Page 76 of The Path To Us

“Don’t throw all your eggs in that basket. No one cares about you anymore,” I joke.

“Good to know.”

“Seriously, Tyson. You okay? I heard about your injury.”

“Yeah, I’m okay. It sucks and I’m done with baseball now, which sucks even more, but it is what it is. Life isn’t always supposed to be perfect, right?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Heard about your mom, Addy.”

“Yeah. That was a not so perfect time.”

“Sorry to hear that. I didn’t know or I would have come back sooner.”

“Nothing you could have done,” I tell him.

“Still shoulda been here. Can’t believe she’s gone.”

“Yeah,” I say, looking around the office that was once hers. “Sometimes I can’t believe it either. You heard about Chris, right?”

“I did. Came out of nowhere, huh?”

“Yeah. We really weren’t expecting it. He was here one minute and gone the next.”

“Fuck.”

“Pretty much.”

His eyes land on a picture on my desk and zero in there. I know what he’s looking at. Considering that I’m not on social media, it’s not that he’d see pictures of Zoey anywhere.

“Addy?”

He stands, lifts the picture frame, and stares down at it.

“Yes, Tyson?”

“Is this…”

“Go on.”

“You have a daughter.”

“I do.”

“She’s beautiful,” he says quietly, not taking his eyes away from the photo inside.

“Thank you.”

He looks at it a little longer before setting the frame back down and looking at me, eyes trailing down to my hand.

“No, I’m not married.”

He blows out a breath. “Honestly wasn’t sure I could handle hearing any other news. Who’s the dad?”

“You don’t know?”

“Obviously not. Didn’t even know you had a kid.”

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