Page 97 of Small Town Sizzle

She’s standing in the doorway, tears streaming down her face, her hands trembling as they grip the doorframe.

“Maya?” I launch myself toward her, crossing the room in a few long strides. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” I reach for her, but she shakes her head, sidestepping me as she makes her way to the bed.

She plops down on the edge, her head bowed, shoulders shaking. I drop to my knees in front of her, my hands hovering over hers, not sure if she wants me to touch her right now.

“Baby, talk to me,” I say, my voice soft but urgent. “What’s going on? This isn’t like you. What happened? Is it something with work?”

She sniffles, wiping at her face with the back of her hand, but the tears just keep coming. Finally, she looks at me, her eyes red and filled with a mix of guilt and fear.

“I—” Her voice cracks, and she takes a shaky breath before trying again. “I was going through some of Megan’s old stuff.”

I nod slowly as I take her hands in mine. She pulls away from me, so I continue kneeling in front of her, waiting for her to continue, though her words are already making my chest tighten.

“I found her journals,” Maya says, her voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve been reading through them, trying to… I don’t know, feel closer to her, I guess.”

I reach for her hands, holding them gently. “Okay,” I say softly. “Is that what’s happening? You just miss your sister? Oh, baby, that’s okay.”

“No. I found…” Her lips tremble, and she looks down, her fingers clutching mine tightly. “I found a journal entry,” she says, her voice breaking. “It’s about you.”

My heart skips a beat. “About me?”

My entire body tenses, wondering what Megan could have written about me. If Maya is crying, it couldn’t be good. I knowwhat type of person I was back then. I’ve drastically changed, but I still wasn’t a good person then.

She nods, her tears falling harder now. “Garrett… Megan wrote that you’re Alex’s father.”

The words hit me hard. I pull back. I can’t breathe.

“What?”

“She—” Maya chokes on a sob, trying to pull herself together. “She said she tried to tell you. A dozen times. But every time she came to you, you were drunk or partying or… or just not in a place where she thought you could handle it. So she walked away. She walked away because she thought it was what was best.”

I pull my hands away from hers, leaning back on my heels as her words sink in. My head feels like it’s spinning, the room tilting around me. She reaches for me but pulls back quickly.

Alex is my son?

I have a fourteen-year-old son that I didn’t know even existed. Why would Megan do this to me?

“I swear, Garrett, I didn’t know. I wanted to tell you tonight after dinner, but then… one thing led to another, and…” She’s rambling, her words a blur as my mind races.

I push myself to my feet, needing space and air.

“Thank you for telling me,” I mumble, my voice distant even to my own ears.

“Garrett, wait—” she starts, but I shake my head, holding up a hand to stop her. I can’t do this right now. I need to think.

I walk out of the room and grab my pants out of the kitchen before I go out of the house and onto the back porch, the cool night air hitting me like a slap in the face. My feet move of their own accord, pacing back and forth as a storm of emotions churns inside me.

Anger. Shock. Guilt.

Megan tried to tell me. A dozen times. But I was too wrapped up in my own bullshit to see it. Too busy being young and stupid to notice what was right in front of me.

Did she, though? Did she really try that hard? I don’t remember any conversations between us that could have remotely been about her being pregnant.

We only had sex the one time.

Maybe she was mistaken.

I think about Alex, the kid I barely know but who might actually bemine.Fourteen years old. Fourteen years of missed birthdays, missed milestones, missedeverything.

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