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“My aunt lived here,” I explain as I nervously shift my weight from one foot to the other. “She passed away a few months agoand left her estate to me. I’m staying here until the house is ready to sell.”

His eyes are trained on mine, slowly nodding as he takes in my words. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he says with an apology hanging in his tone. Sadness washing over his eyes before it vanishes quicker than it came. “As tragic as it is, I’m glad it brought you back to Aston. I wasn’t sure I’d run into you again.”

Heat creeps up my neck, blooming across my face as my mind is momentarily thrust back in time, back to that night with him in the club. “You’re a hard man to track down.”

The corners of his mouth twitch, his head cocking to the side. “You tried?”

Shit.

My throat bobs as I swallow over a dry lump, not sure what the heck I’m supposed to say. Is this the moment when I spill the truth? Where I tell him that I got pregnant that night and he has a five year old son? I can’t tell if he’s actually connected the dots or if he just had a second of doubt, where he questioned the possibility but ultimately waved it away because it’s a terrifying possibility.

“I did,” I admit, my voice soft so little ears don’t hear as I glance at Matteo then back at Carson. “A few months after we saw each other.”

Eyes cemented on mine slowly widen, his body becomes rigid. Shades of dark and light gray swirl in his irises as his drag back and forth between mine, almost as if he’s searching for an answer. “If—” He pauses, his brows knitted with frustration as he lets out a breath. “We were together around the?—”

He pauses again. I can’t tell if it’s frustration or torment written in his expression now, but this is the exact moment I’ve been dreading. This is him fitting the pieces together and doing the math. Despite his gaze locked on mine, his eyes are distant, like he’s looking right through me.

I watch in real time as he thinks back on the night we were together. As he figures out how long ago that was versus how old Matteo told him he is. I’m not sure how much he knows about how pregnancy works and when due dates are calculated, but his eyes begin to focus on mine again, as if he’s being drawn back into the current moment.

“This might be a wild question to ask.” He pauses again, his brow furrows, a crease appears between them. His chest expands as he sucks in a deep breath, a shaky sound escaping him as he blows it back out. “Is he mine?”

There it is.

The question that holds a weight he doesn’t even know about. A weight I’ve been carrying around on my chest for the past six years since finding out I was pregnant and having no way to get in touch with Carson.

I need to be honest with him. He deserves to know the truth. Yet with that truth comes a lot of unknowns. A lot of scary things that I’m not so sure I’m ready to deal with yet. There are repercussions to every single one of our actions and this is the moment everything has led us to.

I’m a true believer in fate, yet I’m not sure how I feel about this chance encounter. This is what was meant to happen. This is how we were supposed to find each other again. This is how Carson Ford finds out he has a son he never knew about.

“Yes.”

Our surroundings completely fade away. Carson doesn’t move. He doesn’t make a sound. His expression is fucking frozen and I can’t help but wonder if I just broke him. He stares at me, his eyes not once leaving mine. I’m not so sure he even blinks.

“How do you know?”

I glance down at Matteo, who is completely oblivious to what’s happening around him. I’m thankful for that becausenormally he would be fully engaged in the conversation, absorbing every single word like a little sponge.

“The timeline of everything,” I tell him, keeping my voice low. “I hadn’t been with anyone else around the same time and there was no one else after.”

His eyes narrow on mine, his eyebrows lowering. “What about your ex?”

I’m shocked he even remembers that part of the equation. When I met Carson, I had just found out about my ex’s engagement announcement. Maybe he has it all confused and thought I was with him around the same time. “We were broken up for close to a year when I met you.” I pause, tilting my head to the side. “I hadn’t been with him since then.”

The muscle in Carson’s jaw twitches, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows hard. His expression relaxes, but only enough to let the torment completely consume his features. Lifting a hand, he rakes it through his hair, partially tugging on his tousled locks as he tips his head back. His eyelids flutter shut, his black lashes grazing the tops of his cheek bones as he lets out a ragged breath.Why do men also get the perfect long lashes?

He straightens his spine, his head flips back upright as his eyes pop open again. “Fuck.”

I stare back at him, not sure of what to say because I think he just covered everything with that very valid response. Fuck is right.

“Why didn’t you come back to Aston? Why didn’t you come find me and tell me?”

My heart stalls in my chest, a familiar guilt washing over me as he fires the questions at me, one right after the other. Swiveling my head, I glance around, realizing we’re no longer the only ones in this aisle. “Can we not do this here?”

“Then where would you like to do this, Andi?” His voice is gruff, anger weaving itself through his words. “I’m sorry,” hemutters, shaking his head as he drops his gaze down to the floor for a beat. “This is just...it’s just—” His tongue darts out to wet his lips, his eyes filled with pain and conflict as they meet mine again. “It’s a lot to process” He shrugs, giving me an apologetic smile. “You know?”

I get it. Maybe not to the same extreme as what he’s feeling right now, but I understand.

“When are you free?”