His Surprise Baby - His Secret Baby

"Kora Evans, from your school? Pretty girl, kinda curvy, bright red hair?"

"Wow, if you had to give a description to a sketch artist the guy would be caught in a day," I said.

"I do my best. What about her?"

"We, er, made contact recently," I said.

"In the, um, biblical sense?" dad asked, the southern gentleman not fully pulled out of him yet.

"Yeah, well, to be accurate it was Kristen who made first contact. It was an accident, as I understand it. Kristen just sort of walked in to where Kora worked and they seem to have struck things up again. Kristen, bless her heart, more or less ambushed us by inviting both Kora and me to a dinner party without telling us."

"And awkwardness ensued?" dad guessed.

"Surprisingly no. We kind of flirted. It was a bit acid tinged but mostly friendly. I really thought she would throw some wine at me and storm off and I wouldn't blame her if she did."

"Is there something I should know?" dad asked.

It was even less comfortable talking about sex with dad than with Kristen, but I figured it couldn't hurt. I needed to talk to someone and neither Kora nor Kristen were available right then. And Kora might not ever be available for me again.

"There was a misunderstanding, a couple misunderstandings, when we were all younger that left both Kora and me with hurt feelings and bruised egos and made Kora and Kristen drift apart. Mixed signals, let's say, but when we saw each other again, Kora and me that is, not Kristen and me; this isn't a John Ford play."

"Who?" Dad interrupted.

"Playwright? Writing around the same time as Shakespeare. Wrote 'Tis Pity She's

a - never mind. We just didn't seem to be able to keep away from each other. Texting, calling, a date and, well, relations, all within a day. I thought it would be one time thing. Sort of satisfying our curiosity. Finally doing what had never happened before. Then it happened again, sort of out of the blue. Both times she left before breakfast. Before daybreak, actually. And then, with nothing particular seeming to change, she did. Stay the night, that is. Now she won't talk to me. Though she and Kristen seem to still be friends."

"That makes sense. In my experience women tend to form a different sort of bond with each other."

"Make sense," I said.

At first it sounded a bit sexist, but he wasn't wrong. I had noticed how sad Kora's absence had made Kristen. As much as I had wanted to be in contact with Kora during all those years we weren’t, I was also somewhat aware that it was our failed attempt at a relationship that had pushed Kristen and her apart in the first place. At least I suspected it was. Brother's intuition and all that.

"I remember Kora being a really sweet girl," dad said.

"She is," I admitted, mostly to myself.

"I'm glad Kristen is friends with her again."

"She does seem happier now," I said.

"Good friends can be hard to find," dad said.

I figured he would know as well as anyone.

"Don't I know it," I said.

I wasn't still in contact with any from my "friends" from high school or even college, when I managed to balance a bit more and go out a bit. Most of them were really just hang a rounds. Probably hoping some of my popularity would rub off on them.

There was really no one I trusted, except for Kristen of course. I didn't realize it at the time but in a lot of ways, though she was pretty young, she was there for me when things got dark. It was morbid to think, but if I was really honest with myself, it was unlikely I would still be alive if it weren't for her.

"Sometimes, when things are complex, it is best to leave them in the past," dad said.

"Yeah," I said, feeling a weight in my chest.

Dad and I may be talking now, trying to patch things up, but that is something he would also never be able to do with grandpa. I really was in awe of his strength and determination to keep going.

"Best not to risk things for your sister," dad said.

"You’re right," I agreed.

"Haven't heard that in a while," dad said with a chuckle.

"Well, you're going to be hearing it a lot more. I mean, you did run the business for nearly twenty years. That gives you what? Sixteen years more experience than me?"

"Fourteen, but who’s counting?" Dad said, good humored as usual.

"Right, well, the point is, I'm mostly going to be the captain of the ship. I learned a lot but I also know enough to defer to those with more experience."

"Good to know," dad said.

"Kristen should get a say-so, though, too. I gave her a lot more shares of the business than Grandpa had left her. Honestly, I think she was kind of short-changed in that respect. Yeah, she got the nice stuff but she worked on the sailing business too. Sure, she's not working anymore but she should get something."