of a few words. She never even tried to track me down, and she’s been in LA for years. Years!”
“Now don’t go laying this all at her feet,” Alice said, poking her head around the corner into the kitchen. “Sounds to me as if every part of that story was just as much of a surprise to her as it was to you.”
Thrett glared at Alice for eavesdropping as she sauntered over to the coffee maker to pour herself a cup, but he dropped his gaze when he noticed Charlie watching him.
“I suppose,” he mumbled, hating to admit it. “But why didn’t she tell me when we first saw each other again at the school the other day? There’s no excuse for keeping it from me like that.”
Alice leaned back against the counter and surveyed him as she took a sip. “Look at it from her perspective, dear. She’s spent nearly a decade being a single mom, which I’m sure you can guess isn’t easy. Then the mysterious baby daddy, who she never thought she’d see again, shows up out of thin air? You can bet your buttons her world was rocked. If it were me, I’d be scared to death.”
“Scared? Why the hell would she be scared?” he demanded, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
Alice chuckled humorlessly. “A mother’s instinct is to protect her child at any cost. She doesn’t know you. She didn’t even know you were a dragon when she spent the night with you. Now you just show up? Me, I’d be worried that a powerful shifter such as yourself might try to take my baby away from me. But even if that thought never crossed her mind, your sudden appearance will change everything. That alone is frightening enough to want to take some time to figure out the best way to tell you. After all, it’s been eight long years. What’s a few more days?”
Thrett winced. He’d never considered how all of this would affect her life, only how it would affect his. What an ass!
“So what should I do?” he asked Charlie.
“What do you want to do?” Charlie shot back.
“If I knew that, I probably would have gotten some sleep last night instead of driving all over the damn city.”
Charlie rose to pour himself another cup and kiss Alice on the cheek. Then he returned to his seat and leveled a hard look on Thrett.
“Nothing is more important than family, Thrett. Nothing. They always come first, whether they’re the ones you were born with or,” he smiled at Alice, “the ones you choose. And that’s about all the advice I can give before six in the morning.”
Thrett lifted the mug to his lips but his stomach rebelled and he set it back down. Alice brightened.
“If you’re not in the mood for coffee, I have some wonderful kombucha I brewed myself.”
Thrett shot Charlie a worried look and drained his mug.
Chapter Seven
Despite a terrible night’s sleep, the morning was full of promise as Rylan sat in a local park watching Trystin play. The sky above was the faultless robin’s egg blue color that promised long hours of sunlight. It was such a gorgeous Saturday, in fact, that it was a minor miracle the local park wasn’t completely overrun with people trying to soak up the rays with their kids. Trystin had plenty of room to run around and play without having to wait in line at the swings or the slide. By all accounts, the day should have had her smiling, but one dark cloud continued to hover directly over her head.
She’d brought Trystin in hope of shaking herself out of her gloomy mood. Treating the blues with sunshine usually did the trick for her—a quick visit to a park or maybe the beach just to watch her son play in that carefree way only kids could manage—but it wasn’t even scratching the surface today. Of course, it didn’t help that the trick he was trying to perform reminded her of the reason for her funk.
As he puffed out his cheeks and strained to get his nubby wings to unfurl, Rylan called out to him and shook her head. Too many humans around. A seven-year-old boy suddenly sprouting wings might attract some unwanted attention. He nodded his understanding and climbed up the monkey bars like all the rest of his companions, having no less fun.
“Sometimes I wish I could reach inside my own head and scoop out certain memories with a melon baller,” Rylan