Page 9 of In this Moment

And that scared the hell out ofhim.

Evie managed to hold it together until they got home. Fortunately, Jonah prattled on all the way home about how nice Mrs. McCormick was to buy him a treat and how much he liked hanging out with all the McCormicks. It was a good distraction to listen to Jonah list off all the reasons he liked the McCormick brothers.

“Cal is a super cool television star,” Jonah said. “Do you think I could get on set one day? That would becool.”

“I’m notsure.”

“And Ian has boats. A lot of boats. Don’t you think it would be cool to have so many boats?”

“I hadn’t thought aboutit.”

“Declan kind of hangs around a lot,” Jonah said. “I like him. He’s not smart like Mitch. Mitch is smart because he’s a teacher,” Jonah declared, making Evie laugh.

She was thankful for his distraction because if he noticed his mother was off or edgy, he didn’t say anything. Not that she would have had a good answer for him anyway.

How could she explain that she’d just received a phone call out of the blue that she’d feared she might one dayget?

She couldn’t.

And she wouldn’t say anything until she got more information.

As soon as they got home, Evie handed her son the remote for his video game system that she only let him use occasionally, and almost never when it was sunny and nice outside. He was a smart kid and didn’t question it, choosing instead to head into the living room before his mother changed hermind.

The moment she heard the music from the game, Evie grabbed her phone and went outside to her deck. But she didn’t make a call rightaway.

Instead, she stared out at the garden she’d worked hard to build for the last few years. Just like their life. Hers and Jonah’s. She’d worked incredibly hard over the last eight years to save money, to buy the modest little house, and to more importantly, make it a home. She’d worked every day to make sure Jonah didn’t want for anything.

Even a father.

She knew it was futile. And he did occasionally ask her questions about him. She was always honest. As honest as was appropriate and showed him pictures of his dad and told her the little she knew: he lived in the city, he sold cars, and he cared about him. She’d always made the last part up. Truthfully, she didn’t know whether he cared or not because he never called or sent birthday or Christmas cards. But at the bare minimum, Tony did send money. Child support payments had appeared regularly for the last eight years.

Evie had been fine with their arrangement. Jonah wasn’t left wanting for anything and they were doing quite well on theirown.

Untilnow.

Her hand shook just holding the phone that less than an hour ago had delivered the news that Tony Clarke was back intown.

It had been Milena Hill who’d called to let her know. Despite growing up in the same town, they were still fairly new friends, although closer than ever after Evie had aided in Cal McCormick’s romantic gesture toward his new girlfriend recently. So when she saw Milena’s number show up on the call display, she’d expected an offer for a coffee date or maybe a glass of wine. She had most definitely not expected the news Milena had delivered.

“I had a very interesting visitor in the office this morning,” Milena said when Evie took the call. As the local real estate agent in a booming town, Milena got a lot of interesting visitors looking for houses. That wasn’t unusual. “He said he knew you.” That was unusual.

“Oh?”

“I wish I didn’t have to be the one to tell you this, Evie.” Milena paused and in that moment, Evie knew what her friend was going to say. Her stomach fell and knotted in an angry twist all at once. “Tony Clarke came in looking to buy a house.”

Evie nodded and when she remembered Milena couldn’t see her, she said, “Oh. A house?”

“Yes. He wants me to find him a house,” Milena said. “For him and his new wife.” Milena delivered the last bit of news with care. No doubt her friend was worried for her feelings.

The truth was Evie didn’t care whether Tony was married or not. She had no romantic feelings for him at all. She never really had. Not really. He was a teenage mistake. One that had resulted in the best thing in her life. But a mistake nonetheless.

The only thing she cared about was why he was intown.

Why Cedar Springs?

“For a vacationhome?”

“No,” Milena said. She could hear the hesitation in her friend’s voice. “A permanent house. They want to move to Cedar Springs.”

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