Andrew, tough? Caleb vaguely recalled slamming him into a locker a time or two. Which, in retrospect, was a bit of a dick move. But hey, that was high school.
“Yeah, so about that help. I have a son.”
“His name is Luke,” Melanie announced as she walked away and entered a living room.
Caleb followed, a monkey still on his hip. “You know him?”
“Duh.” Melanie rolled her eyes. “I babysit him when Renny’s at her day job.”
Jackpot. If anyone could help him understand his son, Melanie could, because asking Renny was out of the question. “Perfect. I need pointers on being a dad.”
Well, that got her gaping. “You mean you’re planning to stay?”
“I think so. Maybe.”
Her dark brows drew into a frown. “Maybe? That’s not good enough. You are either in one hundred percent or you’re out. That boy deserves better than to have his hopes raised, only to have them dashed.”
“What if I swore to do my best?”
“What if I swore to hunt you down and geld you if you hurt my best friend and her son again?” So sweetly said, yet he caught the threatening thread underlying it.
“Deal.” Because if he disappointed Renny, and now his son, Melanie wouldn’t have to hurt him. He’d be dead.
Chapter Six
In her summer frock—bought on a clearance rack for a fraction of its price—Renny stood with Luke on the edge of the picnic currently in full swing behind the Bittech Institute.
I shouldn’t have come.
She hadn’t planned to come, but Melanie—using some kind of alien sixth sense—must have sensed Renny’s plan to back out because she called and played Renny the world’s tiniest violin.
“But you have to come, or I’m liable to go completely nutso on those uptight human wives of the other executives.”
“Have you forgotten? I’m human,” Renny retorted. She hadn’t inherited her father’s shifter gene, but Luke sure had an animal inside. Every now and then, his eyes would flash a vivid green and his irises would slit. What she would do when he shifted into his croc form, she didn’t know. She couldn’t exactly teach him what to do. The one person who could was the one she wanted to avoid.
A man she couldn’t stop thinking about.
After the revelation the night before that Caleb had not even known about Luke, she’d struggled with her emotions. On the one side, she simmered with rage at the knowledge he’d destroyed her letters, and thus ignored their son. But, at the same time, she couldn’t help a spurt of hope. Hope because she’d seen the genuine shock in his eyes when he heard of their son.
And admit it, a part of you has already forgiven him because at least now you know he didn’t intentionally abandon our child.
Rewind and try to remember, though, that he did abandon you.
For that alone, she should never forgive him, and that would probably work a lot better if she could stop obsessing about him.
Her inability to keep him out of her thoughts proved to be the catalyst for her choice. Rather than stay home and deal with all the chores—and let her mind churn over what to do with Caleb—she chose to go to the picnic.
“Get dressed,” she’d told Luke. “We are going on a picnic.” Thing was, now that she was here, she wasn’t sure she’d made the right choice in coming.
While dressed in her nicest, Renny still felt as if she stood out among the other women in their crisp pastel linens with their perfectly coiffed hair. Her flowered summer frock was almost as bad as Melanie’s vivid red strapless summer gown with its high waist and frothy skirt.
A tingling awareness only gave her a second to brace herself before she heard a murmured, “Hey, baby.”
Before Renny could reply, her son reacted, whirling to face Caleb, his little body bristling as he put himself between them. A soft growl rumbled from Luke, and she couldn’t help her mouth rounding into an O of surprise.
“Luke. Stop that.” She almost said, Don’t growl at your father. The sharp nip to her tongue stopped the words in time.
Even if Luke didn’t understand who stood before him, Caleb did, and he sucked in a breath. He looked at her instead of their son, his expression torn, eyes full of panic, his breath coming fast. “So this is…”
“My son, Luke.” No way was she confirming this was Caleb’s son aloud, not with Luke listening. She wondered what Caleb was doing here and what he planned to do next.
Renny certainly never expected him to drop to his haunches and bring himself eye level with their son.
“Hey there, Luke. My name is Caleb.” The big, scarred soldier, who outweighed Luke several times over, held out his hand, anxiety making him tense. Was it her or did his body tremble?
If the moment wasn’t so emotionally charged, it would have made her smile.
No smiles. No softening. She had to remain strong. “What do you think you are doing?” Renny demanded.