“Fine. How was your day?”
Tessa sticks her tongue out at me. “My god, I told you! Gross. You totally talk to him as if he’s a three-year-old and I bet he does, too!”
I shake my head and say, “Jax, baby, here’s a friend who wants to say hi.”
I pass the phone to Tessa, looking one last time at his photo on my cell screen: his dark eyes, his sweet little face, his wild black hair. Tessa was right. Jax does look a lot like Tyler.
Jax looks just like his father.
***
“Need anything else?” the waitress asks, and I order another cup of co
ffee.
Tessa’s staring somewhere past her latte, which is going cold. It’s been some good ten minutes since she passed the cell back to me, her face kind of pale and her blue eyes round as saucers.
“Tess?” I tap two fingers on the table in front of her. “Is everything okay?”
“Okay?” She leans forward, her eyes focusing on me. “Okay? Question-answer time. Who the hell is Jax? He’s not your boyfriend. That much is clear. He also isn’t an adult. He’s a little kid. Oh my God, he is three years old, isn’t he?”
I nod.
“And…” She waves a hand. “Is he your little brother? Or…?”
Yeah, I bet she guessed already. “Jax is my son.”
Tessa sits back and whistles softly. “Hot damn. Three years ago you were, what?”
“Sixteen.”
She makes a quick calculation in her head. “You got pregnant when you were fifteen? Holy crap.” She rubs her brow. “I can’t believe Jax is your son. How could you let me believe he was your boyfriend? Jesus on a pogo stick.”
I’m getting a little worried that she won’t forgive me that easily, but then she shoots me a mischievous grin.
“So…Spill. Who’s the daddy?”
Yeah, that’s the question I’ve been dreading, because I need to figure out things out for myself before telling everyone. But Tessa is no fool. “Who do you think?”
She wraps her hand around her latte glass, lifts it, then places it back down without taking a sip. A crease forms between her pale brows, and she sucks her bottom lip into her mouth again. When she finally looks up at me, a flash of understanding goes through her gaze. “Tyler,” she whispers. “Oh my God, it’s Tyler, isn’t it? Is that why he left?”
“No, that’s not why he left. He didn’t know.” Still doesn’t. “And it doesn’t matter. My parents have been raising Jax like their own son.”
“Erin, of course it matters. For Jax, for you. For Tyler.” She reaches across the table and grabs my hand, startling me. “It must have been hard for you.”
“Yeah.” And God, my voice trembles. This isn’t good. I need some time to collect myself. Her kindness is breaking me. “Listen…”
“Have you told him?”
“Tyler? Not yet.”
“God, I never imagined…” Tessa pulls back her hand and sighs. “This is much more complicated than it first looked.”
Isn’t it always?
“Girl… What are you going to do?” she asks.
Tell Tyler. I should. I owe him that. I owe him the truth. “I’ll tell him. Just… not right now.”