Page 61 of Dare to Dance
“Son.” Dad kissed my mom’s head. “What’s wrong?” His tone dropped into psychiatrist mode, warm and inviting.
As long as he stayed in his doctor mode, I might be able to get through this. I lowered myself to the flannel blanket at my feet then sat on my haunches.
“Honey,” Mom said.
I briefly closed my eyes, cleared the lump in my throat, and glanced out at the lake. “I believe I’m a daddy.”
My mother, Lizzie, and Lacey gasped, drawing my attention back to the group, mainly my old man. Wrinkles creased his forehead, his copper gaze tracking from one side of my face to the other.
My gut curdled like sour milk. His mouth hung open. I wrapped an arm around my stomach, willing the nausea to go away.
Lizzie and Lacey had the same open-mouthed expression as Mom and Dad, while my brothers had blank expressions.
Silence hung thickly over the campfire as I took in slow and steady breaths. Saying it out loud lifted a five-ton weight off me. But I still had ten more tons to go. I had no idea how to be a father or even where to begin when it came to getting Raven out of foster care. When I did, would she accept me? Where would we live? I had many, many other life-changing decisions to make.
“Start from the beginning,” Dad said quietly and calmly as he hugged my mom to his chest.
Again, I cleared my throat. “It started four years ago back at the academy,” I began as though I was telling a normal campfire story. I let out a whisper of a nervous laugh. It might not have been a scary story to them, but it was to me. “I met a girl named Ruby Lewis. We dated, and we had unprotected sex.” Heat stung my face at saying the word “sex” in front of Mom. She didn’t react. Instead, she listened intently.
Horror blanched Dad’s face. “Are you telling us that the child is four years old?”
I wasn’t sure if Raven was four yet, although she had to be close.
I zoned in on the fire, watching it flicker, casting shadows outward, as I contemplated how to tell my father I was an ass to Ruby. “Treat people with respect,” he’d always said to us boys. Not returning Ruby’s frantic messages wasn’t anything but rude and low.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” Lizzie piped in with too much giddiness in her voice as though she wanted to find Raven and hug her. That didn’t surprise me. Lizzie was dying to have kids.
“Let him talk,” Dad barked out in a deep voice.
The fire became my friend as I continued. “At first, Ruby thought she was pregnant. Then a couple of days later, she came to me and said it was a false alarm because she’d been spotting. After that, I moved back to Ashford. She tried to call me.” Rubbing my jaw, I tilted my face toward the sky. A darker blue overtook the orange hue as twilight set in. Soon the stars would be out.Stars. Ruby.Stars always made me think of Ruby.Fuck.“But I ignored her calls.” I righted my head. “She never once said in her messages that she’d left me that she was pregnant.”
“I don’t understand how she thought she wasn’t pregnant when she was,” Kelton said.
My chest tightened as Mom wiped away a tear.
“Sometimes women spot that first month,” Lizzie said. “My mom did when she was pregnant with me.”
“Why don’t you kids head up to the house and get the lasagna in the oven,” Dad said, inclining his head toward Kade.
The five of them scrambled to their feet. Lizzie and Lacey bolted for the house, whispering to each other. Each of my brothers patted me on the shoulder as they walked by.
“I’d like Kelton to stay,” I said. “I’m going to need a lawyer.” Not that Kelton was one, but with his part-time job at the law firm, he would be able to help.
My dad nodded then pushed to his feet before helping Mom to hers.
Immediately, she came over. I stood before she threw her arms around me. No sooner than she did, a grunt thundered from me as though someone had split open my chest. Then I was sobbing in my mom’s arms.
She rubbed my neck. “We’re here for you, honey. You’re not in this alone.” She sniffled.
“I disappointed you and Dad.”
“Shhh,” she whispered.
A hand landed on my back. “Kross,” Dad said, his voice breaking apart like my heart.
I let go of Mom as the tears flowed. She held my hand, soft to hard, mom to son.
Dad blinked a couple of times as confusion, hurt, and disappointment played across the hard planes of his face like a slideshow. “Why are we just finding out about this? Where have the child and the mother been for four years?”
