“Of course I do. He’s your kid.”

  “He is.” She paused. “And … he’s also yours.”

  Tessa’s gaze lingered on him as everything around them screeched to a halt. The wine bar fell away, the clamor of other patrons reduced to a dull buzz. Nothing else existed in that moment except for her gray gaze and the unfurling of this truth that he’d known, deep in his bones, the second he’d laid eyes on Angus.

  But all he could say was, “What?”

  “I-I-I never told you,” she sputtered, “but he’s yours. I got pregnant at the end of our senior year. And I’m sorry I never told you.”

  He blinked a few times, the truth settling bulky and uncomfortable inside him. Suspecting it was one thing; hearing the truth in this trendy wine bar was another.

  Mark opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He glanced around the room, wondering if anyone else could sense the implosion happening over here. But nobody paid them any attention. Nobody but the server, who returned with their drinks in hand and a chipper smile.

  “Anything else right now?” she asked.

  Mark tried to respond but couldn’t. Tessa said something, but Mark barely heard, and the server was gone a moment later.

  “Mark—”

  “Why?” It was all he could muster.

  Her gaze dropped to the table. “Honestly…I hid it from you because if you’d known, you’d have come running.”

  Anger finally burbled up to the surface, from the deep place where it had been hiding. He slammed his fist against the tabletop harder than he intended. “Of course I would have! I would have done anything for you, Tessa. You know family has always been my life. Hell, I ended up delaying college a year to help take care of my granddad after his cancer diagnosis.” He raked his hand through his hair. “How could you take all that away from me? His first steps. His first words. That’s five years of memories I can’t get back, and that’s not fucking fair.”

  She swallowed, looking gutted. “I know. It’s not.”

  They sat in miserable silence for a few moments. Tessa brushed away a small tear from her cheek and straightened her back.

  “Do you remember prom night?”

  He could hardly recall what he’d done earlier that day at this point. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Do you remember it?”

  He clenched and unclenched his jaw. “Yes. Of course I do.” It was the most fun they’d ever had as a couple in high school. Not because it was wild or forbidden but because for a night, they’d played adults, envisioning a life that they wanted to lead together. From the fancy dinner to the prom itself to talking about the future until daybreak. Mark had thought it was the beginning of the next chapter for them. But instead, Tessa had closed the book altogether.

  “I was going to tell you that night,” Tessa said in a small voice.

  “You were already pregnant then?”

  His world was spinning out of control now.

  She nodded. “We stayed up all night talking, and toward the end I was finally feeling ready to tell you. But then you started talking about your family…I decided I couldn’t tell you after all.”

  “That makes no sense,” he growled.

  “Mark, you were going on and on about all the different ways you were going to help your family once you hit it big,” she said, her voice low but firm. “How you were going to pay off all their debts, get them a house with a roof that didn’t leak. Get them an actual house, and not a goddamn trailer like what we grew up in.” She sniffed hard, her eyes shimmering with tears. “After all that, I knew I couldn’t hold you back by saddling you with a baby before you’d even started your life. And now that you’ve reached your goals, I don’t want to hold you back in getting to know your son, either.”

  Mark rubbed at his forehead. Sometimes he could still hear the drip-drip-drip of the rainwater hitting the buckets in the family room. Both of them had grown up in poverty, and making it into the NFL had solved every single one of his family’s problems. It was the break they’d all been counting on.

  But he knew deep in his bones that he could have still done it, even if she’d been honest with him about her pregnancy.

  “So let me get this straight,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You kept me from my family…so that I could be there for my family?” He laughed bitterly. “How does that make sense, Tessa?”

  She wilted. “I hated keeping you in the dark for this long. I have hated every second of it, trust me. But I was eighteen years old, pregnant, and scared. I thought I was making the right decision for both of us.” She gave him a small smile. “You’re a good man, Mark. I know exactly what you would’ve done if I told you back then. You would’ve thrown away everything you were working towards to do what you thought was the right thing for us. But there were so many people relying on you. Telling you about the baby felt … I don’t know … selfish, I guess.” She paused. “I felt like I’d be holding you back.”

  He drew a deep breath. Six years she’d opted to keep this to herself. And while he could sort of see her point, it just didn’t feel right. Because he could have been there. It didn’t have to be this hard for her. And he got angry all over again thinking about what it must have been like for her to go it alone.

  “I could have helped you,” he said, his throat clamping.

  She swiped at another fallen tear. “I’m so sorry. But what’s done is done and here we are.”

  He wasn’t about to let her sum up six lost years with a trite expression. He shifted in his seat.

  “Say something,” Tessa said in a plaintive voice. “You look upset.”

  “I am upset,” he exclaimed, causing two people at a nearby table to glance at him. “And hurt and confused. For me and him. Did you ever stop to think about how your decision impacted your son? Depriving him of a father?”

  She’d finally stopped crying but tears sprang to her eyes again and he immediately regretted how angry he sounded.

  “Of course, I thought about it. Every day.” She sniffled and swiped her fingers beneath her eyes. “You have no idea how heavy that burden was.”

