My Wife's Secret Son Isn't Mine novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Pickup Line

Willa tells Caleb that Lydia signed Archie's emergency form, though Lydia swore she never met the family.

On Monday I taught my last class at 2:40 and told the front office I had a dentist appointment.

I had never lied to the front office in nine years.

Alder Hill Academy sat on a hill behind a red brick wall.

It had a white gate and a crossing guard in a yellow vest.

I parked across the street and walked up to the gate with my hands in my pockets.

Mothers and nannies stood in clumps on the lawn, holding coffee cups and checking their phones.

Willa was at the end of the line, in a green cardigan with a hole starting at one elbow.

Her auburn braid was coming loose and she had a library stamp on the back of her hand.

She saw me and her whole face lit up.

"Cal! What are you doing here?"

"Dentist. It's close by."

"You hate the dentist."

"I hate this one less."

She laughed and hugged me with both arms, hard, the way she hugs everyone.

She smelled like paper and orange peel.

I held on a half second longer than I should have, and then I felt sick about it.

"You look terrible," she said, holding me at arm's length. "Did you sleep?"

"Not much."

"Because of the money?"

"It's nothing. A mix-up."

She studied me for a second.

Then she reached up and brushed something off the side of my head.

"Dry-erase marker," she said, showing me her blue-stained thumb. "You walk around with half your lesson in your hair."

Her thumb had touched the skin just above my ear.

It stayed with me, that small point of warmth, for longer than a thumb should.

The bell rang and the kids came pouring through the doors.

Archie came out near the end, with his backpack dragging, a paper boat in his left hand.

He spotted me and dropped everything.

"Uncle Cal!"

He ran full speed and I caught him, and he climbed me.

"Whoa, buddy. What's that?"

"A boat. It's a ferry. It carries trucks."

He held it up in his left fist.

Archie is left-handed.

I had known that for six years and had never thought about it once.

Lydia is left-handed.

When he laughed, it came out in a short, surprised burst, with his nose wrinkling.

I had heard that laugh across my own kitchen table ten thousand times.

"Say hi properly," Willa said.

"Hi properly," said Archie, and laughed again.

I put him down before my arms could shake.

"Mom, can Uncle Cal come to dinner?"

"Uncle Cal has to go and be sad at a dentist," Willa said. "Get your bag."

Archie ran to the grass for his backpack.

I watched him go.

"He seemed upset yesterday," I said. "After the money thing."

Willa made a face.

"Oh, he picks up everything. He overhears Dane and me talking about tuition and it's all he thinks about."

It was a smooth answer, and it came out of her too fast.

"He said something about Aunt Lyd," I said carefully.

"She comes to the fence at recess. Did he tell you?"

Willa smiled.

"He waves at her every day. I think she's lonely, honestly."

My mouth was dry. "Lonely."

"She's so good with him, Cal."

"At the open house last month she knelt down and tied his shoe like she'd done it a thousand times."

She said it simply, without any weight, and I think that was the worst part.

"It's a shame, really," Willa said, quieter. "You'd both be wonderful. But I know that was her one condition."

She squeezed my arm again.

I did not know how to tell this woman that she was standing in the middle of something and had no idea.

"Oh, and she signed his emergency form," Willa added, rummaging in her bag for her keys.

"Did she tell you? Dane wanted one more adult on it, in case we were both stuck."

"Wasn't that sweet of her?"

I looked at her.

She was smiling and frowning at her keys at the same time.

"Very sweet," I said.

Archie came back dragging the backpack and slid his small cold hand into mine.

"Bye, Uncle Cal. Wave at Aunt Lyd for me."

"I will, buddy."

I stood at the gate and watched the green cardigan walk to the minivan.

Last night Lydia had lain against my chest and sworn on everything that she had never met the family.

She had said it was anonymous.

She had said she'd never learn who they were.

And a month ago she had signed her own name on their emergency form.

She had knelt in the dirt to tie their boy's shoe.

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