Hooking - Kristine Allen Page 0,71
make sure everything was okay with you. Now I kind of wish I’d stayed away. I’ll call you as soon as I hear anything about an agency and the paternity test. Alex, you’re a good kid, but you need to clean up your act. You know you’re not supposed to fraternize with franchise employees. Syd likes her job, and she shouldn’t lose it because of you.”
“I agree. But as our team attorney, I’d have thought you’d know there’s no hard and fast rule that says that. Sydney isn’t an ice girl. Those are the only ones that are absolutely forbidden. It’s not my fault the franchise didn’t get specific with the other employees.” My argument was valid, but I knew I was poking the bear.
When his nostrils flared, I knew I was right, yet still couldn’t find it in me to be remorseful. He pointed a finger toward me. “Don’t play fuck-fuck with me, Kosinski. I promise you, I know the game better than you do.”
He left, and there was a momentary silence as Mattie, Coop, and I stood there.
“Syd is really his niece?” Cooper finally asked.
“I guess. I don’t know why it never occurred to me. They have the same last name, but I usually just thought of him as Simon.” I sighed heavily.
“Mattie? Can you give us a minute?” Cooper asked, and she nodded, then took the baby to the other room. Growling in frustration, I yanked on my hair.
“Hell, I don’t even know the kid’s name. What the fuck?” I muttered.
“Did you look to see if she gave you any paperwork, or did she just dump him?”
“I tore through the bag she left. It had about five changes of clothes, enough of that formula crap to make one bottle—that as you know didn’t last long—some diapers, and random toys. There was the car seat she left on the front porch, and that’s it.” About dead on my feet, I dropped into a barstool.
Cooper, never one to believe things without seeing for himself, emptied the contents of the bag I’d already searched. He checked every pocket, same as I had. Then he shook the cart seat upside down.
Nothing.
Except, he wasn’t one to stop there. He took the padded lining of the car seat apart too.
Still nothing.
“Told you,” I grumbled.
Then he went back to the bag. “Dude, we both already checked that.”
“I know, but surely she couldn’t have dropped him off with you with nothing. What if he had to go to the doctor?”
“I don’t think she really gave two shits,” I muttered. “For fuck sake, she dropped her own kid off with a perfect stranger and left for goddamn Mexico with some rich fucker.”
“True,” he agreed as he looked over the bag with a fine-tooth comb. As he rolled the empty bag around in his hands, we both heard a crinkling sound. Our eyes met. He went back to the bag.
That’s when he saw a zipper that was almost hidden with the padding that ran along the seam. We’d likely missed hearing the sound of the papers due to Junior Jones crying so much when we both checked the bag before.
After unzipping it, he pulled out what appeared to be a birth certificate and a couple of envelopes. One held a social security card. The baby’s name was Hank Isaac Moore.
“Who the fuck names a cute little baby Hank, for fuck sake?” I asked. “And his initials spell H-I-M. Is she on crack?”
“Jesus. I didn’t even know you could list a father as ‘unknown’ on a birth certificate,” Cooper said as he looked over the papers and handed them on to me.
“What else are you supposed to put? You can’t just shove a name in there,” I said, then snorted.
“Well, you could. Honestly, I’m surprised she didn’t.”
“She was probably trying to figure out who had the biggest paycheck and didn’t want to limit her options,” I said with a sigh. “Christ how did this happen?”
He stopped and blinked at me. “Uh, do you really need me to tell you?”
“I’m not talking about that, you dumbass,” I said as I gave him a look that told him to eat shit.
“I was gonna say.” He chuckled, then got serious. “Regardless of how it happened, you need to get your shit together. I don’t care what the suit said, you need to contact Sydney and tell her what the fuck is going on. Unless she doesn’t mean anything to you and you’re okay with her walking away.”
He knew damn well that