“I went away to college. I came back a couple years later with a little boy. When people asked, I told them a story about an ill-fated fling at school with a jerk that didn’t love me. Everyone seemed to take it at face value. At the time, there were bigger stories than the father of my child.”

Xander frowned. What did she mean by that? “Bigger stories about you?”

“Not directly. It was several years ago and not important.”

Xander doubted that, but it seemed he could only pull one secret from her at a time. “I’m surprised no one ever asked if he was mine.”

“People around here don’t see Joey very much. He goes to school in Torrington and I only bring him into Cornwall when I don’t have anyone to watch him and I have to work. If people suspect, they’ve been polite enough to keep it to themselves for the most part. A notable exception was Christie Clark, that catty girl from school. She went to Western Connecticut State, too, and saw me pregnant in the grocery store one day. She asked if you were the father and when I told her no, she told me I was a fool for letting the wrong guy knock me up. I wanted to punch her in the face and I was hormonal enough to almost do it.”

Xander felt awful. He knew Rose didn’t have it easy in this town as it was. Her family had never had much money and she’d never fit in the popular set. This probably made it that much harder for her.

“I’m sorry you felt like you had to go through all of this alone.”

Rose smiled and waved her hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t trade Joey for the whole world. Things may not have always been easy, but if I went back in time, I’d make the same decisions. Well, except maybe I would’ve punched Christie Clark.”

At that, Xander had to chuckle. Christie had been a real bitch in school. She thought she was better than everyone else and would always complain loudly that she never understood why Xander had chosen Rose when he could’ve had her instead. He would’ve sooner stuck his penis in a box fan.

“So now what?”

Xander looked up at her. She was right. Joey would be back in a few minutes and they had a lot to work out. They could rehash the past and the hows and the whys for hours, but they needed a plan going forward. “I think you’re right. I say we agree to keep this quiet for the time being. Especially where Joey is concerned. He’s got enough to deal with right now without all that piled on top.”

“Agreed,” she said, looking a touch relieved. She didn’t look as if she were ready to deal with the fallout of her secret, either. “We won’t tell anyone until we determine the timing is right for us both.”

“I want to acknowledge Joey as my son, and I will, but don’t think I can go forward with any legal claims right away. The minute I file the paperwork, some nosy reporter will jump on it, especially if my face is all over the news doing interviews and talking about my charity. But I don’t want you to think that means I’m going to shirk off my responsibilities. I do want to help.”

“Help?”

“Yes, help. It will be hard with me out of state, but I can send money, at least. I’m sure you could use the extra money for things like school expenses or summer camp. Emergency-room co-pays, perhaps?”

Rose clenched a tight fist of sheets. She was a proud woman, and he appreciated that about her. He could tell how hard this was for her to accept, but she wasn’t a fool. They both knew she could use the help. “I thought public servants weren’t paid that well.”

“I’m comfortable. The advance of my book was very nice and I made some good money investing. I can absolutely help.”

Xander had invested what little money he had in the start-up of Brody’s software company. That alone had him sitting pretty, financially. If and when Brody’s company went public, the stock would skyrocket. He couldn’t tell Rose that detail, however, because people still hadn’t connected his brother Brody Butler to mysterious software tycoon Brody Eden.

She nodded at last, giving in. “Thank you. I wasn’t sure where I was going to come up with the money for this.”

“What about living expenses? You said you had a place pretty far out of town. That has to cost you a lot in gas.”

Rose frowned at him. “There’s no apartment complexes around here. The closest thing I could get was a two-bedroom apartment over near Torrington.”

Torrington was about fifteen miles away. It wasn’t a terrible drive, just a straight shot down Highway Four, but it wasn’t close, either. In bad weather it could be a nightmare to drive back and forth. “Maybe we can get you a house someplace closer to town.”

“A house?” Rose chuckled. “Have you seen the home prices around here?”

“I said I wanted to help, Rose.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to become a major drain on your finances. Help is help. What you’re suggesting is more than that.”

“What? More like child support? That’s the point. You’ve done this on your own for ten years. I have a lot to make up for.”

Rose sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “I just don’t want to be—”

“We’re ba-ack!” the nurse announced, rolling Joey back to his bed.

They both leaped up and hovered anxiously as the nurse helped Joey back onto the hospital bed. “How did everything go?” Xander asked.

“Fine. The doctor should be in to talk to you guys in just a minute. Then, after that, I’m pretty sure the casting crew will be here.” The nurse turned to Joey. “Start thinking about what color wrap you want. We have bright blue, neon green, red, hot pink—” she wrinkled her nose and shook her head “—and construction-cone-orange.”

“So it’s broken?” Rose asked.

“I’m not a doctor, so I’m not supposed to say, but between you and me...oh, yeah.”

The nurse disappeared with the wheelchair, leaving Rose, Joey and Xander alone together for the first time. He didn’t really think about that until he heard Joey ask Rose a question.

“Mom?” he whispered in an attempt to be sneaky, but it was loud enough to hear down the hallway. “Who is that man? Was he your date?”

“Oh,” Rose said, putting on her best smile. “I’m sorry, baby. I was too worried about your arm. Joey, this is Mr. Langston. And yes, he was my date. We went to high school together a long time ago.”

Xander frowned at the super-formal use of his name for the second time tonight. It was bad enough for Rose to do it. He didn’t want his son calling him that, too. “You can just call me Xander.”

“Xander?” Joey said, his eyes wide. “I wouldn’t even know how to spell that.”

“No worries,” he said. “There won’t be a test.”

“Good,” Joey said with a wide smile that was so much like his own at that age. There was even a hint of his same dimple in his left cheek.

The first moment he’d laid eyes on Joey, he’d known the truth. There were pieces of both him and Heath at that age in the boy. His brother had better well not be the father of his ex-girlfriend’s baby, so that left only one answer.

It had actually thrown him for a loop seeing Joey lying in that hospital bed. Xander hadn’t been with his parents the night of their car accident. He had been spending the night at a friend’s house after going to see the latest superhero movie. Heath had been with them, though.

The next morning, his friend’s parents had brought him to the hospital, not quite sure what to do with the child who’d become an orphan while they’d watched him overnight. His father had been killed immediately and his mother had been on life support in a coma she wouldn’t wake up from. Heath had been in stable condition, but he had been hurt pretty badly—a broken leg, a laceration across his forehead and a few cracked ribs.

When he’d gone into the hospital room and seen Joey for the first time, he’d looked just like Heath had. He’d almost had a flashback to the most traumatic moment of his life in that instant. And then to realize that it wasn’t his brother lying there but his son...