  Mark studied her and realized that she was telling him the truth. The anguish she felt over Angus missing out was right there on her face. He softened despite the confusion still swirling around inside of him.

  “How did you manage?”

  “How did I manage what?”

  “Everything. Being a single mom. Raising him…” He was at a loss for words. So much had happened for him in the past six years, but double that had happened for her.

  “Well, it wasn’t exactly easy, going through college with a kid on the hip,” she answered with a rueful smile. “But I did it. I got scholarships and financial aid and I…I just…made it work.” She shrugged, looking out at the restaurant with misty eyes. “I grew up real fast, that’s for sure.”

  “You were already grown to begin with,” Mark blurted.

  “Both of us were.”

  They shared a heavy look across the table, broken only when Tessa reached for her glass of wine and finally took her first sip. Their childhoods hadn’t been a walk in the park, growing up in poverty in the forgotten trailer park of their rural Georgia town. But Tessa’s had been worse than his, because Mark at least had a complete family. He’d had the unending love of his parents, whereas Tessa’s mother had walked out on her at age nine. He could tell by her expression that she didn’t want to go there.

  “College was harder in his toddler years, because then I was getting into more intense part of school. I’d drop him at daycare so I could go to classes, pick him up, spend all evening with him playing and loving on him, and then do my homework once he went to bed. I didn’t get a lot of sleep my junior or senior years,” she said.

  Hearing her describe it made him realize how different their lives had been. What she’d sacrificed. Tessa had been worried about raising a child during college and all he had to think about was keeping his GPA high enough to stay on the team and not drinking too much at the keggers.

  “I still worry, you know?” Tessa said, her eyes searching his face. “That I did a good enough job on my own.”

  “Hey, stop. He seems like a great kid,” Mark said, reaching out to cover her hand with his. “Polite, funny, and cute as hell. I can’t wait to get to know him.”

  When her surprised gaze fell to their hands, he gave her a gentle squeeze. He hadn’t even meant to touch her—it was just a reflex. Still. Even after all these years.

  “Thanks,” she said, gently curling fingers around his.

  Her gaze didn’t move from their clasped hands. Energy surged between them, the type of heat that served as a warning signal for Mark these days. A heat that told him their chemistry was still there, as strong as ever. He finally retracted his hand when the waitress stopped by to check on them, unsurprised to find his heart racing.

  Mark got lost drinking her in as she talked to the waitress. Part of him still couldn’t believe that she was sitting across from him. That six years had gone by, they were adults with their own careers, and now an actual child between them. The other part of him worried that it was a dream he had yet to wake up from.

  Because one thing was certain. If this moment was just a dream, he sure as hell didn’t want to wake up. He needed to make up for lost time. He wanted to know that boy and claim him as the son he’d always planned for.

  Even if he hadn’t planned on it happening quite so quickly.

  Tessa had finally composed herself, and even though Mark still had a million questions about her decision six years prior he opted not to press her. Hopefully he’d have more time to work through it with her, to let go of the hurt he was feeling over what he’d missed.

  “So… how about showing me some pictures?” It was an obvious olive branch.

  She finally smiled and she pulled out her phone. They spent the next hour walking down memory lane as Tessa showed him picture after picture of Angus’s life. Her days at the hospital, cradling the newborn. His first Christmas, with the lopsided Santa hat that was too big for his little head. The naked phase, when he refused to wear pants. All sorts of hilarious toddler moments, including finger paint disasters and the time she caught Angus peeing in the neighbor’s yard.

  The wine bar was ready to close by the time they got done scrolling through the pictures. Tessa checked the time and swore.

  “I need to get back. My dad probably put Angus to bed already, but I need to get ready for work tomorrow. And probably clean up whatever messes they left behind.”

  Mark felt a protective instinct kick up. She’d been looking after herself and her father since her mom had walked out. And Mark had always been there to try to help her shoulder the load. The same urge still lay inside him, even all these years later. But he clamped his mouth shut before he could say anything that might be construed as too much.

  Even though he still felt strangely close to her, he knew they had plenty of things to address between them, above and beyond this new chapter of having a son together. He wouldn’t rush it. Because he needed to get a handle on his own shit first. Not just this new family member, but his blossoming career, and the unknowns of a rookie year sprawled ahead of him.

  When the bill came, Mark swiped it up before she could reach for it. He handed it over to the server with his credit card, ignoring Tessa’s protests.

  “You didn’t even get anything,” she said.

  “But you did.”

  She pursed her lips. “I’m the one who invited you.”

  “But I’m the one who makes more money.”

  God, it felt good to say those words. Almost as good as watching the defiant sparkle light up her gaze.

  “But I’m—”

  “Don’t fight me on this, Black,” he said, fighting the smile threatening to take over his face. “The deed is done.”

  For a moment, it felt like old times again. Tessa with that trademark smiley pout, watching him like he was the only man in the world.

