Push

35. He Found a Father

TOBY

The grass was perfect.

Perfect.

Zach's parents had a front lawn that rivaled a golf course. Their house was in the suburbs and an older style—a double-story brick built around the seventies—but it was as neat as a pin. I couldn't drag my eyes away from the manicured grass that edged the yard as I made my way from my car, up their driveway, and then up the front stairs.

I'd barely knocked on the screen door before Zach threw it open.

"Thanks for coming," he said, breathless, probably from a dash across the house. "Sorry about the last-minute venue change."

Zach could've changed the venue four thousand times—moved our catch-up to bloody Antarctica—and I still would've rocked up. I needed this. After the police and the frosty drive, where Gwen barely spoke two words to me before I dropped her at work, I needed a distraction.

"Everything okay?" I asked him.

"Oh, yeah." Zach waved me off. "Josie just had a fit this morning. Three-and-a-half going on thirty, remember? She informed me there would be no time for the park. She had to see Nana to play house ladies today."

My eyebrow went up. Not a game I remembered. "House ladies?"

Zach lifted a shoulder. "They look after their babies. They clean. They cook. They put the laundry on. Mostly, it's Josie pointing out things for everyone else to do—and only she can pick the menu." He grinned. "I hope you like fajitas."

Who didn't? "You've got some house ladies with good taste."

Zach laughed and waved to come through the door. I trailed behind him as he led me through the house. No. His parent's home. I must have gaped at all the well-worn but cozy furniture and family photos crowding the rooms as we passed on our way to the kitchen.

Josie was there. She was in red dungarees and standing on a step stool by the island. Her dark hair was twisted in two curled pigtails, and a naked baby doll hung upside down, held close to her side by the crooked arm she'd slung around the poor thing's neck. She watched, fascinated, as Zach's mother cut a bell pepper into strips beside her.

"Look who's here!" Zach said.

Josie's smile was as big as her dad's. Marie Rawles—yikes—she didn't like me. I swear she flinched when Zach announced my arrival, and when she slowly lifted her gaze from the bell pepper to pin me across the room, her eyes narrowed behind the pink glasses perched low on her nose.

I saw that same look at Alfie's birthday party a few weeks ago. We had a brief introduction full of forced smiles and pleasantries about the weather. Later, she'd huddled in a corner with Zach's wife, Eden. The two of them had their eyes on me, lips curled, whispering under their breath. I could imagine what they were saying. There he is. The cheater. Everyone looked at me like that. Whispered like that. The cop taking my statement said it, too. I was Toby, the selfish fool who threw away the best thing that happened to him. Everyone knew.

I doubt I would've been standing in Marie's kitchen if she'd had her way.

I smiled even though my heart started thunking under my ribs. "It's nice to see you again, Mrs Rawles."

Marie's lips pressed into a flat line. Zach coughed. Her eyes darted to him, and he put his hand on his hip, a pointed look thrown in her direction. Obviously, words had been exchanged before I arrived.

"Good morning, Toby." Marie's voice was clipped. "How was the drive?"

"Quick. The traffic from town was good." Could there be a more awkward conversation? I tried out a smile on Josie instead. "Hey JoJo." I nodded at her upside-down baby doll. "Who do you have there?"