“Literally.” Tom laughed as he held eye contact with me.
“Yes. I’m sorry about that,” I admitted, blinking rapidly.
“It was no problem. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”
“Are you hurt?” Matt raced towards me, concern filling his eyes.
“I’m fine. Danny caught me before I hit the ground.”
“Yeah, and she’s getting heavier by the day,” Danny scoffed.
I glared at him.
“What? You are!”
Humph.
“What are you doing out here?” Matt asked. “I thought I said I’d see you tomorrow?”
“Yes but the green wagon was following you and I tried to call you to tell you but your phone was switched off or not in a service area and then I left a message and then Danny suggested we come out here to tell you in person.” It all came out on a rush of air, no breaths and definitely no pauses. I sucked in some oxygen, as my family stood silently by.
He looked suitably stunned. “Oh.”
“For what it’s worth,” added Tom, “I think you did the right thing, Molly. If I suspected a member of the opposite sex was pursuing my partner, I’d want to know about it.”
I gave Tom a grateful smile. Matt scowled. “Don’t you think I would have noticed the car?”
I hesitated before answering. Matt was perceptive. He was smart and intelligent and could figure out even the hardest Sudoku, but at times he could be totally oblivious to something right in front of him.
After a moment of agonizing silence, he shook his head. “Don’t answer that.”
“I’m sorry. But you don’t always see things. Like the other day, you didn’t see that post in front of your car, or last week you didn’t see the huge puddle, and what about the woman with the wheelie walker? You definitely didn’t see her.”
“What woman with a wheelie walker?” Danny piped up.
“Never mind,” snapped Matt, his ears glowing under the floodlights. “I think it’s time to take you home.”
“But my car’s at Danny’s,” I complained as he grabbed my hand, suggesting that I follow him.
“We’ll get it in the morning.”
Chapter Fourteen
“I don’t think you need quite that much hair gel,” I suggested, moving in next to Matt ready to clean my teeth.
He fiddled with the tube as the liquid shot from the end of it, hitting the mirror, then slowing oozing its way towards the countertop.
I sighed.
“I’m sorry. I’m just really nervous.” He grabbed the towel and attempted to clean up his mess.
“Fair enough. It’s not every day you get to meet your father.”
Matt took a deep breath and grinned. “Yeah. Can you believe it?”
Not really. When he had told me what he’d been through to find Darryl, I’d been astounded.
First, he’d checked the census records and found Darryl had lived in Westport the last time the population was counted. However, when Matt had visited his last known address Darryl had moved on. And the neighbors weren’t helpful about where he moved to as they believed Darryl moved a lot. Matt then tracked down one of Darryl’s old workmates. He’d agreed to meet over a beer and tell him everything he knew. Only when the day arrived, the workmate had been struck down, and I mean literally. He’d been hit by a car and was now in hospital with his jaw wired shut. Not one to give up, Matt checked the electoral roll, but Darryl no longer lived at the address he was registered at and the woman living there told Matt if she ever saw the bastard again, she’d kill him. Her words, not Matt’s.
“Thank goodness for coincidences,” I replied, squishing toothpaste onto my brush.
“I don’t believe in coincidence.”
“Then what do you call it? Fate? Destiny? Something made you decide to donate blood that day instead of going to the gym. If you’d stuck to your original plan you would have missed him.”
Matt grinned. “It was luck. If that nurse hadn’t called his name as I was walking out the door, I would have walked right past him without paying him any attention.”
“Was he shocked when you introduced yourself?”
Color raced up Matt’s neck only stopping as it reached his ears.
“You did tell him who you were?” I questioned.
“Of course.”
“Matt, there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“There’s nothing to worry about. I just didn’t want to blurt to him in the blood donation caravan that I was his long-lost child.”
“So, what did you tell him?”
“That I wanted to interview him for a story on genealogy.”
“Oh. Well I’m glad I found out now. I would have hated to have spouted that out without knowing.”
“I thought we could meet him for coffee this morning and get to know each other before I told him who I was. I don’t want to shock him.”
“Do you think he knows anything about you? Did he know that your mum was pregnant with you before he left her?”
“She left him before I was born. She always told me he never wanted to be a father, so I took that as he knew she was having his child but didn’t want to be a part of it.”
“Matt, you’ll be okay if he still feels the same?” I was worried about it. Matt had worked himself up so much in anticipation for properly meeting Darryl that I was worried about him if it all fell apart.
“Of course, I am. Molly, I have nothing to lose. If he wants to know me then great. If not, so be it. I have you and I have our baby. Plus your family, which is now my family. Honestly, they’re more than I could ever need.”
I grinned as his lips touched mine and indulged in a kiss far too deep for a woman who hadn’t yet cleaned her teeth.
Pulling up for air, Matt squeezed me tight and then made his way towards the walk-in wardrobe looking for clothes.
He may be saying all the right things but watching as he whistled while slipping his shirt on, I doubted he was being completely honest with himself. He’d spent his entire life dreaming about his dad and who he would be. He’d played the scene of their meeting in his head a million times over the years and I was worried Darryl wouldn’t match the fantasy figure Matt built him to be. I mean, who could? Sure, Matt knew his father hadn’t been ready to have a child, but he also knew it was his mother who left searching for something better. That meant Matt was free to imagine all kinds of fantasies, some of which he’d whispered to me in the middle of the night, right after he’d had a nightmare about never finding his dad.
To say I was nervous about this meeting was an understatement. Add to that I was secretly hoping Darryl wasn’t his father and this was all one being mistake, and the anxiety I was feeling threatened to drown me.
****
Darryl wanted to be interviewed on common ground, so the Bar and Grill was the place that was agreed upon. Not exactly where I would have had my family reunion, but this wasn’t my rodeo.
The Bar and Grill was downtown, had an upbeat vibe and served the best steak around. The décor was industrial—all metal and hard edges, and as Matt held the door open for me the welcome blast of air conditioning hit me hard.