Chapter Nine
Quinton wasn’t sure what he expected to happen next, but it wasn’t for Halle to call him later that night insisting they needed to speak. From the way Halle had dragged Shania out of his office and deflected during the conversation, he half expected her to ignore the issue for as long as possible. He shouldn’t have been surprised she’d taken the initiative. Halle wasn’t one to ignore a problem when it popped up.
When she’d called him, she’d already had a plan in place. “We need to talk, and it has to be someplace where we won’t be overheard. I don’t want Shania to get involved and, knowing her, she will insert herself. Do you mind if I come by your place in the morning before football practice?”
She’d spoken to him in her clipped principal voice and he’d said yes before he could think about offering a different option. He hadn’t had the time or felt the inclination to say no. Afterward, he’d chastised himself for agreeing so quickly. With a few words Halle had him following her lead. He felt like he had the first time he’d stepped on the football field in college and the coach blew the whistle. Halle was not going to be blowing his whistle.
The doorbell rang right on time at seven in the morning. Quinton ran a hand over his shirt to straighten out any wrinkles, realized what he was doing and shook out what he’d smoothed. He opened the door. Halle stood on the other side, dressed in a blue dress that clung to her full breasts and hips. Something he noticed even with the beige blazer she wore over it. She looked sexy and put together as she always did. He wished she were at his place just to see him and not because of these circumstances.
He stepped back to let her in. “Do you want something to drink? Coffee or anything?”
She shook her head. “No, this isn’t a social visit.”
“It doesn’t have to be a social visit for this to be a cordial visit.”
Halle watched for a second before nodding. “I’ll take some coffee.”
“Come on in the kitchen.”
She followed him into the kitchen. She looked around his place, which was stylishly decorated thanks to the interior decorator he’d hired, and full of mementos from his days playing football as well as pictures of his family. He liked his house and wondered what she thought of it.
In the kitchen, he went to the coffeepot and poured her a cup of coffee. He drank multiple cups in the morning, black, and didn’t bother with the single-serve machines that were popular now. He brought the coffee over to her with the sugar bowl.
“No cream, right?” he asked.
Her brows lifted. “Right. How did you know that?”
“I noticed you didn’t put cream in your coffee at one of the district trainings.”
She blinked several times. Quinton was a master at keeping his emotions off his face. Being bullied in high school followed by years of proving himself on the field trained him to keep emotions hidden, but that didn’t stop the embarrassment of admitting that he paid attention to her from churning his stomach.
She looked away and added sugar to her coffee. Two teaspoons. He made a mental note of that and then brushed the back of his neck. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
Halle took a tentative sip before looking up and meeting his eyes. “We need to have another test.”
“Another test?”
She nodded. “Yes, to verify what Shania found out.”
“You don’t believe I’m her father.” Even though he couldn’t believe it, this couldn’t be a coincidence.
Halle held up a hand. “I don’t know if the test is correct or not. But before we shake things up, I think we should verify. It could be a fluke.”
“It could be.” He hesitated a beat. “But did you really get artificially inseminated?”
Her lips pressed together before she nodded. “I did.”
“Where did you go for the donation?” Could it be possible they’d gone to different locations?
“I used a private donation company. Fertile Grounds in Atlanta?” Her voice rose at the end, making the sentence a question.
Quinton closed his eyes and sighed. “That’s where I went.” He’d never forget walking into that office. The pictures of fruit orchards and vegetable fields all over the walls. They’d taken the fertile grounds name and worn it into the ground.
“What made you donate?”
He shrugged. “I needed money. A friend on the team told me that women would pay a lot of money for the sperm of an athlete.”
“And you thought donating sperm was your best option?”
“I did what I had to do to keep my parents in their apartment at the time. I was told my sperm wouldn’t be split between multiple women. I didn’t like the idea of having...dozens or more kids out there. Not when I was aiming to play professionally.”
He’d made sure of that before donating. That was the only reason why he’d gone with his friend’s idea. He could donate as much as he wanted, but his sample would only go to one person. After one donation he’d had enough. The idea of lots of kids tied to him that he had no clue existed had made him uncomfortable.
He studied Halle before asking, “Why did you get inseminated?”
She lifted her chin. Her lips pressed together and he worried she wouldn’t answer. After a few tense seconds she spoke. “I lost my mom in high school and my dad when I was in college. I have aunts and uncles, but I still felt alone. So, I decided to have a child and have my own family.”
Quinton didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t surprised that Halle would take fate into her own hands and decide to have a child on her own terms. But there was also an ache in his chest imagining her feeling so alone that she would make that decision. She was smart, strong, and always helping others, but who was there to help her?
