Chapter 26 #2
He pulled away slightly and tipped her chin up. “I meant what I said. I will do whatever it takes to make sure that the girls remain with you.” He leaned down and pecked her on the lips. “Now, forget about her. Don’t let her take your focus from the day. Let’s go watch Mikal open her gifts.”
She nodded, keeping one arm around his waist as he placed an arm over her shoulders. She would put her on the back burner, but she knew the older woman hadn’t just made an empty threat. She just hoped it wouldn’t get dragged out.
????????????
To say Jalen was nervous was an understatement. She’d invited Vega over to have dinner with her and her sisters, and they were going to discuss him possibly being everyone but the twins’ father.
When she and Kodi had found out that he was Kodi’s father, but not Landon’s, Jalen went to Landon to tell her that, for the time being, until she could wrap her head around the situation, she didn’t want her speaking to the man who had contacted her.
She didn’t enjoy hiding the fact that she knew who he was and had met with him, but she knew Landon would pester her for answers, and it was a conversation they needed to have with Vega around.
To her surprise, Landon hadn’t given her any pushback and had agreed to wait until Jalen felt as if she could speak to him again. It may also have had something to do with the fact that she hadn’t given the teenager use of the phone again.
A small part of Jalen knew Landon suspected who Vega was when he’d shown up to the party the day before.
If for no other reason than the sound of his voice.
However, she had said nothing, and for that Jalen was grateful.
She expected several questions after he’d come to her aid, along with Rohan, when their egg donor had shown up.
Jalen had also invited Rohan to dinner. She’d thought about not doing so because it wasn’t his burden or information to give.
She also didn’t want Vega to feel as if she were bringing someone into their business.
However, Vega had extended the invitation himself to Rohan at the party yesterday, if it was alright with her.
Honestly, she knew that she and her sisters could use the support, and Rohan had become close to her sisters over the five and a half months they’d been dating.
They weren’t having anything extravagant for dinner. Jalen decided on beef stew and cornbread since it was cooler out. She’d just put the cornbread in the oven when there was a knock on the door.
She wiped her hands and went to answer it, finding Rohan on the other side. She stepped aside, letting him in, as he leaned down and kissed her forehead as he passed.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey,” she responded, closing the door behind them. “Thank you for coming.”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
They went into the kitchen, where Rohan asked her if she needed help with anything. Jalen shook her head, leaning against the counter as he watched her.
“You don’t need to be anxious. Everything will be fine,” he told her before lowering his voice a bit. “I don’t know Vega, but he seems like a pretty good guy. I mean, he traveled back to town for Mikal’s birthday.”
Jalen knew he had a point, and from their conversation at the coffee shop that day, and the few they’d had over the phone since then, he seemed sincere. She just wasn’t sure how to break the news to her sisters, or how they would react.
“You’re right,” she responded. She went to the stew and stirred it.
“Where are the girls?” Rohan questioned.
“I asked them to play or hang out in their rooms until I called them for dinner. They’re too good at noticing when something is wrong with me, so I didn’t want to have to answer questions until then.”
There was another knock on the door, and he volunteered to get it. Jalen placed the lid back on the pot and was coming around the bar when Rohan returned with Vega.
“Jalen, thank you for having me for dinner,” he said, hugging her.
“You’re welcome,” she replied, returning his hug. “I think it’s time we had this conversation, anyway.”
Vega nodded once they’d pulled apart. “I agree, but I have a request.”
Jalen furrowed her eyebrows. “Okay, what is it?”
“Can we not tell the girls that I may be their dad?”
“I’m confused. I thought telling them was the whole point of this evening.”
Vega nodded. “It is. I would like to tell them I am instead.” The confusion must have been written all over Jalen’s face because he continued.
“The youngest, Omari and Nathan. I don’t think they’d understand and could be upset or hurt if we told them I had the possibility of being everyone’s father but theirs.
I don’t want that, and I don’t mind taking responsibility for all of you.
I told you. Valerie and I split because I wanted kids, a big family, and this gives everyone involved a positive outcome. ”
Jalen could understand what he was saying. She really could. However, she knew children were resilient, and her sisters would bounce back from the news in no time.
“While that’s extremely admirable of you, Vega, I don’t think that’s a good idea.
While I was against helping my sisters look for their fathers, this situation has given me a different perspective.
I always assumed that they just didn’t want to be a part of our lives, when in reality, it could be the same sort of situation we’re in now.
My egg donor didn’t even give them the courtesy of telling them. ”
She’d had time to think about it and realized that she’d been stuck in a place of them not wanting to be a part of her or her sister’s lives, whoever they were, that she had not thought past that, and realized that they may not even know that they existed.
It wasn’t until she’d sat down and had the conversation with Vega that it was even a possibility she considered.
“So, I want us to tell them the truth, but I won’t stop you from being around any of them, regardless of the outcome of the paternity tests. You’re Kodi’s dad. We know that much, and that makes you family.”
Vega nodded at her. “You’re right. I understand. I hadn’t even taken that into consideration.” He then held up the bag he was holding. “Where do you want this?”
“I’ll take it. Thank you.”
Jalen went into the kitchen, pulling brownies and cookies from the bag and placing them on the bar top. Then she stirred her stew again and checked on her cornbread. She glanced over to find Rohan and Vega talking, her boyfriend chuckling at something the older man said.
