Their Secret Baby Bond. Stephanie Dees

chair dozing through life, he was actually participating in it, holding little Levi with a smile on his face. Signs of life, the doctor would’ve said. Latham had nearly given up on ever seeing them again.

      He slipped back into the house to make a pot of coffee.

      A few minutes later, the door opened. Pop came in, still carrying the little boy, talking to Wynn over his shoulder. “If you get Levi some juice, I’ll sit in the rocker with him.”

      “And for you?”

      “I wouldn’t mind a little sip of juice, myself.”

      “Hey, I didn’t know you were here.” Wynn joined Latham in the kitchen. She uncapped a sippy cup and rinsed it in the sink.

      “I just came in, but I didn’t want to interrupt. Pop seems really engaged.”

      “He was really present today. He and Levi hit it off, so I think that helped.” She poured juice into the cup and capped it before pulling another plastic cup out of the cabinet and filling it with juice also.

      A second after she’d taken the cups into the family room, she motioned for Latham to join her. He peeked around the corner and saw Pop sound asleep in the recliner with Levi asleep on his chest, one small pudgy arm wrapped around Pop’s neck.

      “I’ll just put these in the fridge for later.” Wynn’s smile lingered as she walked back into the kitchen.

      “Join me for a cup of coffee? It’s decaf this time of day.”

      “Sure.”

      As he poured the coffee, he laughed. “I was thinking the other day about the time you hid under Ash’s bed and tickled his face with a feather every time he started to drift off. Joe and I were watching through a crack in the door and finally woke him up because we were laughing so hard. You were an evil genius.”

      “Me? What about the time you and Joe set off the smoke alarm with a cigarette and blasted Ash with a Super Soaker when he came running out of his room?”

      He slid the mug in front of her. “One hundred percent Joe’s idea.”

      “Whose idea was it to hide Jules’s cat in the dishwasher?”

      Latham choked on his coffee. “I had no part in that!”

      “Me, either.” She crossed her heart in the air and took a tentative sip of coffee. “We had some fun times, though.”

      “We really did.”

      “I had such an awful crush on you that I could barely stammer. It made me so mad because when have I ever not been able to speak my mind?”

      He was quiet, spinning the mug in slow circles. “Why’d you come back, Wynn? Ever since high school, all you could talk about was leaving. Why come home now?”

      The coffee burned in her throat, the question she’d been dreading hanging in the air. Latham’s house was cozy, the fire burning low in the family room, the lights glowing warm against the gray winter afternoon sky. She longed to stay right here in this moment, before she answered the question he asked.

      “It’s okay, Wynn,” he said, gently. “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine.”

      She looked up from the black coffee and into his face. His eyes on hers were warm and safe, like his home, like him... They lingered on hers with a hint of curiosity but mostly understanding. The thing she hated the most was to see that look fade from his eyes.

      Unblinking, she blurted. “I’m pregnant.”

      A horn honked outside. Levi woke up with a start, wailing in Pop’s arms. Wynn hurried into the family room to pick up the little boy.

      Jordan blew into the house like a whirlwind, Levi diving into her arms. They were gone almost as quickly as she came, Wynn swept along with them, stopping only long enough to grab her keys from the counter and send Latham an apologetic look.

      Following Jordan’s dust trail down the long driveway, Wynn took in a deep breath, her window down, letting in the bracing January-cold air.

      A person who wasn’t a coward would’ve stayed for the conversation. But Wynn had seen the shocked expression on Latham’s face when she told him she was pregnant.

      She didn’t need to hear the disappointment in his voice.