Las Vegas Sidewinders by Kat Mizera

Author:Kat Mizera [Mizera, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kat Mizera

21

Rudy pressed his lips together. “Because she asked me not to. She said you wouldn’t want the baby, that you were already messed up enough and she didn’t want to screw up your life any worse than it was. I don’t know what I was thinking, but my daughter was pregnant and alone and I thought she knew what was best.”

“What about what was best for the baby?” Jared demanded quietly. “Having a father isn’t important? I mean, you’d have killed anyone who tried to keep you from your daughter.”

“I know. I made a mistake, Jared, and I’m sorry.”

“And now…” Jared waved a hand in the direction Braden had gone. “Now I’ve got to pick up the pieces of this poor kid’s life, something I’m wholly unprepared to do.”

“You’ll figure it out. You’re smart and successful, with a good head on your shoulders. You’ll do right by the boy.”

Jared sighed. He had no comeback because there weren’t any other options. There was no other family that he knew of and if Rudy couldn’t take him, that left Jared. His father. Something he’d never wanted to be.

“What about you?” he asked at last.

“What about me?”

“Who’s taking care of you?”

“I’m putting the house up for sale. Doc says I might have a couple of years left, and between my social security, my pension and what I make on the house, I figure I can get a place at one of those assisted-living facilities. You live on your own until you can’t and then they move you to a section with more care. You can choose the level of help you need and once you’re in, they do what has to be done.”

“If you need anything, you know you can come to me, right?”

“I don’t need money, son. I just need to know you’re doing right by Braden. He’s all I have left in this world and I’d take him in a heartbeat if I could.”

Jared nodded, suddenly overwhelmed with emotions he wasn’t used to and a sadness he hadn’t been expecting.

“If you could send me pictures now and again, that would make an old man happy.”

“We’ll come to see you in the summer,” Jared said. “Assuming I live that long. Jesus Christ, Rudy, how the hell am I going to be a dad at this stage in my life? I don’t know the first thing about taking care of a kid.”

“How we all did it—you just do.”

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