Still cool as a cucumber, Horse said to me, “The blond chick from Houston.”
I gave a curt nod. This entire experience was absolutely painful.
“Good on ya, man.” Horse smiled. “I liked her. Spirited.” Then he sipped his beer again.
Sarah’s pitch went up a notch as she continued to pump my brothers for information. “Oh my God, is she coming here tonight?”
A whole gaggle of nodding heads.
“He invited her to a family barbecue?”
My brothers continued to be a chorus of bobbing idiots, swinging their heads up and down for comedic effect.
“With Dad?”
“Yes,” I said. “She’s coming here with Dad and you and all these other idiots.” I turned to Kat and Maddie. “You two are fine.” I turned back. “You too, Horse. I’m specifically referring to this trio of idiots right here.” I pointed to my brothers. “Now, can we move on?”
“Oh my goodness,” Sarah exclaimed with a smart-ass tone and her arms wrapped across her chest. “You're in love. My twin, who I’m pretty sure thinks love is a dirty word, has finally succumbed.”
“I don’t think love is... Ugh. Jesus, I’m not in love, okay? I just like her.”
Behind me, Kat cooed, “Oh no, he really is, isn’t he? That’s sooooo cute. Little Cody’s finally got a girlfriend.” Maddie laughed for real this time.
I turned on her. “I take it back. You, go stand with the other idiots.”
Horse cleared his throat. “Not to condemn myself to a life of idiocy here, but there is one piece of this chitchat that I’m still trying to reconcile.”
I sighed and signaled that he should ask his question.
Looking inquisitive, he rubbed his hand through his beard and asked, “How are you a daddy? The Jamison I knew didn’t have a kid.” He shrugged his hands up. “I can think of another way people use the word daddy but that doesn’t seem appropriate to this moment and it certainly doesn’t involve fishing.”
Luke cracked up and sprayed beer all over Sarah who was instantly literally blushing from head to toe.
“Jamison has a son,” I said.
Sarah’s head snapped in my direction. “She does?”
“How old is he?” Horse asked, sounding a little less nonchalant than usual.
“I don’t know, about three?”
“He can’t be three, Cody,” Sarah said.
“Why not?”
“Because she would have been pregnant when we met her,” Sarah said like duh.
“I don’t know,” I snapped like I was being attacked. “Maybe she was.” That seemed unlikely though. Before me, she’d always used protection and she was on the pill.
Sarah’s eyes started racing as she did the math in her head. “I guess she could have been a little pregnant.”
Maddie, who had walked over to cuddle into Luke’s side, asked, “Is there such a thing as a little pregnant?”
“Not for me,” Kat teased. “I know right away.”
Bill's face softened as she spoke, and then he said, “Because of the waterworks.”
“You get emotional?” Maddie asked.
“About literally everything. I cry for the first three months. No milk… crying. Dropped my wallet… crying. Want a sandwich… crying. It’s horrible.”
I was just starting to feel happy that the conversation had turned when Luke said, “When did you meet Jamison?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, three, four years ago.”
“Three and a half. He met her three and a half years ago,” Sarah offered and she looked uncomfortable about it.
Stern, wanting the conversation to end, I said, “All of you stop it. Maybe he’s two.” He was closer to three than two, I was sure of it. I continued. “I didn’t ask his age and he’s not mine. I asked her.”
But did I? I asked about Flynn’s father. And James had said, you know how I was back then. I hadn’t explicitly asked ‘am I Flynn’s father?’ Because in that moment when she walked in the Conway Cafe, the idea that I could be didn’t even occur to me. She would have told me, wouldn’t she?
My father, who, as usual, had refrained from offering his opinion, crossed to us holding a big tray of burgers. He placed the tray down on the picnic table and signaling over our shoulders, said, “Cody’s right, you hooligans best hush up because here she comes.”
I turned to see her. She looked sweet and fresh in a bright-yellow sundress, her hair soft and loose around her shoulders. She was holding Flynn’s little hand, but when he saw me, he broke free and headed in my direction. My father walked past us, approaching James with open arms and a husky welcoming chuckle. He said, “Jamison, I am so excited to meet the girl who’s finally caught my youngest son’s eye.”
She flashed him a full smile, and unwaveringly confident, said, “The feeling is absolutely mutual, sir. I’m quite keen to meet the man behind the guy who’s caught my eye.”
There she went, rhyming for me again. I crouched down to Flynn’s level and he ran straight into my arms, leaping into the air so I had to crush him to my chest. He wrapped his little arms around my neck and said, “Cowboy Cody, I missed you.” Then he leaned back a little and looking into my eyes, said, “Maggie caught a frog today.”
“Yeah?”
“It was dig-us-ting.”
A part of me, a big sappy, needy part, wanted him to be mine.