Page 27 of Nightclub Surprise
“Don’t let one little disaster stop you from having fun, Calum. Life’s full of them, but we can’t stop living just because bad things happen. If we did, we’d never have fun at all. And I like to have fun.” Running my hand over his head, I nudged him with my shoulder. “And she’ll be okay. Moms,huh?”
“You’re tellin’ me,” Calum agreed, rolling his eyes and sighing, trying to act like anadult.
Lucky for me, Calum liked the same kinds of cartoons I did—having watched my six nieces and nephews grow up, I was no stranger to kids’ shows. Before I knew it, we’d talked over the whole last season of Ninja Buddies. Ninja Steve proved to be both of ourfavorite.
When an hour had passed, we finally heard silence coming from Tawny’s bedroom. “Maybe I should go check to make sure she’s okay,” I told Calum before getting up to go see if she’d passed out, or what had her being so quiet all of asudden.
But just as I got up, the squeaking of the door stopped me, and I stood right where I was. Calum got on his knees on the sofa, peering at the hallway. “Momma?”
Her auburn waves were a mess. I could tell she’d been running her hands through it incessantly. Her red-rimmed eyes were smudged black with makeup underneath as they looked at me and then at Calum. Her mouth opened, but then snappedshut.
“Baby, are you okay?” I had to ask. I’d never seen anything close to this side of her before, and I didn’t know what to do forher.
Shaking her head slowly, her lips parted once more. “I’m not okay at all. I’ve done something that I wish Ihadn’t.”
“What could possibly be so bad, Tawny?” having asked that, my mind went on a spree through ideas of what she might’ve done to make her look so guilty. Cheating on me was the only thing that sprang to mymind.
My gut twisted at thethought.
Her eyes darted from me to Calum and back again. “You’re both going to be mad atme.”
“No way, Momma,” Calum quickly said, shaking hishead.
All she did was nod in response. Seconds ticked by like hours as she stood there on the other side of the room, barely out of the hallway. “I’ve been keeping asecret.”
Shehad?
ChapterSixteen
Tawny
I was frozen to my spot as both of their eyes were glued on me. In my complete and utter distress, I’d assumed the words would flow out me, unable to stay inside a moment longer. Instead, nothing came to mind as to how to tell the two people in front of me to the information I knew theydeserved.
In hindsight, if I’d have been in my right mind, I probably would have done things differently. But the terror of having my baby boy so close to death, and with August almost stopped from doing anything aboutit…
Well, something inside of me had snapped, and I couldn’t keep it to myself anylonger.
“A secret?” August asked, his face full offear.
He’d begun to assume the worst, and that alone had me speeding up my confession. “August, you’re the only man…” I paused, looking at my six-year-old son, knowing I had to phrase this the right way for his innocentears.
“I’m the only man, what, baby?” August asked with narrowed eyes. He knew something was up, and that he had something to do withit.
“There’s never been anyone but you, August Harlow. From the night before you left for boot camp until we met again at the Science Center, there’s only been you. I’ve never been with…” I couldn’t say it. Not with my son looking atme.
“Oh…” August murmured. “I see what you’re saying.” He looked at Calum, and then at me. “So, tell us what you have to say, Tawny,” he demanded, a serious yet unreadable expression on hisface.
My eyes came to rest on Calum. “Calum, August is yourfather.”
My son looked at me with so much confusion before he asked, “How do you knowthat?”
August laughed and picked him up, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “Because mommies and daddies just know, that’s why. I’ve been wondering about you, Calum. We’ve got the samehair.”
Calum looked up at August’s hair, a contemplative gleam in his eyes as his gaze traveled to his father’s eyes. “And you have my color eyes, too,” Calum said as they looked one anotherover.
“I think your mom had a good reason for keeping this a secret, because she was worried. But she shouldn’t have been worried. I would’ve been there for you guys. But we shouldn’t be mad at her, okay, buddy? She was young and did what she thought best,” August told Calum. Then he looked at me. “Come over here and get in on this, baby. No one’s mad atyou.”
My heart began to beat again, so much relief passing through me that for a moment I couldn’t move. I’d prepared myself for August to yell at me for a while before storming out. And I’d figured Calum would be mad at me and not understand anything. Seems I’d beenwrong.
