Page 44 of Second Chance Fate

Josh passed the ball to Caleb, and he did his best not to draw any more attention to how much he’d been worried about Owen. For the final fifteen minutes, Caleb was able to focus. Josh and Caleb’s team squeaked out a win against the formidable Maguires’ team, which consisted of two professional athletes, the fire chief, and the chief of police. Caleb chalked the victory up to Jake working three nights at the firehouse before the game and Glenn not getting sleep because Viv sent him out at three a.m. because she had a craving for bacon dipped in chocolate.

“Good game, good game, good game, good game.” Caleb one-arm hugged each of his competitors before going over to the bleachers. He didn’t hang about for the usual ten-to-fifteen-minute shoot-the-shit chat.

He wanted to check to see if he had any missed calls from Taylor. He pulled the phone out of his gym bag and relaxed a little, knowing that he’d had Owen for nearly three hours, and she hadn’t checked in. That was progress. Especially since he was doing something athletic.

Caleb lifted his phone and quickly took a snap of Owen at the free-throw line. He always sent Taylor photos and videos of Owen just so she wouldn’t worry. He’d sent her a video earlier of him playing as proof of life, and she’d ‘loved’ it. As he lowered his phone, he noticed the lineup had changed in the past fifteen minutes. Noah and Drew were nowhere to be seen. Jonah and Owen were joined by two girls, who looked about their age. One of the girls’ hair had purple tips.

It wasn’t until the one without purple tips turned that Caleb recognized them as the Hart twins, Hadley and Harper. It took all of two seconds to see that Owen had a thing for Hadley, and if he was not mistaken, the feelings were reciprocated.

As Caleb watched Owen and Hadley play H-O-R-S-E, he felt like he was watching a nature documentary on mating. He could hear David Attenborough narrating thecourting ritual, pun intended, in his head. “The young male homo sapien approaches the young female homo sapien and shoots the basketball into the hoop in an attempt to establish his value to her. It goes in and is, as they say, all net. The female responds to this blatant show of manhood by dipping her head, lifting her eyes to the male in a universal language of flirt.”

Josh walked over and plopped down beside Caleb on the bleachers that lined the walls of the gym.

“So…” Josh prompted.

“So what?” Caleb picked his water bottle up and took a large swig.

“What’s up with you and the kid? And more importantly, you and Lagertha?”

Caleb was never going to live the Lagertha thing down. He never thought it would be an issue considering the fact that in their lifetime of friendship, which was not an exaggeration—they had been friends their entire lives—Josh had never pried into hispersonal life. He wasn’t sure why he’d chosennowto break that streak.

“First, you two meet at Sue Ann’s, but before you even order, you two head upstairs to the apartment above the shop. The next day, you have dinner at her house. Since then, you’ve been with both of them or the kid every day since. Tonight, you seem on edge. You’re not yourself. You keep checking the door, waiting for her to walk in. Fuck, I had Audrey text me when Lagertha got to book club so you could stop obsessively checking the door.”

Caleb knew the entire town was aware that he’d been spending time with Taylor and Owen. Her living next door to Golden Years had destroyed any chance they might have had of keeping his visits private. Those residents lived for gossip, literally; it was all some of them had. Every day, multiple times a day, he’d been asked what was going on with him and Taylor. So far, he’d bobbed and weaved and managed to maintain his middle school crown as the King of Dodgeball. But he knew that sooner, rather than later, he would be dethroned.

“You’re either so obsessed with the mom you don’t want to miss her coming to pick up the kid,oryou kidnapped the kid so you keep checking to make sure he doesn’t escape. Did you kidnap her kid?” Josh teased.

Caleb sighed. “I’m not obsessed. I know she’s not walking in.”

“Then why has that side of the court been the lucky winner of all your attention this evening?”

“I just want to keep an eye on Owen.”

“So youdidkidnap him?”

Caleb had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. “No, but he has some health issu?—”

“Oh shit, I forgot. I’m an asshole,” Josh cut him off. “Nonna told me the kid has, um, what, diabetes, epilepsy, and…something else serious with his heart.”

“Yeah.”

Josh grabbed the white hand towel out of his bag and wiped the back of his neck. “And he’s what, ten, eleven?”

“Eleven.”

“At that age, all we did was ride our bikes and play sports.” Josh sighed. “Fuck, that has to suck.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“So is that why you’ve been hanging out with him so much? Doing so much with him? To help out? It’s tough enough being a single mom, but then you add all that.”

Josh’s suggestion was the perfect cover, but Caleb didn’t respond. Caleb had always gone above and beyond to help out anyone who needed it. Taylor wouldn’t be the first single parent Caleb had stepped in to help out. The thing was, he didn’t want to have a cover story with his best friend. He wanted to tell him the truth that Owen was his son. Just like he wanted to tell his parents the truth every time he talked to them, which was on average every other day. They’d wanted to be grandparents so badly for so long. He couldn’t wait to tell them that they were. But he had to.

Although, he was concerned they’d figure it out on their own if Taylor still wasn’t ready to tell Owen when they returned in a couple of weeks. Owen was the spitting image of Caleb, and, unlike the rest of the town, his childhood home was filled with photos of Caleb at Owen’s age.

“Oh, speaking of her, you know what I was gonna tell you.” Josh nudged Caleb with his elbow. “I was in Brewed a couple days ago, and Taylor was helping a customer. She laughed at something they said, and you know who she reminded me of?”

Caleb turned to look at his friend, and his heart slammed into his chest at the same time his stomach dropped. The only other person who knew about him and ‘Rebecca’ was Josh. “Who?”

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