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your parents,” he said quietly.
She swallowed hard before nodding. “Thank you.” After a pause she continued. “We still should verify the results.”
The coincidence was too much to deny, but he could understand her reasoning. They could have just ended up at the same place. An online DNA test could be wrong. Unlikely, but stranger things had happened. “I agree.”
“Regardless of the outcome, Shania wants this. You don’t.”
Quinton frowned, thrown off by the comment. “What do you mean?”
“You made an anonymous donation. I understand that you don’t want to be involved.”
He’d made the anonymous donation then because he hadn’t wanted the word to get out about what he’d done to keep his parents housed. That didn’t mean that he was against ever being found. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken the online DNA test, no matter what his sister said.
“You want me to pretend as if I don’t know?”
She gave him a questioning look. “I’m just saying that I don’t expect anything from you. Would I like for Shania to have a father figure in her life? Yes, but someone that I also want to be with. Not someone forced into the role.”
“You mean someone like Gregory?” The words came out before his thought finished forming. Was she really trying to get him to step aside to avoid causing problems with that guy? Would she just brush this under the rug if he agreed so she could stay with the English teacher?
“I’m not dating Gregory just so he could be a father to Shania, but, yes, he is someone I would want.”
Quinton studied her through narrowed eyes. “You don’t want me?”
She swallowed hard. “If the test is positive, we’ll go from there. If you don’t want to be involved, I won’t blame you. You literally were a sperm donor. I won’t force you to do anything.”
“What if I want you?” he asked. He’d been pushed aside in his life before, but this time, he wasn’t willing to be disregarded. Not by Halle. He ignored the part of him that wanted her to want him even if Shania wasn’t their kid.
Halle’s dark eyes widened. Full lips parted as she inhaled sharply. “What?”
Quinton’s eyes remained fixed on her face. On the doubt in her eyes about him wanting to be involved in Shania’s life. The thinly veiled expectation that he was going to disappoint her and Shania. Just like that, he had the answer to the question he’d been unable to give when he spoke with his sister.
He moved to stand next to her at the kitchen island and asked again, his voice direct and low. “What if I want to be a part of your life?”
Halle clutched the coffee mug with both hands. The heat radiating through the ceramic container overpowered the spark she’d felt when Quinton asked if she wanted him. She blamed it on the shock of an unexpected question. That was all it could be. His words were getting scrambled up in her brain.
Verifying the test results would make him a part of her life. Not just Shania’s, but Halle’s as well. His wanting to be involved only meant that he wanted to be there for Shania. No matter how much her heart rate had picked up or how her cheeks prickled with heat, his words weren’t directed at her specifically.
“Do you want to be a part of Shania’s life?”
“If the results are true. Yes.” He raised a brow. “You look surprised.”
“I am, a little. You donated and didn’t look back.”
“I donated because I had to. I went with that company because they promised me they wouldn’t spread a word about my donation to the school or the media.”
“You didn’t make other donations?” she asked hopefully.
He shook his head. “Other teammates made multiple donations. I didn’t. The thought of having multiple kids out there wasn’t something I wanted. Afterward, I always wondered what had happened. If there was a kid out there.”
The slight wistfulness in his voice told more than his stoic expression had. He hadn’t donated and walked away. He had wondered what happened with his kid. “You want to be a father?”
He glanced away quickly and shrugged before meeting her gaze again. “I’ve thought about it. I don’t want to have kids with just anyone. I want to be in a relationship. I want to give my kid stability. Something I didn’t have a lot of growing up.”
“Weren’t you dating someone when you first moved to town?”
His face shuttered before he spoke. “I was.”
“No kids?”
He shook his head. “Not with her or anyone else.”
“Well, if the results are right, you’ve got one with me.”
The idea shook the foundation of everything in her life. Shania had a father. A father who might want to be a part of their life. Not some mystery person behind a profile she’d chosen, but this man in front of her. A man who was more interesting with each conversation they had.
“I don’t have any kids through the traditional sense with anyone else,” he said with a half smile.
Halle’s lips quirked at the nice way he’d cleaned that up. Then she thought about him creating a child in a traditional way. Thought about him creating a child with her in the traditional sense. Then she wasn’t thinking about kids at all as her curiosity did what it always did: took an idea and clung to it. What kind of lover would Quinton be? Would he listen or was he like a bull in a china shop, just going for his own pleasure?
She blinked and took a sip of her coffee. She was not going to think about Quinton that way. If she was going to think about sex, then she was going to think about sex with Gregory. Quinton may be Shania’s biological father, but he was not about to be the father of any new brothers or sisters she may have.
