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14
LANGSTON
We break camp early in the morning and ride back to my parents’ house to grab some breakfast. Jenni is eerily quiet all morning. Not exactly rude, but not warm either. It’s as though she’s detached from her emotions. Like a bomb is about to go off.
I’m getting the impression that there’s nothing I can say to reassure her. I can’t imagine how much pain she’s been in as she’s been hiding this big secret. She’s only made things worse for herself by not telling anyone. Her parents would probably back off about her getting married. They’d likely allow her to date at her own pace. And maybe she’ll never want to get married.
“That was the funnest campout ever.” Hayden is cheerful and hasn’t seemed to notice that Jenni is more withdrawn than usual.
We’d planned to scare Jenni, but Hayden was asleep by the time I said goodnight to Jenni, and then Ronnie beat us to it. It’s not the first time we’ve pranked Jenni on a campout, so Ronnie has gotten pretty good at it over the years.
“I’m glad you had fun. We’ll have to do it again,” I say. “But there are so many other things we can do together too.” If Amanda would let us get him a tutor, we could do even more of the fun things I have in mind. He could have a much better education traveling the world and seeing different cultures and historical monuments than he would if he were sitting at a desk bored, day after day.
I have the means to give him the best education imaginable, but I have no parental rights. That’s one of the first things that’s going to change. I’ll make a phone call to my lawyer as soon as I get Hayden distracted. Spending time with him these past few days has been better than I could have ever imagined. Amanda says she wants to have split custody with me, but what if we don’t take the time to fill out the correct paperwork, she passes away (heaven forbid), and one of her family members try to swoop in and take Hayden? Everything has to be done by the book. Now that I’ve found this precious son, I’m going to do as much as I can to have him in my life as much as possible.
But I understand that Amanda is a huge part of his life too, and his time with her is limited now, due to her health. I couldn’t imagine if my mom had cancer. She was in a car accident a while back and that was horrible. She just had a hurt leg from it. Things could have been so much worse.
We get to the house, and Hayden runs inside. Amanda is sitting at the table, eating something that looks like French toast, which I’m sure Lidia made for her. Hayden is talking a mile a minute, telling his mom all about Gordon the Ghoul and how Ronnie came and scared Jenni.
“But I wasn’t scared at all! I thought Ronnie was a bear at first. I was a little scared then, but when he started laughing, I stopped feeling afraid.”
“That sounds like Ronnie,” Amanda says. “I saw him again last night. He was asking where you guys had gone because he wanted to see Hayden, but by then it was too late for him to join you all.”
I can’t help but wonder if Ronnie still has feelings for Amanda.
“Well, he did see him a little bit last night, but it was so dark, it wasn’t much of a meeting,” I say.
Jenni is still withdrawn, and we haven’t really gotten a chance to speak since our conversation last night. She loads her plate with Lidia’s French toast and then takes a seat at the table near Amanda. I grab my own plate of food and then join them.
“I’d like Hayden to be able to meet his uncles,” I say. “We have a big race in a couple of weeks. I’d like to bring Hayden to it so he can meet them.”
Mom comes into the room. “Your dad just called. He will be in town tonight, so Hayden can meet him first thing in the morning.”
“What about Kaison and Ariana?” Last I’d heard, they were on a trip to the Maldives.
“They’ll both be at the big race,” Mom says. “Ashton won’t be in town. He’s been dealing with that merger in Singapore. But maybe we could do a video call, and you can have Hayden meet him.”
“What about Brensen? Is he still in Africa?”
“Yes, but if you reach out to him, he might come back home on the plane he keeps there.” Our family has multiple private jets since we’re traveling around the country so often. It makes it much easier to get around since we don’t have to deal with finding plane tickets.
I shoot him a text with a picture of me and Hayden that we took the day we bought the cowboy hats. Brensen texts back.
I’d heard you had a secret kid. It’s crazy how much he looks like you.
I’m guessing Mom told you. Sorry I haven’t reached out yet. I’ve been a little overwhelmed with the whole fatherhood thing.
No worries at all.
I invite him to come back for the race in a couple of weeks, and he agrees to make the arrangements for travel.
For the siblings who haven’t met Hayden yet, I send the picture in our family group chat and get a variety of responses with people saying they want to meet him.
Then we jump on a video call with everyone in the family and I show Hayden off to them. Callie and Weston are so excited they decide to pack up Angel and come over.
When Callie and Weston show up, Angel is toddling around Hayden, and it’s sweet to see his face light up when she approaches him.
“We have an announcement to make,” Weston says with a big grin.