Jalen took a deep breath because once the food was done in a few minutes, she would have to have a hard conversation with her sisters.
Dinner had gone well; however, Jalen had not started the conversation that needed to be had. She’d continued to put it off, and now she couldn’t delay any longer. Everyone had finished eating, and they were now about to have some of the dessert Vega brought.
She’d excused herself from the table, volunteering to go get them, but really, she just needed another minute. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t be seen from the dining room, since the bar only separated it, but it would give her a second to collect herself.
Jalen didn’t know why she was so nervous about giving her sisters the information because it wasn’t as if it were a bad thing.
It honestly could have been worse because they could have been finding out some no-good bum was their father instead of this great person who was willing to take responsibility for them all, either way.
She jumped slightly when she felt hands on her waist because she hadn’t known that Rohan had followed her into the kitchen. However, she leaned back against his chest and breathed in the smell of his cologne for a few seconds.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he told her. He removed his hands from her waist and reached around her to grab the cookies and brownies.
Jalen nodded, and they returned to the table. Jalen retook her seat beside Rohan and across from Kodi. The teenager raised a brow in question, and Jalen knew she was asking if they were going to deliver the news. Jalen nodded at her, waiting for everyone to grab a dessert.
“Girls,” Jalen called, getting her sister’s attention.
“Vega and I have something we’d like to tell you.
” She waited until she had all of their attention before continuing.
“A few weeks ago, Landon was spending a lot of her time on the phone, and I thought she was talking to some boy at school. When I asked her about it, she told me she was talking to her dad.”
“What?” Mikal asked. “That’s why she was being so belligerent?”
Jalen cut her eyes at Kodi, and her little sister simply mouthed, Sorry. Since she’d taught the eleven-year-old that word a week ago, she used it whenever she could.
“I was not,” Landon responded. Before an argument could start between the two of them, Jalen interjected.
“The man she was speaking to was Vega.”
The table went silent for a moment, and all the girls, aside from Kodi, turned to look at Vega, who was sitting at the end of the table. Jalen had made the conscious decision not to sit there because she didn’t want the hypothetical spotlight Vega was now receiving.
“But,” Jalen continued before anything was said. “We don’t know if he’s actually Landon’s father.”
“What do you mean?” Landon questioned.
Jalen thought about how to best answer that question, but it was Kodi who spoke. She explained the mix-up with the way her name was printed when she’d done the genealogy test at school. Since their middle names were so similar, it sounded like he’d been using Landon’s when it was Kodi’s.
“So, he’s Kodi’s dad,” Landon whispered.
Jalen watched her little sister for a long moment as she took the time to process the information, and she could see the exact second that disappointment entered Landon’s eyes. Vega must have seen it as well because this time, he spoke.
“That doesn’t mean that I may not be your father, Landon,” he said. “Your mother and I were in a…relationship for many years until we stopped seeing each other nine years ago.”
Jalen watched Landon look from Kodi to Mikal, and she could see the pieces falling into place in her little sister’s mind. It was like watching a lightbulb come on. Landon opened her mouth only to close it again and swallow.
“You’re saying you could be the father of all three of us?” Landon inquired after a few seconds, gesturing between herself, Kodi, and Mikal.
“Four,” Vega corrected her, gesturing to Jalen, and Landon snapped her attention to her.
“I…have so many questions,” Landon responded.
“I know,” Jalen told her. “And I’ll answer whichever ones I can.”
“And if Jalen can’t, I’ll do my best to,” Vega supplied.
Jalen then turned her attention to the twins, who were eating their brownies, so she wasn’t sure if they’d been listening at all. However, she wouldn’t leave them out of the conversation.
“Nathan, Omari. Do you understand what we’re talking about?”
“Sure,” Nathan responded. “Vega might be your dad,” she supplied with a little shrug.
Omari nodded. “Yep, but not us because we’re only six and that’s less than nine.”
Well, that’s one way of putting it, Jalen thought.
“And you’re both okay?” Jalen asked.
“Yeah, because we don’t feel left out,” Omari told her.
“Right, because we have Rohan,” Nathan responded with an innocence that only a child could have when saying something so impactful. Jalen went to correct them when she felt Rohan’s hand on her thigh.
“I’m clearly the better one to have,” he joked. “No offense, Vega.”
“A little taken,” Vega joked back, and the two men chuckled.
“Vega, can I ask you some questions?” Landon inquired.
“Of course,” he replied.
“Why don’t you all move to the living room, and I’ll take care of the dishes?” Jalen suggested. She wanted to give her sisters time to ask Vega whatever questions they may have first because she knew he’d be leaving in a couple of days.
“I’ll help you,” Rohan volunteered, and they all dispersed from the table.
When they were alone in the kitchen, she turned to Rohan. “Listen, about what Nathan said.”
“What about it?” he asked as he turned the water on in the sink.
“It’s just, you know how kids are, I don’t want you to feel as if—”
“You plan on getting rid of me, Jalen?” he asked, cutting her off.
“What? No.”
“Then what she said wasn’t wrong. They have me. All five of them, even though we already know Vega is Kodi’s father. You have me.”
He leaned over and placed his lips on hers. The kiss was soft, slow, and Jalen felt as if her heart was full.