Hush (Just This Once 1)

“You’re right.” I nod my head in agreement. “The next time I see Evan I’ll ask him about his son.”

I will. I just need to use the time between now and then to figure out how exactly I’ll do that.

***

I feel my cheeks blush as Evan approaches me. He’s dressed in a black suit with a white dress shirt underneath. He’s carrying a bouquet of pink roses in his hand.

I’m not dressed nearly as smartly as he is. I’m still wearing the plain black dress I’ve had on all day. Meeting him for dinner was his idea and since

I had a late meeting, I agreed that seven p.m. at the pasta place was the best I could do.

“You look very handsome,” I say as he stops in front of where I’m standing just inside the door.

The place is busier than the first time I met him here.

He pushes the bouquet at me. “You’re radiant, Chloe. I don’t know how you can be more beautiful each time I see you, but you are.”

I like that he thinks so. I know he’s not just saying it. He believes it.

I follow him and when he pulls out a chair next to a table, I sit. “I’m glad you called me. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

“You can call me whenever you want.” He takes a seat next to me. “If I’m busy it will go straight to voicemail but I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”

I take comfort in that. Once he realizes that he is indeed the father of my child, I’ll need him more. I have no idea what it’s like to go through a pregnancy and then the early days of the child’s life. Evan does. He’s already tackled it all once.

“I’ll remember that.” I place the roses next to me on the table. “Dr. Bergstein said we could do the paternity test once I’m eight weeks along.”

“I know I’m the father.” He places both his hands on the table. “I don’t know why I doubted it. It might have been fear. I’ve been through this before, Chloe.”

“I know,” I admit. “I heard about that.”

My words take him aback. He runs a hand through his hair. “You know about that? There’s no way you can know about that, Chloe.”

“Dr. Bergstein let it slip.” I shrug. “I admit I was surprised but I know now. I think we have to discuss how it will impact both of them.”

He looks right at me, his eyes trained to mine. I see confusion mixed with frustration. “What exactly did Rita let slip?”

“I know you already have a child, Evan,” I say evenly. “I think it’s great. Our baby will have a sibling from the start and I couldn’t be happier about that.”

Chapter 35

Evan

Rita Bergstein has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about.

“I don’t have a child, Chloe.” I point at her. “This baby will be my first child.”

“Are you sure?”

I laugh because I’d know if there was a child of mine out there. At least, I hope I’d know. I keep my dick wrapped up during sex for a reason.

“I don’t have any children,” I continue, because I want her to understand that Rita wasn’t pulling random facts about me out of the air. “About five years ago a woman I spent a night with told me she was pregnant.”

She starts to say something but her mouth slams shut before one word escapes.

I get it. She’s thinking about herself. We spent more than one together but she ended up knocked up because the condom failed during our first night together.

“Her name was Kim.” I hate that fucking name because the woman who owned it put me through hell. “We fucked one time and a month later she tracked me down at the club we met at to tell me that I was going to be a dad.”