The Black Sheep's Secret Child

Savannah made no move to invite him in. “What are you doing here?”

“I went to New York to visit my mother. She wanted to send you something congratulating you on your new role. I offered to deliver it myself.”

“Why would you bother?”

He ignored her blun

t question. “Can I come in?”

Reluctantly she stepped back and made a sweeping gesture with her arm. Once Trent and his enormous plant were inside, she put the bowl back on the entry table and closed her front door. Trent looked around the snug living room for a place to set down his burden.

“You don’t have a lot of room.”

Stunned by his criticism, she crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s only Dylan and me. We don’t need a lot of space.” That said, she stared at him.

“How about if I put it here for now.” He set it on the breakfast bar, well out of reach of Dylan’s grasp. “I like his dragon costume.”

“He’s dressed up for Halloween.”

“Are you taking him trick-or-treating?”

“We went to the mall yesterday for a Halloween event. Tonight I thought we’d stay home and hand out candy.”

“Sounds like fun. Do you want some company?”

She couldn’t believe he was standing in her living room, acting as if he didn’t wish she’d never come back into his life. Should she confront him on what she had overheard? Her grandmother had often said that those who eavesdrop shouldn’t expect to hear good things said about themselves.

“While I appreciate whatever this is you’re attempting to do,” she began in a severe tone, her broken heart jabbing at her ribs with each breath, “I can’t have you popping into and out of our lives anytime you want. I grew up being shuffled between my father and grandmother, and that’s not what I want for Dylan. He deserves stability and consistency.”

“Is that your way of saying that you don’t want me to be part of his life?”

His audacity left her dumbfounded. “Last week you wished you’d never learned the truth.”

“I never told you that.”

“I overheard you talking to Melody.” Savannah’s voice broke. “You don’t want to be a father. I get it. Why do you think I didn’t tell you in the first place?”

“I was upset. I should never have said that.”

“But it’s what you felt.” And as much as the truth had hurt, she preferred it to the lies Rafe had told her.

“Only for a brief moment. You caught me off guard. All I could think was that you’d kept a huge secret from me, and I couldn’t accept that you had your reasons for doing so.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away. I never should have listened to Rafe.”

“He told you to keep the truth about Dylan from me?”

“He explained to me about that girl in college.” When Trent stared at her blankly, Savannah continued, “The one who got pregnant. You helped her take care of it?”

At last comprehension dawned. “Lisa Wheeler. What does that have to do with our situation?”

“You didn’t want to be a father then any more than you do now.”

“Wait.” Trent raised his hands in a stop gesture. “I didn’t get Lisa pregnant. I just helped her. She was a friend. She helped me get a B in a poetry class. We never even dated. She’d been raped and was severely traumatized. I tried to get her to go to the police, but she was from a conservative family and didn’t want them to know.”

“But why would Rafe...” Savannah’s stomach turned over. “He lied to me.” And why not. Rafe had deceived her several times before that.

“I had no idea your opinion of me was so low.” Trent’s lips twitched into a sardonic line.