He couldn't tell him that, but he had to tell him something.
With a sigh, he pushed up off the couch. "Come on. Let's go make French toast."
Eli's eyes actually went wide. "Oh, God. Am I in trouble?"
Tyree chuckled as he looked over his shoulder at the kid. "What? No. Why?"
"We only have French toast when we need to have a talk. I know about sex, Dad. I'm all good."
Tyree grimaced. "Do you need to get to the hospital this morning?"
"Nope. I'm staying over at Jeremy's lake house until Saturday, remember? It's got this amazing room with a big ass TV, and we're going to kick back and play Overwatch."
"That video game?" Tyree asked, and then continued at Eli's nod, "Sounds like one hell of a good time. I won't keep you long. And you're not in trouble."
"Okay," Eli said, but he sounded dubious. "I'll get out the bread."
Apparently they'd had quite a few talks over the years because Eli pitched in with the cooking without any instruction from Tyree, and soon enough breakfast was on the table. Despite his best intentions, Tyree hadn't managed to bring up Eva or Elena. But as soon as he sat down, he knew that he had to. Eli was his boy, and he deserved to know.
"You can just spit it out, you know," Eli said, a sticky piece of French toast on the end of his fork. "Unless you were lying and I really am in trouble, in which case take all the time you want."
Good God, was it any wonder he loved the kid?
"I dated a woman before I met your mom," Tyree said.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I kinda assumed."
"She's in town."
"That's totally cool. I mean, I get the whole sex thing. It's been like a long time for you, huh, Dad?"
Tyree almost spit out the orange juice he'd just sipped to wet his damn mouth.
"Christ, Eli."
"What?" He stirred a piece of bread in a pool of syrup. "I thought you were going to tell me you wanted to see the lady."
A knot twisted in Tyree's stomach, because maybe he did. But that wasn't something he needed to think about now.
He took a deep breath. "I just found out she has a daughter."
Eli's eyes never left his face. "Oh. Oh, wow." The boy
leaned back, considering that. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Well, like, she's yours right? 'Cause why tell me?"
"Yeah." He felt pride swell as he thought about Elena, a remarkable young woman for whom he'd had the tiniest bit of responsibility in creating. "Yeah, she's mine."
"Like I said, okay."
"I'd like to get to know her," Tyree added. "And I--I hope you're okay with that. That you'll get to know her, too."
Eli finished off his French toast. "Well, yeah. 'Course I am. She's your kid. And she's my sister."
"Half-sister."