Page 76 of Worth the Try
I stay quiet.
“And…I don’t know. I drank more than I should have. We were all having a great time, and I thought, why not? Just once, right? I’d not seen her around, so I thought maybe she wasn’t one of the?—”
“Rugger huggers?” I offer.
His mouth twists. “Yeah. We went to her place. I wore a condom. I swear I did. And when it was over, I called an Uber and went home.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” he confirms. “She walked me to the door, and I left, and…yeah. That was that.” He swallows. “And then a year later, everything changed.”
My stomach sinks.
He reaches for his drink, downing it in one swallow. “The Granite were rising stars. We weren’t Atlanta royalty like the Braves or Falcons, but we were starting to be recognized. I got my first sponsorship deal. The Granite leadership knew what they had with me, and they offered me a stupidly generous deal if I locked in a ten-year contract. Which is unheard of. Especially in a league that was still trying to break through and find its fans.”
He looks so pained that I reach over and put my hand on his knee.
“I was riding high, Elodie. For the first time in my life, it felt like everything was locking into place. My parents had just retired, I’d bought this amazing house, and I had friends,realfriends, for the first time in my life.” He looks down. “I was so fucking happy. Invincible.” Guilt laces his every word.
“As you should have been,” I insist. “You deserve to be happy, Ansel.”
He shakes his head.
“Yes.” But it’s clear he doesn’t believe me.
“One morning, I get up like always. And I do what I always do, go about my routine without a care in the world. Until I hear a knock at my door.”
I wait, letting him get the words out.
“I answer, and Sharon’s there. At her feet is a tiny little baby in a car carrier. And Sharon’s looking at me, and I’m looking at her, until she finally asks me why there’s a baby on my doorstep.” He pauses. “It was eleven in the morning. And I—I still don’t know how long she was even out there.” His voice cracks on the last words as he meets my eyes.
There isn’t anything I can say to that. I reach for his hand and squeeze.
He exhales roughly and clears his throat, swiping at his eye. “So. We bring the baby inside, and there’s an envelope with her birth certificate and a note.” He lets out a bitter laugh, and when he speaks again, anger laces his words. “She left a fuckingnote, Elodie. Like a coward. I still have it. I wanted to burn it, but Sharon wouldn’t let me. Said I might need it one day.” His jaw clenches. “My name was listed as the father on the birth certificate. Lauren’s name was there as the mother. Rosalie wasn’t quite three months old.”
“Oh, God,” I whisper, the reality of what he must have gone through crashing through me.
He chokes out a laugh. “Yeah. That’s about what I said, too.”
“But what if she’s not—” I begin.
“I had a DNA test,” he interrupts. “Not that it would have mattered.”
I swallow hard and force the tears away. “And that was it? She never contacted you again?”
“She did. Later that day. But only to make sure I had her. That I—that I was going to keep her.” His eyes turn to steel. “She said she would give her up for adoption if I didn’t.”
I inhale a sharp breath.
“But Elodie, the second I looked at that tiny little girl, all scrunched up in her carrier and eyeing me with all the sass she still gives me today, I was a fucking goner. I hadn’t even read the note yet. I didn’t need to. I knew. I justknew, and in that moment…” He swallows and meets my gaze, a small smile on his lips. “That’s when I became a father.”
The love in his eyes as he says it, the way his whole body seems to soften at the admission, it simply undoes me. The final thread that had held me together disappears, evaporating into the muggy night. I lean over and kiss him, my heart feeling like it might actually burst with the way I feel about him. “You,” I say against his lips.
He pulls me close, not releasing the kiss. “Me, what?”
“You are incredible.”
He laughs. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m barely holding it together.”
