Page 77 of The Path To Us

“Chris.”

“Chris what?”

“Chris is the father.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

I stand up and move to the other shelf in my office that he hasn’t seen yet and pull a frame from the shelf that has several pictures in it. All of which are of Zoey, Chris, and me. I hand him the frame and he takes it from me. “Chris is your daughter’s dad?”

“Yes.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah. That’s kind of how we all reacted when we found out I was pregnant.”

“I’ll bet. Wow. Guess I spoke too soon about not being able to handle hearing more news, huh? Is this why you and Beau aren’t together?”

I freeze, not moving a muscle. “What do you mean?”

“I saw Beau yesterday morning, actually. Kind of a fluke thing. We were both in the drive-through at the same time. He and I talked and made plans to meet up sometime. I assumed you two were together by now but he said you weren’t. He didn’t mention you had a kid, though.”

I remind myself that a lot has happened between Beau and me in the last eighteen hours. Yesterday morning we weren’t together.

This morning is a different answer to that question.

I wonder if Beau would have told Tyson that we were together if he’d have seen him today.

I wonder why he didn’t mention Zoey.

I wonder how he reacted to seeing Tyson after all these years.

“You two are planning to meet up?”

“Yeah. I…” He rubs the back of his neck and looks down. “I had some apologies to make. Long overdue apologies, as you know.”

“Did you tell him you were sorry for sleeping with Lizzy?”

“Of course I did. He actually said it was okay and that it didn’t bother him.”

I nod, knowing that’s the truth of it. Yeah, it bothered him a lot when it happened but a dozen years later and he no longer cares. Heck, I’m not sure he cared a dozen days later. He saw Lizzy for who she really was. Then again, I would say the same about what he saw from Tyson, too.

“And you’re getting together sometime?”

“We exchanged numbers. I told him I wanted you to come, too. He never told you?”

“No, he didn’t.” Though, last night when he was over we didn’t do a whole lot of talking. Seems we need to.

“Huh. I figured he’d let you know. So you’re a mama, huh?”

Grateful for the change in topic, I smile. “Yup. She’s five and full of spit and vinegar.”

“I’ll bet. Like her mama, huh?”

“Quite a bit, actually. She’s got a lot of Chris in her, too. She can be really shy at times. Likes her solitude like Chris did.”

“I was surprised to hear he was the vice principal at the school for that very reason.”

“Yeah, he definitely stepped outside his box on that one. But he was great. The kids loved him. Most of them attended his funeral even.”

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