Chapter Twenty-Two

Now…

“Wow. He looks like shit,” Mitch whispered as he picked up a bowl of seasoned ground beef from Jess’s kitchen counter the following evening.

With a tray of cheese, salsa, and fixings, Jess followed him. “Two bottles of whiskey will do that to a person.”

“I can hear you two,” Trent said from where he slumped on the sofa in Jess’s living room. His head ached from too much alcohol, lack of sleep, and an unrelenting sense of doom. He hadn’t told anyone other than his mother about Eddie, and she was in enough pain over the breakup with Whitney and shock over his fatherhood for the entire family. He wasn’t ready to tell anyone else yet. In time, he would. Baby steps.

“I’m glad you came over tonight, buddy,” Mitch said, a concerned look on his face, which made his cousin swoon at her boyfriend’s thoughtfulness. Jess wore that expression a lot around Mitch.

And while he was happy that she’d finally found “the one,” maybe hanging out with them that evening wasn’t such a great idea. Seeing Jess and Mitch together was torture. For so long, his cousin had been the one watching Trent and Whitney’s relationship with a slight envy for what they had.

Now he was a third wheel with a close-up view of real love.

Trent reached for an empty taco shell and took a bite. The carbs would soak up the alcohol.

Jess sat next to him on one side, and Mitch took the armchair next to her. They had little choice in the seating arrangement as he’d sat on the middle cushion on her sofa, and his overly muscular frame and long legs took up most of the space. He was really good at unintentional cock-blocking. But he just couldn’t deal with seeing the two of them cuddled together right now.

“You two sure you wouldn’t rather watch a comedy or something?” Mitch asked after they’d made their tacos.

“Nah, I’d like to see the photos,” Trent said, more out of politeness than real interest.

They were watching slides of Mitch’s latest trip overseas. He was only going on one short trip a year now that he’d met Jess and had taken over his father’s medical clinic.

But an hour later, Trent was fascinated. And much soberer. “Where were these taken?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the couch, his elbows resting on his knees.

“Cambodia,” Mitch said as photos of an orphanage appeared on the screen.

“None of those kids have homes?” His heart ached as he stared at the happy faces of children who had nothing, not even a real family, and his paternal instinct, which was always really strong, was on full speed ahead these days.

“Unfortunately not. The parents either die or can’t care for them properly, so they end up here. There’s so much overcrowding, though, and there isn’t a ton of resources to help,” Mitch said.

Jess wore a sad expression as she shook her head. “These photos are always the most heartbreaking,” she said, gesturing for Mitch to maybe keep moving forward, knowing that with Trent’s deep love of children, these might be too much to see right now given the circumstances.

She had no idea…

Mitch hit the button to move the slide forward, but Trent said, “Can you go back for a second?”

“Sure.”

Trent stared at the picture for a long moment before asking, “And all these kids—they are looking for homes?” He jotted down the name of the orphanage on his cell phone.

Jess’s eyes narrowed. “Are you thinking about this? You’d consider adopting?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but looking at these little kids kinda makes me want to do something, you know?” He couldn’t quite explain it, but somehow, now knowing that he’d missed out on being a father these last fifteen years had him yearning to be one even more.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” Mitch said. “Just do your research and really be prepared for the challenge. It’s so rewarding, but it’s not easy. These kids leave their homes, everything they know… Some of them have been abandoned by people they love, so it’s scary for them at first, and it takes a while for them to trust.”

Trent nodded and sat back as Mitch continued to flick through the slides, but he couldn’t erase the images of the children from his mind or let go of the thought that maybe the family he’d always wanted may not come in the traditional sense. Maybe it would come a different way.

A messy, complicated, but full of love and good intentions way.

…

As Whitney turned onto Main Street late that evening, she could barely keep her exhausted eyes open. Long hours, getting lost in work, was the only way she was able to dull the ache in her chest and resist the urge to respond to Trent’s attempts to contact her. He said they needed to talk, but she couldn’t do it. Not yet.

She surveyed the local businesses. All the places she’d helped support over the years. All the familiar faces and families. Everyone seemed to have something good—a thriving business, a family, a significant other… Everything good she’d ever had was slipping away through her fingertips, and as she’d desperately grasped to hold on to what she could, she’d let the most important ones fall.

