Page 53 of Discretion at Its Finest

“I’m sure Greg was caught up with something at the office…”

“You don’t have to make excuses for him every time,” he muttered. “He would have been here if he wanted to be.”

Another burst of cheering erupted as Eugene blocked the goal, catching the ball in his little arms. He looked over to the lawn chairs as the coach blew the whistle again. It looked like he was looking at the both of us, but I knew his eyes were locked onto the man beside me.

“Uncle Reid! Did you see?” he called.

Reid lifted a hand, giving him a thumbs-up and a small nod of approval that shouldn’t have made my heart ache the way it did.

I folded my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking as they continued. “You’re… good with him,” I said softly. “Better than most people are.”

He finally glanced at me, my eyes unfortunately already locked onto his. “You say that like it’s surprising.”

I looked down at my hands, twisting the small engagement ring I seemed to have forgotten all about. Not like I wore it often… but these days I found myself doing it more and more.

“I mean… it is. At least for me…”

He let out a low breath. “I guess that explains why telling me about him didn’t matter.”

“Reid, I didn’t say that,” I muttered. “Telling you I had a kid in the middle of all the chaos… it wasn’t practical…”

“Practical…” he repeated, his jaw clenching. “Right… Letting me think I meant nothing was probably the most practical for you too.”

“It wasn’t. I just…” My throat tightened. I breathed out slowly. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”

It was the closest thing to the truth I could say without unraveling. Reid didn’t look away from the field, but something in him stilled. “So you think I would hurt him?” he said quietly.

I let out a tired sigh. “No,” I whispered.

No matter his motives—vengeance, resentment, obsession, whatever storm he was dragging me into—a part of me knew he would never intentionally hurt Eugene. But the truth of him being here still hovered. He was going to tear our lives apart anyway.

And my son was in the center of it.

“I know you won’t hurt him… but I’m afraid,” I said softly, voice barely audible. “I’m afraid of what happens if you stay…and I’m afraid of what happens if you don’t. He’s already getting attached to you. But he doesn’t know what you came back for. And when you finish what you came here to do… he’ll be caught in the middle of it.”

His eyes locked onto mine. He knew how drastic this all would be if he actually did stay, and carved himself back into this life I’d tried to keep together. And the longer he looked at me, the more the question from last night burned in my mind.What exactly did Reid know?

“Genevieve…”

“You being here…” My voice shook. “It changes things. Itwillchange things more than you know…”

He didn’t respond, his eyes staying locked onto me.

I pushed further. “You came back wanting to burn all of this down. I get that,” I whispered. “You want revenge. You want… whatever you think you’re owed.” My hands trembled, but I kept going. “But showing up here? Being part of this? Being part of him… That’s not revenge, Reid.”

A shadow flickered in his expression.

“If you stay,” I breathed, “everything we’ve built, everything he knows… it could fall apart.”

My voice thinned. Because that wasn’t the whole truth. Not even close. What I couldn’t say aloud was that I would be the one to fall apart first. I could feel it already. I was slipping.

Back into the place I’d sworn I’d never touch again and toward a man I’d betrayed and broken. A man whose forgiveness I didn’t deserve and yet somehow hungered for like the air I needed to breathe. If he stayed, it wouldn’t just be my life unraveling.

It would be me.

He watched me quietly, his eyes calculated and observant. “If it falls apart,” he said softly, “maybe it wasn’t meant to hold in the first place.”

Chapter twenty-two