“You’re lying.”
“I am not lying.” Shelby threw Gina a stern look; too bad her flaming cheeks ruined the effect. “Fine, we may have accidentally kissed, but we did not have sex.”
“How does one accidentally kiss? Is that like accidentally getting knocked up?” Gina made a sound that translated into “bullshit.”
“No.” Shelby’s pacing increased with each word. “We were yelling, and then he said he was leaving. And I said no—”
“You said no?”
Shelby sank into the seat across from Gina. “Told you I wasn’t a pushover anymore.”
“Right, because letting the man who left you pregnant and broke get to first base within an hour of reconnecting is such a non-pushover thing to do.” Gina clutched her heart dramatically. “Thank God, you didn’t let him leave.”
“Actually, we rounded second. Now do you want me to finish or not?” Gina circled her hand for Shelby to continue. “He said, ‘Damn you, woman’ and then kissed me. And I mean kissed me.”
“How very caveman of him.” Gina raised a brow. “Was it good?”
“It was phenomenal. Better than I remembered. I think I would have let him . . . you know . . . right there on the counter—”
Gina wiggled her fingers in a grand “big whoop” gesture. “On the counter? Wow, pretty bold for a girl who can’t say sex.”
“Sex. And it was hot.”
“Okay, caveman or not, that is hot.”
Shelby felt her body heat up at the memory and dropped her face into her hands. Up until a moment ago, she had convinced herself that it was no big deal, but now, discussing it with Gina, it seemed all too real. “I know. But then we started arguing, and then Jake came in.”
“So you argued before you got horizontal on the cutting board and after? Wow, that sounds healthy.”
Shelby shrugged. When put that way, it sounded even worse than she had originally thought. They had never argued when they were together. Who was she kidding? Cody was too restrained to even get angry, let alone argue. That side of him had been a complete surprise. And kind of a turn-on.
“You sure know how to pick ’em.” Gina, obviously bored with Shelby’s sex life, pointed to the contract. “Okay, truth time. Why do you want to change the terms of this?”
“Jake needs a dad, and it’s not like he thinks Preston’s his father.”
Shelby had waited months for Cody to come back. Preston, afraid that stress and lack of sleep would end up harming the baby, tracked him down and confronted him. He told Cody to man up and do right by Shelby. Preston came back with a black eye, split lip, and a message for Shelby: Cody never intended on marrying her, and he didn’t want a kid.
Preston had tried to convince her to name him as the father on the birth certificate and give Jake the last name of Van Warren, arguing that then Jacob could qualify for his health insurance, and they wouldn’t have to count on Cody to sign important documents. Although she gave in on the first count, Shelby had been adamant that Jake’s last name would be Tucker.
“Now that he’s met Cody,” Shelby continued, “I want Jake to get the chance to at least know him. And this just states that Cody is Jake’s biological father. Makes the relationship legal. I had hoped that he would take one look at Jake and fall in love with him like I did, then demand to be a part of his life.”
“And?”
Shelby closed her eyes, thinking back to the panicked look on his face when he’d made the connection that Jake was his. It was the same holy-shit look of shock that he’d given her that last night, before he tore out of Austin for destinations unknown.
“And I haven’t seen him all day.”
“You’ve been at work all day,” Gina challenged.
She had, but that was beside the point. “He was in the office all night, and then out of the house this morning before Ms. Luella showed up.”
“Then how do you know he’ll even be there when you get back?”
Shelby swallowed. Looked out the window, at the clock, and then at the photo of Gina’s adorable niece, Sidney, smashing a head of broccoli with a shovel. Anything to avoid looking her friend in the eye.
“Ooh, this must be good.” Gina dropped her feet to the floor and leaned toward Shelby. “Spill or find new counsel.”
Shelby sent her a threatening glare, then lifted her purse and pulled out a blue wire with a black doohickey attached to the end of it. God, this was embarrassing.
“And that would be?”
“The center coil wire to his distributor cap. Ms. Luella helped me disconnect it this morning when Cody took off on his mammoth of a horse. She promised me that all I had to do was reconnect it, and it would run like new, and he’d never know who did it.”
“And what if Cody called Mister and just got a new one?” Shelby had the decency to blush. “Let me guess, Ms. Luella blackmailed, excuse me, I meant to say exploited, Mister’s love for fried food to ensure he was temporarily out.”
“Mister does love his hushpuppies. And peach pie,” Shelby added.
“And apparently Ms. Luella.” Gina grinned and picked up one of the many legal pads from her top drawer, set it on her desk and poised her pen. She jotted down a few notes and then looked up at Shelby. “Before we start, I need to know you understand that you can’t make a man love someone, Shell. Promise me that isn’t what this is about.”
“That’s just it. I think that Cody grew up with such a skewed version of love that he doesn’t know what to do when he experiences it. Love is unpredictable and complicated and makes you feel like you’re spinning out of control. And for a man who’s terrified of losing control, it’s his worst nightmare. So he runs.”
“And you want to stop him from running?”
“Long enough to see what a great kid Jake is. Just because he didn’t want me, doesn’t mean he won’t want his son.”
Shelby expected Gina to pick up her pen and start writing. Instead her friend spared her a look, the same one Shelby had once given her when Gina finally confessed, over two bottles of wine and a bag of pork rinds, that she was in love with Logan. Had been for most of her life.
“And what if he also wants you, Shell?”
Chapter 5
Shelby pulled up the space-themed sheets and brushed a kiss over Jake’s forehead. He’d made it through the first twenty-four hours of his daddy being back in his life. And he seemed to be doing all right, considering.
The reunion wasn’t what she’d hoped for, but it could have been worse. Yeah right. Jake and Cody hadn’t shared the same air since they’d first met. When Jake wasn’t at school,
