at a coffee place. I was excited to see her, making all kinds of plans in my head. But she didn’t want to get back together. She walked in carrying Harrison and said he was my son.”

He looked past her to something she couldn’t see. “I didn’t know what to think or say. One second I was a happy, single guy, and the next, I was a father of a three-month-old.”

He returned his gaze to hers. “She said she couldn’t do it—she couldn’t be a mom. It was too hard, and Harrison needed too much. She was offering him to me. If I didn’t want him, she was going to turn him over to the state.”

“What?” Reggie nearly came out of her seat, unable to believe what she was hearing. Seriously? Anne had done that? What kind of human being was she? “She was going to give him up? Just like that? She is nothing like me. I would never do that.”

He smiled. “I know, and you can relax. The story has a happy ending.”

“Are you going to defend her and say it’s not her fault? She’s the mother. She should have tried. And where was her family? Why weren’t they helping?”

Amusement darkened his eyes. “You have some thoughts on the subject.”

“Of course I do. Dena’s going to be a single mom, and you know we’re all going to be fighting over time with the baby. We’ll be there for her. I’m already planning to move back home for the first few months after the baby’s born so I can help.”

“I’m not even surprised.”

She picked up her wine and waved at him. “Okay, go on. I won’t interrupt again.”

“Yes, you will.”

“Probably, but we can hope I don’t.”

He chuckled. “I told her I’d take him. She had all his stuff in her car. She’d written down a few instructions. Once she gave those to me, she told me to find a lawyer, and she would sign whatever she had to. She was done being a mother. And then she drove off.”

“Leaving you standing by the side of the road, with a baby in your arms? That’s insane. How would you know what to do? You’d never even changed a diaper.”

“You’re right. I didn’t know anything. My first call was to Judy to ask her to come stay with me. My second was to a guy I worked with. He was married with a couple of little kids. They let me come over, and his wife showed me the basics. By the time I picked up Judy at the airport, I could fix a bottle and change a diaper. But I still didn’t know how I was going to survive. Who was going to take care of Harrison while I worked?”

“The dilemma of single parents everywhere.”

“It is. Judy was willing to stay for a few weeks, but then she had to get home to my dad.”

She heard the edge in his voice and knew better than to ask about his father. She wanted to hear more about his early years with Harrison, and talking about Toby’s father would send them spiraling to a place neither of them wanted to go.

She still couldn’t believe how Anne had acted. If she hadn’t wanted the kid, why have the child in the first place? Or if she wasn’t willing to have an abortion, then arrange for an adoption from birth. There were thousands of wonderful couples eager to adopt a baby. But to keep him and then change her mind? That wasn’t right.

“We brainstormed ways for me to make money from home,” he said. “It’s harder than you’d think. None of the ideas worked for me. I didn’t have any work-from-home skills that I could use, and trying to work as a handyman didn’t solve the day care situation. Then she suggested selling hand pies.”

His mouth twisted. “There were plenty of times when I was a kid that the money from those was all we had. Remember how she would sell to friends and neighbors?”

“I do,” Reggie said, her voice soft. “My mom always wanted to know when Judy was making them. We loved having them for dinner.”