Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
“She didn’t call.” I stifled the absurd bubble of laughter that tried to rise at the accusation. “For the first time in my life, I can honestly say my mother had nothing to do with this. It’s all Eva.”
“Fucking Eva.” He pulled his suitcase in and shut the door. “So what’s the plan to get your role back?”
“I . . . don’t have one.” Short of becoming the act of God Hudson had suggested.
“Please. You have Dr. Lowell here with you. Everyone knows it. If you don’t have a plan, she does. Don’t you, Kenna?” He raised his voice with the last question.
“I do,” Kenna answered, appearing in the doorway. “But my plan depends on three things going right.”
“Well, I’m here, so obviously you have one.” He gestured to his suitcase. “I assumed Anne called because you needed a partner to practice with, because hell is freezing over before I partner with your sister come October. And before you ask, of course I’ll stay for the month. Michael will have to come visit, of course, but who doesn’t love summers in Cape Cod? God, I haven’t been here since that last intensive your mother taught. How old were we?” He surveyed the foyer like he was looking for changes and peeked into the studio.
I cleared my throat. “I was seventeen that summer. Lina was nineteen.”
“That’s right.” He didn’t so much as flinch. “So what’s the second variant to your brilliance?” he asked Kenna.
“That’s a bit more—” she started.
“How do you explain this!” Anne charged out of the living room, waving Juniper’s original birth certificate.
“Way to stick to the plan,” Kenna muttered.
Everett’s manicured brows lifted as she thrust the paper inches from his face, and I held my breath as he scanned the document that listed Juniper simply as Baby Rousseau. “Well, shit. I’d pretty much forgotten about that.”
My jaw dropped along with my stomach, “That’s all you have to say?”
He glanced at me, then Anne, his features slackening. “Oh, shit, you didn’t know. In that case, anyone feel like a drink? I might need one for this.”
Five minutes later, I handed Everett the fourth glass of lemonade I’d poured as he’d settled into the matching armchair, then took mine to my own seat and found a text message on my phone.
Hudson: Just thinking about you.
I smiled despite the circumstances and typed out Take it easy on your ribs today, then gave all my attention to Everett on my left, who was avoiding Anne’s glare like a professional.
“Start talking,” she demanded.
“I was sitting right where Kenna is when Lina asked me to play daddy.” He ran his finger over the rim of the glass. “She said it would only be on paper, and I’d only be responsible for a few hours. Just long enough to sign the termination of parental rights.”
My heart clenched. She’d told him, but not us.
“So you aren’t Juniper’s father?”
“Is that what they ended up naming the kid? Her parents, I mean.” He took a drink, then realized we were staring. “Of course I’m not her father. That would require me having sex with a woman. No, thank you.” He shook his head.
Anne sagged like a balloon that had lost all its helium.
“Like you didn’t know it was a long shot,” Kenna muttered at her.
“Do you know who it is?” I asked Everett.
“No.” Everett leaned forward and took a coaster from the stack on the coffee table. “She said it was a one-night stand when she got to San Francisco and couldn’t remember his name.” He set the coaster on the end table, then put his glass on it. “I can’t believe you guys don’t know this. I thought you shared everything.”
“Apparently not, so please keep going.” Anne stared at her glass. “When was this?”
“I think it was the first week in May,” he answered.
“And she was here?” I looked around the living room like Lina would magically appear.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Said she’d been here for a month or so.”
“She must have come once we went back to New York after spring break,” Anne muttered. “Records said Juniper was born a few towns away. She stayed in Barnstable County.”
“Sounds right. I agreed to come up once she’d had the baby, and when that happened, I signed whatever the lawyers put in front of me.”
“Why would you do that for her?” I asked.
“She was pregnant and needed help. The lawyers said the adoption would go through easier, faster, if the legal father signed off on it, and Lina made it sound like she had the perfect family picked out for the kid. And when I hesitated . . .” He struggled for words, then took his sunglasses from the top of his head and set those down too. “You’re going to think I’m a piece of shit.”
“I could never.” I reached across the end table and squeezed his hand.