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I didn’t get a chance to say anything else to her because the race was about to begin. We all lined up and watched as kids ran laps around the field, and I counted each of the ones I was responsible for while also cheering on Eric. Across the field, Mollie did the same, but she was much more exuberant.
“You’re running at the speed of light, Eric! You got this!” she yelled. It only egged him on, and though I wasn’t counting his directly, I saw him lap most of the kids.
“You would be a nightmare at any sports event,” I said after the race had ended.
“You can say it how it is.” She turned to me. “I’m a nightmare everywhere.”
The sun made her hair more golden, and her eyes were bright, despite how exhausted she must have been.
She wasn’t a nightmare. She was a fucking dream.
“Let’s go with that,” I said.
She smiled at me, but then it faded. Her hand reached for my arm. “We have a problem.”
I turned to see someone else walking up to the field. Someone I didn’t want to see.
I hadn’t recently considered the man who was suing me for custody of Eric, mostly because I was busy thinking about how I was going to stop him. I didn’t think I would see him again until the court proceedings had started.
Obviously, I was wrong.
We both headed in his direction at the same time.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to see my kid,” he said coolly. “My girl is here too.”
He gestured to a woman who couldn’t have been any older than twenty-four. She was looking around eagerly, as if she had no idea what an imposition this was.
“How did you even know this was a thing?” Mollie asked.
“I’m hisdad,”Waldren said. “Of course I know everything going on with my son.”
“And here I thought Waldren was a playboy.” The girlfriend looked up at him adoringly. “Apparently he raised a son by himself?”
He raised?
Absolutely not.
“You don’t even know him,” I snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“And it’s authorized visitors only,” Mollie hissed.
People were glancing at us, and if Waldren walked away now, then it was possible that no one would know what was going on.
The last thing I needed was the whole town figuring it out. Their opinions of it would only make this worse.
“He’s my son.”
“The one you’re suing over. I raised him. And he’s never even met you.”
“Wh-what?” the woman asked, eyes wide.
“Word of advice, woman to woman,” Mollie started. “Find a new man.”
“But he said?—”
“He lied.”