She just couldn’t let it drop. “Yeah?”
Her volume dropped, and suddenly she was discreet. “I know it ain’t none of my business, but if you ain’t sure about who yo baby daddy is, we can do a test. Just bring that fine-ass man back in here, and I’ll do it up right.” She winked, and I knew she was trying to help. Then, she grabbed a pamphlet from a dozen different colored papers crowding the wall. “This is about blood types. Yours is easy to figure out. Your girl has O and you have A, so the daddy has to have O. It’s that simple.”
I thanked her and took the pamphlet, slowly making my way back to the waiting room as I looked at it. I wanted to get back in to see Georgia as soon as she woke up, but nurse Karla’s words haunted me.
Was there really a chance that Jake was Georgia’s father?
More importantly, did it really matter anymore?
I slid down next to Jake. He had his head back on the cushion, but he put his arm around me and pulled me close. “You did better than I did, Bee.” He handed me a cup of coffee from the table. It was exactly what I needed.
I had one question in my head, just one little question, and I could put all of this behind me.
“Bethany?” I asked.
“Yeah, sugar?” She put down her magazine and took off her reading glasses.
Then I asked her the question I almost didn’t want to know the answer to. There was only a small chance... was it really worth me breaking my heart all over again?
“Do you know Owen’s blood type?” I glanced at Jake as he tensed beside me, though Bethany didn’t seem to notice.
She thought for a second.
Please be anything other than O, please not O.
“He’s either A or AB. I always get them confused. Why?”
“He’s not O?”
“Not that I know. There are no O-types in the family at all, actually,” she said. “Why are you asking this, Abby?” She turned her attention to the hallway where I’d just come from. “What happened in there?”
Jake was as eager to hear my answer as she was. “Because, Bethany,” I smiled and took Jake’s hands in mine, “Owen’s not Georgia’s father, after all.” Once I said it, he smiled, too – genuine happiness on his face.
I just smiled back and gazed into those beautiful teary pools of sapphire blue
The eyes of my daughter’s father.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
GEORGIA WAS SLEEPING PEACEFULLY in her room after a six-day stay in the hospital. We had brought her home just a few hours earlier. During the day, I’d watched Jake’s eyes darken as the sun faded into the horizon, and I knew he was preparing himself for what he needed to do.
I had no intentions of stopping him.
I sat on the seawall, my legs dangling over the edge, staring into the darkness. The sun had set hours ago. A blanket of stars lit up the sky. Jake sat next to me with his arm around my waist, holding me close. I could live in the strength of his arms.
“She’s okay,” he whispered. I had a feeling he was reassuring himself as much as he was me.
“We’re all going to be okay,” I said. For the first time in my entire life, I believed it. “I need to move, though. I got a letter in the mail from the property management company. It said something about the investor deciding to use the house for himself personally. I have thirty days. I didn’t even know they could do that. I guess I should have read the lease more carefully. You want to take him out?”
“It depends,” he said, smiling down at me.
“Oh, I thought this was a ‘no questions asked’ kind-of request, but I’ll bite. What does it depend on?”
“On whether or not you want me to kill myself.” He handed me a white envelope with a cashier’s check inside for nine-thousand six-hundred dollars. “It’s all the rent money you’ve paid.”
It all clicked. “You’re the investor. You bought Nan’s house.” It wasn’t a question. “When did you do this?”
“I knew the bank had to sell it at some point so I kept an eye on it. I made my bid before I’d even left town. Figured you’d want to keep it no matter where we ended up going. It took those money fucks almost a year to accept my offer, and almost as long to close the damn thing. When it was finally mine, I had it all fixed up for you. Then, I realized you probably wouldn’t have accepted it from me as a gift after what I’d done.”
He was right. “Nope. I certainly wouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t even know about Georgia then, or I would’ve put some cool kid shit in here, too.” He kissed me on the nose and continued. “I made sure I had personal approval of the new tenants. I had only two flyers made—one they posted in the window of the office, and the other I was going to have Reggie give to you personally. You were so quick to sign the lease that I never had to go with Plan B.”