“Is that what you want then?”
“It was the only thing that really made me happy in grad school. I thought it would get easier. All the research and papers and such, but it was the classroom that made me happy. I just…thought that was normal.”
“Maybe it was telling you something,” he said, twining my dark hair around his finger.
“Maybe it was,” I whispered. “I’ve never really told anyone that. It was anathema to what everyone thought I should be focusing on in grad school. No one talked about loving the teaching side.”
“Well, I think you should stop caring what they think and follow your heart.”
I glanced over at him. Naked and satisfied on a sheepskin rug with nothing but Jensen Wright in my sight.
“I think I have.”
“You are my heart,” he said. He took my hand up to his lips and kissed each individual knuckle. “And I can’t thank you enough for being here right now through all of this. I know that things haven’t been easy. You could have left at anytime. Yet you are here with me through the hardest moment of my life. No matter what happens, Emery, when I walk out on the other side of this…I want you to be with me. I want you to be mine.”
I touched his face and drew his lips to mine. “I am.”
Thirty-Six
Jensen
Emery and I had spent the last four days in my cabin, locked away from the outside world. As stressed as I was about what was to come, Emery was right. I’d needed to get away and to try not to think about anything for a while. I couldn’t do anything to change the situation while we waited for the test results to come back in. All I could do was stress. So, here we had been, just far enough away for me to relax some.
I was still on edge, but Emery wouldn’t let me stay there. At least not for long.
We were coming down from our morning sex on the fifth day when I got the call.
“Tests are in,” Jake said. “Showtime.”
“Do you know what they say?”
“They’re sealed. We’ll find out at the same time as everyone else. But be prepared.”
I nodded and then hung up the phone. “Time to go.”
Emery stretched out in bed and yawned. Her tits looked amazing in the morning right after I fucked her brains out. “Right now?”
“Test results are in.”
“Fuck,” she said, jolting up. “Let’s go.”
“We have to get everyone together at once before we can go through the sealed paperwork. But we should get over there as soon as possible.”
She jumped out of bed and hurried to clean up the mess that we had made while we were here. Clothes were scattered all across the room, hastily discarded in our den of iniquity. Neither of us had minded. It was easier to let everything go and enjoy how much we fucked than to consider what was coming next.
But, now, that time had come.
We put the place back together in record time and were out of the cabin. It was a quick drive back to Lubbock and to reality.
After this moment, I would definitively know that Colton was Marc’s son. I didn’t know what I would do with that information. It would be up to Vanessa if she wanted to try to change the custody agreement. But this was a day I had been dreading for a long time. A day I’d hoped would never come.
We made it back to my lawyer’s office in good time. He had already spoken to both Vanessa’s and Marc’s lawyers, and we would be reconvening within the hour. I chose to wait. I couldn’t leave, knowing that we had the results waiting. I’d spent years waiting for this moment. I could wait another hour.
Vanessa and Marc showed up separately and warily looked at each other. I wondered what they had done in my time away with Emery. I hoped it had driven them both as crazy as it had me. But they hadn’t had the benefit of amazing sex to forget about it. The way they were looking at each other, I was sure they hadn’t indulged, which made me grin.
“What?” Vanessa snapped.
“Nothing,” I said, purposely glancing between them. “Just had an amusing thought.”
“Your thought was so clear on your face. Maybe turn off the broadcast.”
I shrugged. Of course she could read me. I’d wanted her to.
Jake reappeared a few minutes later with the information in his hands, and everyone took their seats. Marc was jittery. I could tell by the way he kept fiddling with his hands. He’d done that in school, too. Vanessa looked stoic, as if her relationship with her son didn’t depend on this moment. Emery squeezed my leg under the table, and I met her gaze only briefly. I was glad she was here to ground me. I didn’t know what I would look like otherwise.
Rattled and a mess.
Neither of which I ever showed to anyone else anymore.
“Thank you for joining us again on such short notice,” Jake said, beginning the meeting. “We just received the paperwork from the laboratory that did the paternity test. This is the first time any of us will be seeing it.
“As stated before, Ms. Hendricks has claimed that Colton’s father is not her ex-husband, Mr. Wright, but Mr. Tarman instead. This allegation, if true, will begin a change in the custody agreement to potentially allow Mr. Tarman rights to see his son. If the allegation is false, the custody agreement will remain the same unless Mr. Wright or Ms. Hendricks wants to return to court to renegotiate. Is that clear?”
Everyone but Emery said, “Yes,” around the table, anxiously staring at the paperwork.
He bent back the metal brackets holding the envelope secured and then opened it. A stack of papers came out, and on the top, were the results. I held my breath as Jake read through the document. You could have heard a pin drop in the room.
“The paternity test came back positive for…Mr. Wright.” Jake turned to face me with a giant smile on his face. “Jensen, you’re the father. Colton is your son.”
Vanessa exclaimed from across the room, and I heard Marc cuss. But it was all background noise to me. It was like being sealed in a vacuum.
Colton was my son.
He was mine.