  This was the connection that had always sizzled between them. The connection that had led to Angus’s conception. The connection that Mark now knew hadn’t faded a bit, not even after six years apart.

  The question was, what did the future hold for them?

  4

  That Sunday was exceptionally hot and humid, but for once, it didn’t affect Tessa.

  Because today was the day her boy was finally going to meet his daddy.

  She’d been an emotional wreck all day, barely keeping it together for Angus. She’d had the long-awaited talk with him three days prior, after she herself had been able to fully recover from meeting up with Mark the other night.

  She’d broached the topic with Angus gently, slowly backing her way into the news that Mark Coleridge was his father. After a few questions about the mechanics of how a famous football player could’ve possibly known his mom the boy had quickly warmed to the idea that not only did he have a dad, but the man was already his hero.

  “Mom? Are you ready?” Angus had been hopping at the front door for about ten minutes already. He was over the moon at the prospect of seeing his new dad again, and even more thrilled that his new dad was his favorite football player.

  “Almost, honey.” She swiped up her purse, double checking that she had packed enough snacks and a water bottle for Angus. They were heading to a petting zoo for a few hours, so that Angus and Mark could get to know each other as father and son. Her head spun…for multiple reasons.

  Welcoming Angus’s father into his life was one thing. But spending any amount of time around the man she’d never quite managed to get over was another matter altogether.

  She hadn’t had time for men since entering college and becoming a mother. In fact, she hadn’t even tried to date. Not even once. Only recently had she started to feel the stirrings of wanting something more. She just tried to ignore the correlation between those stirrings and when she’d finally reached out to Mark.

  There is no future for you two. Not after the way you left him.

  It was a fact she’d worn like armor throughout the years, even in her darkest moments when she hated herself and regretted every choice she’d made throughout Angus’s childhood. She’d convinced herself that she’d burned every bridge that had ever connected her and Mark. Seeing him again, receiving his perfectly justified confusion and anger only served to remind her of how deep her guilt ran.

  But the spark that still existed between them…that part she hadn’t been counting on. There was too much else going on now to focus on it. She wondered if he felt it too. She wondered if he ever imagined what might have been between them, if only she hadn’t gotten overwhelmed and run.

  She and Angus finally left the house, locking up and scurrying into her small sedan. Angus hummed in the back seat as she wound through the downtown traffic, relishing as she always did the gorgeous mansions and antebellum facades. Savannah was a dream come true, especially after growing up in the rusted wasteland of her rural Georgia town. That place was full of heartbreak and bad choices—at least for her. And though her father still lived there, she never went back. She had no interest in seeing the dingy trailer where she’d grown up or revisiting all the sad corners of that town where she’d wondered why her mother had bolted, or how she could have rationalized leaving behind a young girl and a husband.

  But answers never came, and the questions persisted even after she’d moved away. All Tessa could do was focus on raising Angus so that his heart wasn’t stained with the same pain. So that all he knew was love and support. And now, having two parents who chose him.

  Angus was practically squealing by the time they pulled up in the petting zoo parking lot.

  “Where is he?” he cried out, craning to see out the back-seat window.

  “I’m not sure, honey. We got here a little early, so he’s probably on his way.”

  “Do you think he remembers me?” Angus asked.

  “I know he remembers you,” Tessa said, feeling another wave of tears threatening to come on. She’d been battling this all day. She twisted to look Angus in the eye. “He is so excited to see you again. He hasn’t been able to talk about anything else.”

  Angus’s grin stretched ear to ear. Tessa wasn’t exactly sure about her statement, since she and Mark had only texted over the past few days to nail down the details of this outing. But she wanted Angus to go into this confident that his daddy felt the same. She’d seen enough of that classic Mark Coleridge resolve at the wine bar to know that Mark would be good as his word on becoming involved in his son’s life.

  All that remained to be seen was how involved.

  And whether or not Tessa might be welcomed back into the fold as well.

  Tessa sent a quick text to Mark as she and Angus got out of the car. We’re here. Are you close?

  His text came quickly. I’m about ten minutes out.

  Tessa told him to find them inside the zoo and then herded Angus through the front gate.

  “Is he here yet?” Angus asked.

  “Almost,” she replied. “Let’s go check out the chickens first, and he’ll be here before you know it.”

  Every second that passed waiting for Mark to show up felt like an eternity. He sent another text while the petting zoo employee helped Angus load up his hand with feed for the chickens.

  I don’t have much experience with kids. Anything I need to know before I get there?

  She smiled as she typed out her response. Nothing major. Just feed and water him every few hours.

  Sounds a lot like a houseplant…which I’ve never had luck with. Just forewarning ya.

  Mark followed up his text with a silly emoji and she laughed to herself, pocketing the phone. Truth was, she had planned for this. Springing the existence of a son on someone didn’t automatically turn them into a parent. It was a process; just as it had been for her. She didn’t expect him to win Most Capable Father award right out of the gate. Hell, her own father had never snagged that award in his eighteen years of custodial parenting. For some people, the title never arrived. Mark simply wanting to be in Angus’s life was enough.