She needed to start rebuilding her life. A new life. The first step was getting healthy, and she’d made her doctor’s appointments for her tests for the available February date. It was a small step but one in the right direction. She’d focus on one thing at a time.

Mayor Rodale still hadn’t said anything about her position, but if she lost it to Scott, she’d figure something out. She had to stop stressing about things that were out of her control.

Her stomach growled, and she pulled into a parking spot near the diner. She hadn’t had much appetite in days, but that evening she was actually hungry. She climbed out and headed toward the front door but paused as her gaze landed on a couple sitting in a booth near the window. Tall, thick guy with his back to her and Angel. Hand in hand, they looked lost in each other as they laughed and talked. She couldn’t be certain because of her sight, but her gut told her the man was Trent.

Her heart raced, and the lump in her throat refused to go down. She’d seen them together in the bar, so this sighting shouldn’t be inducing this thick anxiety in her chest. It wasn’t a surprise that the two of them might find each other. Angel was everything she wasn’t. She could give Trent everything he wanted. He’d immediately move into a stepdad role for Angel’s kids. Hell, he’d already gotten close to the boys.

This would happen all the time. They lived in a small town. There’d be no way of avoiding running into them together.

“Going in?” a man asked behind her as she stood frozen in place, blocking the entrance.

“Oh…no,” she said, moving quickly out of the way to let the man enter.

Through the window, her gaze met Angel’s, and her pulse pounded even harder as recognition dawned on Angel’s face. Whitney saw the other woman stand, and she quickly headed back toward her car.

“Whitney! Hey, Whitney, please wait,” Angel’s voice called behind her.

She desperately wanted to run away. Get as far from the woman and this awkward situation as possible, but she couldn’t run forever, and this conversation needed to happen sometime if they were all ever going to be able to move forward.

She turned slowly and clenched her trembling hands.

“Hi. Thanks for stopping,” Angel said, coming up to her. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about the other night.”

Whitney shook her head. “It’s none of my business.” She’d broken things off with Trent. She was the villain in this story. What right did she have to be upset that he may have already started to move on? Or that Angel had seen an opportunity to move in? They were both single people, and they were entitled to be together if that’s what they wanted.

“It wasn’t what it looked like,” Angel said with a remorseful look. “My ex showed up, and Trent was defending me…”

“That’s Trent,” she said awkwardly, glancing at him still sitting in the booth in the diner. Hearing about how he was Angel’s knight in shining armor hardly made her feel any better. And if he’d wanted to talk to Whitney, he certainly didn’t seem like he wanted to in this moment. “I should go.”

“Whitney, I really am sorry,” she said and paused. “Trent’s really broken up about this. He misses you, and he loves you.”

Whitney stared at the ground. This wasn’t a discussion she wanted to have with anyone right now. Especially not Angel. The other woman could say what she wanted, but Whitney knew before long, Trent and Angel would be together. If they really weren’t already. They’d looked awfully cozy in the diner together. “I’m sure he’ll get over it and move on with his new life,” she said, turning to leave.

“We haven’t even figured out what to do about him being Eddie’s father yet,” Angel said.

Whitney froze.

Eddie’s father.

The words echoed in her brain, but they seemed far away, as though in a dream. Trent was Eddie’s father? What the hell was going on? Had he known? Had he been keeping this from her? She’d been feeling so guilty for not telling him about her illness…and he was keeping something so important, so life-changing from her?

Trent was a father?

Her mind raced, and her pulse pounded. It made sense now that he and Angel shared a connection, but the thought had never crossed her mind it would be something like this.

Angel gasped slightly. “Oh my God, you didn’t know. He didn’t tell you.”

She had to get away. She had to put some distance between herself and this truth she wasn’t ready to face. She turned quickly and headed toward the car.

“Whitney, wait! Please!”

She kept going.

She heard the woman sigh behind her, but she kept walking, her appetite suddenly gone again. Reaching the car, she climbed in, and her gaze involuntarily drifted toward the diner as she backed out of the parking spot.

And her heart stopped.

It was Max with Angel. Not Trent. The other man was now standing on the sidewalk, his arm draped across Angel’s shoulders as he ushered her back inside.

Max. Not Trent.

But either way, Trent was the father of Angel’s son.