Page 72 of Accidental Dad's Best Friend

My stomach sours even more. So not only did she not want me to know that I had a son, she saw me as a threat to Jaxon. It’s a direct stab to the chest. I swallow hard and grit my teeth.

“But Ethan, someone was at the house.”

“When?” I ask, pinching the bridge of my nose with two fingers. I have a pulsing headache. Everything is happening all at once and my skull feels like it’s splitting in half. Someone is fucking with us. And it’s calculated.

“Just a little bit ago. There was a pounding on the door and when I answered it, no one was there. It shows on the camera as a woman but I can’t see her face. And she left an envelope.”

“Let me guess.” I suck in an irritated breath. “Photos?”

“Yes.”

“New ones?”

“No. The one from the baseball game. But there’s writing on it. Telling me to stay away from you.”

Well that’s new.

Whoever this person is…this woman…is jealous?

I wrack my brain to think of anyone it might be. Anyone I could have been around or lead on. But I don’t date. Thanks to Izzy-Not-Isabelle I haven’t been able to think about anyone else for months. Years. I haven’t so much as been on one casual date or even bought someone a drink. The last thing I need is a woman with a fake laugh and a sweet tooth for six-figure-men thinking I’m interested.

It doesn’t make sense.

“What are we going to do?” Izzy breaks back into my thoughts.

“Well, first of all, there’s nothing we can do. The article is going to print.”

“And if my dad figures this out? If he finds out about Jaxon? Ethan, I don’t want him to know. I don’t want to have anything to do with him. He is not welcome in my son’s life.”

I want to correct her–our son’s life.

But I don’t. I stay on topic because this whole thing is already ripping off the rails.

“We sit tight. One explosion at a time, Isabel.”

“We should leave,” she states.

“What are you talking about?”

“If my dad sees these photos, he’s going to kill you.”

I scoff at that. “I’d love to see him try.”

“He’s going to lose his mind, Ethan! It’s bad enough we’ve been…together. But a son? You know him. He’s going to be furious. And you know how he is when he’s angry.”

“I also know myself and I am not going to let him ruin anyone’s lives, Izzy. Not anymore than he already has. You’re not going anywhere. We aren’t making any sudden moves. We let the article hit the stands and we lay low. We deal with that bomb first.”

There’s a pause on the line but I can hear her worried, jagged breath. “And then? What about us?”

I bite down on my lip and clear my throat quietly. “We will figure out what to do about you lying about Jaxon when everything else is over.”

It’s not the same as sayingthere is no us.But in a way, it kind of is.

We get off the phone and I stare out the window. The city is quiet, dark skies with a blue hue from the lights. It’s never truly dark when you live in the middle of it all. Like the city never goes to sleep. There’s always a buzz, always a light, always the hum of activity and busyness. Secrets.

I let myself think of Izzy pregnant. For a moment I remember the night that made her that way. I do believe her that Jaxon is mine. I think if he belonged to anyone else, she would have had a harder time keeping them away. Her and I were never supposed to be together in the first place. In a way, we avoided each other. It was easy for her not to tell me and easy for me to never find out.

What’s not easy is imagining her raising him all these years by herself. If I had to guess, working retail and free-lance writingjobs didn’t pay the bills. Not well. How did she manage child care? Diapers? Clothes and toys, Christmas and doctors visits? How did she manage at all?

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