“I just wanted to talk with you about what we do next. Now that we’ve gotten that straightened out, I guess I should go.”
“Are you going by the middle school today?” he asked. His dark eyes traveled down her body and back up. Not long enough to be considered a leer, but still intense enough to make heat flash in her chest. “Or do you have other plans?”
“I am going to the school. I’ve got a lot to do to get ready for the upcoming year. Other than practice, are you getting ready for the year?”
“I do manage to drag myself away from the football field and get caught up on the lesson plan before the year starts.” The light in his eye told her he was teasing even though his face was serious. He would be cute if he smiled. It was time for her to go.
She pushed away her barely touched coffee. “Good to know. I’ll call you when I set up the time for the test.”
“We can purchase a DNA kit.”
“I’d rather go to a professional and be sure.”
Quinton held up a hand. “Whatever you want.”
Why did he have to say it like that? In a deep, rumbling voice that sent little earthquakes off in her body. He was not agreeing to whatever she wanted. Just agreeing to her wishes related to Shania, who was the most important person in her life and the reason why Halle was here in the first place.
She straightened her shoulders. “Good. I’ll give you a call when I have the appointment scheduled.”
He nodded. “Just say when.” He led her back through his home to the front door.
“Halle,” Quinton said just as they reached the front door.
She turned to face him. He stood close enough for her to smell the fresh scent of his body wash but not close enough for her to feel the heat of his body. Yet, in the small area of his entryway, he sucked up the space. All she saw was broad shoulders and a wide, muscled chest. His dark eyes met and clung to hers.
“Yes?” she asked, her response coming out breathier than she intended.
“I don’t want to make this difficult for you or Shania. Despite my reason for donating, I’m willing to be as involved as you want me to be. I may not have created her in the traditional sense, but she’s still mine. I take care of my responsibilities.”
His eyes and voice were steady and strong. The tremors from her earlier emotional earthquake started again. If she wasn’t careful, she’d begin to fall for him. Quinton was handsome, and, she had to admit, nice. He hadn’t been someone she’d considered dating before. She didn’t want to fall for him just because he was a decent guy offering to be responsible. Then there was Gregory, the man she’d considered perfect for her, the man she’d already fantasized about building a life with. Was she really going to throw that away because Quinton happened to be the guy who donated sperm fourteen years ago? This coincidence didn’t mean they belonged together.
“Thank you for that, but if the results turn out to be true, I don’t mind you becoming a part of Shania’s life, but there will be clear boundaries. We won’t be a family or anything like that. Just co-parents.”
He raised a brow. “Co-parents?”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
His jaw twitched as if he was going to say something before he shook his head. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
“Fine,” he said easily.
“Fine,” she shot back. Once again, she felt as if there was more to be said. That even though he’d agreed with her, he still thought she was going to regret her words later.
Halle spun around and reached for the door. The bell rang just as she was swinging it open. Her gaze collided with Gregory’s, and she sucked in a breath.
Gregory’s eyes widened in surprise. He looked from Halle to Quinton standing behind her and back again. “Halle?”
She scrambled for words. “G... Gregory. What are you doing here?”
He held up a package. “Quinton’s mail was delivered to my place yesterday by mistake.”
“His package?”
Quinton stepped forward. His chest nearly brushed Halle’s back. She shivered as the heat of him seeped into her and scooted out of the way. He reached for the package. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Halle frowned. “Why are you getting his packages?”
“I live at three fourteen and he’s three forty-one. Last week they mixed up our mailing addresses and we found out we were neighbors.” Gregory frowned. “What are you doing here? First thing in the morning?”
“She came about Shania,” Quinton spoke quickly.
Gregory’s frown deepened before a heartbeat later his face cleared up. “Something with football, right?”
Quinton opened his mouth, but Halle jumped in. “Yeah, something with football. Shania had a rough day yesterday and I wanted to talk to Coach Evans without everyone around. You know how I am about Shania.”
Gregory’s smile creased his face. “I do. If you’re done, I’d love to take you out for coffee.”
“She just had coffee,” Quinton said matter-of-factly.
Halle glared at him. “I didn’t finish it.” She turned back to Gregory. “I’d love to have coffee with you. And I was just leaving.”
“Good,” Gregory said. He reached out and took her hand. “Quinton, see you later.”
Quinton made some type of noise of agreement. He gave Halle one last look before turning and going into the house. Gregory squeezed her hand and led her off the porch. Halle didn’t look back as she fought of a weird feeling that she’d somehow wronged Quinton. Her life wasn’t going to change just because of this. Until she proved he really was Shania’s father, she wasn’t about to upend the good thing she had going for her.