Violet’s three best friends in the world whooped with excitement, drawing stares from others around the restaurant. They quickly started a rapid fire of questions, hardly leaving Violet time to answer.
“Just relax for a minute and I’ll tell you everything,” Violet said, holding up her hand to slow their words. She shook her head and steeled her own nerves with a large sip of her chardonnay. “Last Monday, a man came into the foundation.”
“Did he have red hair?” Lucy asked.
“Let her tell it,” Harper complained.
“I am letting her tell it,” Lucy snapped.
“Yes, he had red hair,” Violet interjected into their argument. “And blue eyes just like Knox, but even then I didn’t recognize him at first. He knew me, though. Apparently he thought I had run out on him the morning of my accident and he didn’t know how to find me.”
“When did you get your memories back?” Emma prompted.
“When he said his name. I didn’t have the slightest idea who he was and then all of a sudden, it was like a bucket of memories was dumped on my head. I remembered nearly every second of the two amazing days we spent together. And at that point, there was no doubt in my mind that Aidan was Knox’s father.”
“Ohmigosh,” Lucy gasped and clutched her huge belly. “This is so exciting I just might go into labor.”
“Please don’t!” Harper said with panicked eyes. “The twins need to stay in there as long as they can. If you go into labor on girls’ night, my brother will blame me. I don’t want to have to hear him complain.”
“That has to be a relief for you,” Emma said, ignoring the others and reaching out to clasp Violet’s hand. “Now you finally know who your baby’s father is. I only went a couple months when I first got pregnant before I tracked down Jonah. I can’t imagine how you’ve dealt with the uncertainty for all these months.”
“I didn’t really have a choice,” Violet said with a dismissive shrug. The last six months had been hard, no doubt, but there wasn’t much she could do about it when her brain wouldn’t unveil its secrets.
“What’s his name?” Harper asked. “I have a friend at FlynnSoft that can run a background check on him if you’d like me to ask.”
“No, that won’t be necessary, I don’t think. I know plenty about him already from his grant application. His name is Aidan Murphy.” It felt nice to finally know that answer when she was asked. Even when she remembered him she didn’t know his last name. They hadn’t exchanged much personal information, including last names, when they spent time together before. She didn’t know it until she looked over his paperwork.
“So did you tell him about Knox?” Lucy asked.
Violet nodded and reached out to grab some spinach dip from the bowl in the middle of the table. She was suddenly more interested in eating than talking but at this rate, the dip would be cold before she got any if she didn’t just dig in. “He figured it out before I got the chance when he saw the baby picture on my desk. That’s when I came clean...”
The girls pestered her for the next hour, asking her to go over every detail of her reunion with Aidan and his first visit with Knox. They gave her a break long enough for everyone to order dinner, but the questions continued as they ate their entrées and ordered another round of drinks.
“Wow,” Harper said as Violet wrapped up her tale. “Did you remember anything else about that week? The time with Aidan was just the last two days before your accident, right? You don’t remember what happened before that?”
“No, not yet.” That had bothered Violet, but she’d been too busy with the situation with Aidan to give it much thought. Something had sent her to Murphy’s Pub looking to drown her sorrows in liquor. She wished she knew what it was. At the same time, one major breakthrough at once was more than enough. It would come to her eventually, she hoped.
“You don’t seem very happy,” Emma noted. “I thought you would be more excited about all this. I mean, you didn’t even tell us about it and it’s been almost a week since it happened. What are you leaving out?”
Violet was hoping they wouldn’t pick up on that, but of course they would. “Maybe I’m just overwhelmed by the whole thing. It’s a lot to take in. Now I have to start the process of sharing Knox with his father when he’s been all mine since the day he was born.”
Harper shook her head. “That’s not it. There’s something else. Have you told your parents about Aidan yet?”
“Heavens no!” Violet exclaimed. “I want Aidan and I to work things out in terms of raising Knox and get it settled with our attorneys before we bring my parents into the situation. You know how they are. Besides, they’re in Dubai right now. Or Qatar. I forget which.”
“I get the feeling it wouldn’t matter if they were at the next table. What are you leaving out? What’s wrong with Aidan? Is he weird? Annoying? A Communist?”
“There’s nothing wrong with him,” Violet argued. “He’s just not what I was expecting. Not the kind of guy I would usually date.”
“The kind of guy you usually date is an asshole. So that’s a good thing, right?” Harper wasn’t holding back tonight.
“Beau wasn’t an asshole,” Violet argued. “We were good on paper. It just didn’t work as well in real life. Aidan is...”
“Poor?” Lucy interjected.
Violet turned to her friend and wished that she could say she was wrong because it sounded so snobby that way. Lucy had grown up with nothing, and until she inherited a fortune from her employer—Harper’s great-aunt—she probably had less than Aidan.
“Poor isn’t exactly how I’d phrase it,” she argued. “He owns his own business, but he’s in a different social circle than I usually date in. I know that sounds horrible, but you all know why I do that! My family is famous and any guy with a computer can Google my net worth without much trouble.”