Page 80 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

“Hey.” His voice sounded steady, and it sent a flutter to my chest.

“Hey yourself,” I replied. “ How’s it going?”

“We’re finding out some information,” he answered simply, and I couldn’t decipher what I wanted from his tone. He had no gives.

“Is Evan giving you a tough time?” I asked more specifically.

“No, he’s being very cooperative,” he said, and he sounded distinctly amused. I got slightly worried then because, usually, Marcus only got amused when he was about to do something very bad.

“Evan’s not, erm…injured, is he?”

“No, he’s still able-bodied,” he said with a chuckle.

“Is that her?” I heard someone ask, and it didn’t sound like Evan’s voice. “I wanna talk to her.”

There were slight sounds of a scuffle, and I probed, “Who’s that?”

“No one important,” Marcus said, sounding annoyed. “I should be home for lunch.”

“Sounds good. I love you,” I added the last part shyly.

“Love you too,” he said, and I heard a loud ‘aww’ at the other end of the line before the call was clicked off.

My family was also eyeing me with various levels of happiness and disgust.

“You guys are sickening,” Athena commented, and I stuck my tongue out at her happily.

“I should be getting home,” I said. “I still have to pop the roast in the oven before Marcus gets back.”

I got up, and my mother brought Caleb over. I hugged her.

“Drive slowly, sweetheart,” my father cautioned. “The roads are supposed to be extra icy today.”

“Sure thing, Dad,” I said, and with a final round of hugs, Caleb and I were off.

With Caleb secured in the passenger seat, I drove unhurriedly on the roads while humming some Christmas carols on the radio.

I glanced at the rearview mirror halfway through, and that was when I first noticed the unassuming black sedan behind us.

At first, it was only a passing notice as I merged into an incoming traffic light. But the more I drove, the more I realized the car stayed behind me. Every time I glanced in the mirror, there it was, on my bumper.

Was it following me?

I couldn’t see the driver through the tinted windows, and anxiety spiked through me. So, instead of taking the direct route home, I turned onto another street, one that would give us backwoods access. Very, very few cars knew about this street, and even fewer drove on it. In all the years I’d lived here, only my neighbors drove here, and I knew what all their cars looked like. The car following me didn’t look like any of theirs. If the car turned with me, then there was a huge likelihood it was following me.

My heart pounded in my chest. What would I do then?

Well, then, in that case, I would drive past my house back onto the main road and right down to the police station. I wasn’t letting this guy catch me alone.

But the minute I pulled onto the street, I saw the car ambling by.

It continued down the road to merge in on the highway, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t following me after all.

I waited a few minutes to calm my nerves and assure myself that the car wasn’t going to double back before I continued my way home.

When we got inside, I locked the door behind us, instantly breathing another sigh of relief.

I then set to work putting the roast in as Caleb plopped down in front of the TV, turning it on.

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