“You’re right,” I said, thinking it over.
“Come on, I have some tea made,” Amy said, taking me in hand.
Cream tea always reminded me of Kingsley. It was sort of his thing. I chalked it up to his British heritage. The first of his clan set foot on American soil soon after the revolution after the gun smoke cleared.
Apparently, they were anti-royalists no more thrilled with the king than the patriots. They were looking for a place where they could be taken on their merits as opposed to solely the circumstances of their birth. Kingsley himself had been named after a British novelist.
“Do you think I should tell him face to face or one the phone?” I asked.
“Oh, phone, I think. It is a bit more distant that way. It might seem like it should be the opposite, but trust me, the distance will help him process. If you are right there in front of him, especially if you bring Matt, the shock might be too much for him to take and he could end up saying something he’ll later regret. People usually do when under stress.”
“How did you get to be so smart?” I asked.
“I read a lot,” Amy said with a shrug, “if you want, there is a protection spell I could give you.”
“Will that work over the phone?”
“It should. It is more about you than him. Most magick is individual anyway.”
“Does it work?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
“Like a charm,” Amy said, as serious as I had ever seen her.
“Kingsley would say like a clock. You know like clockwork. He doesn’t actually think that charms work.”
“He has a very limited and literalist view of things,” Amy pointed out, without a trace of malice.
“Too true, but I love him anyway.”
“I know you do, darlin’.”
Amy let me use her phone. I had forgotten to pay the plan on mine and didn’t want to have to go hunting for a phone card before I could make the most important call of my life. It seemed tacky somehow.
“Hello, Kingsley Marten here.”
I flinched, my pussy getting unbearably wet. Even over the phone he had power over me. I had to pull myself together.
“H-hi, Kingsley,” I said.
“Ada?”
“Yeah, I-I’m calling from Ada’s. I mean Amy’s, I’m calling from Amy’s.”
“What are you doing there? Is something wrong.”
“No, not at all. Well, maybe it all depends.”
“On what?”
“On how you react,” I said, making myself cringe.
“Ada, what is happening?”
“It happened a while ago actually. Remember that trip we took up to West Point on the 4th of July when we, er, couldn’t wait.”
“Yeah, of course – oh.”
“Yeah, I kinda got pregnant. You have a son, Kingsley, his name is Matt. He is so much like you it is actually kind of spooky. I was going to tell you at the time, but you had already gone overseas, and we were broken up anyway. I figured it was just better to leave it.
“I am telling you now because we are back together. At least it feels like we are. Like the time away meant nothing. Nothing serious. Just a little break in the grand scheme of things. Now we are back together, and everything is fine, right?”
You could have driven a truck through the ensuing silence. Were it not for the sound of him breathing, I would have thought he had hung up. Finally, the words came. Not what I wanted to hear, which went along the lines of ‘That’s wonderful news! I want to bring you and Matt to live with me and get married immediately!’
He didn’t say that, nor did I particularly expect him to. That was wishful thinking at best. But it also wasn’t the worst thing I could possibly hear under the circumstances.
“I-I have to think.”
“What did he say?” Amy inquired.
“That he has to think,” I said, hanging the phone back up.
“Well, that’s a result.”
“I guess,” I said, flopping back into the chair.
“Guess nothing, it is good.”
“It’s good that my newly rediscovered relationship is over?”
“Poppycock. Give him a day or two. He’ll come around.”
I sipped my tea meditatively and focused my mind on happy thoughts, just hoping that Amy was right.
Chapter Twelve - Kingsley
It was a shock to say the least. Everything I had ever wanted. A woman I loved with a son of our own was right there the whole time. Well, most of the time. I didn’t blame her, not really. I was angry of course, but there was less anger at her for not telling me than at myself for putting her in a position in which she thought she couldn’t.
No one knows how they would react in a situation that hasn’t happened, but I liked to think I would have stayed involved in Matt’s life at least by way of child-support and visiting even if Ada and I never got back together again.