Page 61 of Fierce-Baker

No mixed feelings that something was in his past any more than what was in hers.

They were each entitled to that privacy.

“It is one of those things and I’m not sure I like it.”

“Then why are you caught up in it? It seems to me it’s perfect. Jolene hasn’t been wrong, right? Not once?”

Tasha sighed and moved into the kitchen to get a glass of water to wet her parched throat. The tightness forming was making the words harder to escape.

The reality hit her that this might be the chance she’d been waiting for.

But did she really want to fall in line like that?

“No. So far, she’s batting a thousand. Or if she had misses, no one talked about it. Do I think she tries to pair people and they never click? Yeah, I’m sure. They might not even know it’s happening. But once a couple gets in each other’s space, it takes off.”

Her mother’s smile was big enough to light the tree at Rockefeller Center. “It’s taking off for you?”

“We decided to start slow. He noticed me. I noticed him. He’s very handsome. Jolene had stopped to see me a few times. I kind of thought she was fishing but then decided I’d be leaving soon so it didn’t matter.”

“But it’s more than that?”

“Seems it. I talked to Baker in the break room one day. Then later that afternoon Margo came over with food. Baker came in with Mason and Ben and they were eating with us. It crossed my mind we were the two when Mason and Ben were smirking the whole time.”

“So others know?”

“A good handful of people know and have verified it. Fast forward, I’m walking Micah a few weeks ago. He’s fussy and needs his nap and I thought I could lull him to sleep. I’m about half a mile from my place doing a big loop and I see this guy outside unloading groceries. Like my eyes were drawn right to him.”

His long legs, broad shoulders, and the cocky, effortless way he moved. All of it demanded attention without him even trying.

Her eyes kept drifting to him, unable to look away. It was like she could feel the heat of him from across the street, a steady pulse that tugged at her senses and whispered,look at him.

A magnetic pull she didn’t understand…and finally stopped trying to fight.

“And it’s Baker? Living that close to you and you had no idea?”

“It was him and I’d never know because there are hundreds of people there. It’s not like I use the common areas and he doesn’t either. He’s been there about three years I guess. So we talk for a minute, I introduce Micah and we move on. Nothing more until the following week when I’m coming home and get a flat tire.”

“After you dropped Micah here,” her mother said. “He fixed it for you? I never asked, I just assumed you called someone.”

“He fixed it. I made him dinner and we talked. We cleared the air that we both knew what Jolene was doing and found it funny. He’s got something in his past he’s not talking about in terms of a woman. He’s not sharing and neither am I.”

“That’s not good,” her mother said, shaking her head.

“Come on, Mom. You don’t even know things. Why would I tell someone I just met?”

Her mother’s head went side to side. “I don’t know. I thought maybe if you opened up to one person you’d tell the rest of us. I know you were hurt and we wish we could have helped more.”

She reached for her mother to pull her in for a brief hug. “You and Dad helped a ton. I can’t thank you enough. You even backed off when I wouldn’t talk about Micah’s father. Few would do that.”

“I don’t know that we felt we had much of a choice. Maybe we thought you’d tell us at some point.”

At some point, she probably would have to.

Micah could ask to know who his father was. She knew that.

To her, she was buying as much time with her son and her emotions as she could.

Did she think she’d still have this secret two years after Shane was out of her life? Not really.