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grin, Juanita Evans said, “Well, hello, Noel. It’s about time you showed up around here.” She opened the door wide. “Y’all might as well get off the porch and come on in the house. We can all sit down and catch up over breakfast.”

      Jaylen grabbed Noel’s hand and began pulling him toward the door. “Come on, Daddy, we’ve got the bestest breakfast ever this morning.”

      “French toast,” Juanita said.

      Noel rubbed his stomach. “It’s one of my favorite breakfast meals also. So, I’ll gladly join you.”

      Jaylen stopped walking and looked up at Noel in awe. “We have a favorite thing together?”

      Noel smiled. Jaylen was speaking in seven-year-old language, but he knew exactly what she meant. “Yes, little one, you and I like the same kind of breakfast.”

      Noel followed Juanita and Jaylen in the house, and the smile left his face as he glanced back at Ryla. The look he gave her simply said, you’ve got some explaining to do.

      * * *

      Sitting at the breakfast table stuffing her face with more starch than she had put in her body in over a week, Ryla noticed that she was not receiving the you’ve-got-some-explaining-to-do looks from just Noel, but from her mother also. The beautiful and sophisticated Juanita had never fathomed that a woman would walk away from a man who could provide for her in ways she couldn’t provide for herself. But Ryla was looking for more than a checkbook kind of man. She wanted love, respect and faithfulness. Noel had proven himself to be unfaithful, so Ryla had had no choice but to leave him or end up like her mother.

      After breakfast, Jaylen turned to Noel and said, “Wanna see my room?”

      Noel Stood. “Sure thing. Lead the way.”

      Jaylen stepped back as she looked up at her father. “Whoa. You know, you’re a lot taller than I expected. I hope I’m not going to be so tall.”

      “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. My mom and my sister are both about five-seven.”

      “Good,” was all Jaylen said before turning to march off to her room. Noel followed close behind, smiling but also appearing to be suppressing a giggle.

      When they were alone in the kitchen, Juanita turned to Ryla and said in an accusatory manner, “Well, he certainly doesn’t look like a man who wants nothing to do with his child.”

      Ryla picked up the plates off the table and took them over to the sink.

      “Don’t try to ignore me, Ryla Evans, because I can tell you right now that I am fighting mad.”

      Ryla turned around and leaned against the sink. She had asked her mother to stay for breakfast because she wanted to tell her and Jaylen about Noel coming for a visit, and then she had intended to explain the lie she’d told her mother when she’d come home pregnant with no husband. “I know I owe you an explanation.”

      Juanita’s hands went to her hips in outrage. “I want to know what you did and I want to know it right now.”

      “Okay, Mom, calm down.”

      Running a hand through her honey-blond bob, Juanita said, “I’m confused, Ryla. I really don’t understand what is going on, so please enlighten me.”

      Ryla lifted a hand, trying to bring her mother’s volume down a notch. “I know I told you that Noel wanted nothing to do with Jaylen...but the truth is that I—I never told him that I was pregnant.”

      Juanita shook her head in disbelief. “Ryla, now, why would you do something like that to Jaylen?”

      “I wasn’t trying to do anything to Jaylen but protect her from heartache,” Ryla said, trying to defend her actions.

      “What are you talking about? How could not allowing your child to have a relationship with her father protect her from heartache?” Juanita’s voice was just above a whisper now.

      “Well, for one thing, she wouldn’t have to go through what I went through.”

      “Your father was with you throughout your adolescent years, Ryla. You were a daddy’s girl and loved every minute of it.”

      Ryla sat back down at the kitchen table. “Yeah, but when he left you, he left me, too. He started a whole new family and just forgot all about me.” She looked her mom square in the face as she declared, “I’ve never gotten over how he treated me. And I could never put Jaylen through that.”

      Juanita walked over to her daughter, putting an arm around her, and said, “Not every man is like your father, sweetheart. Jaylen has missed the opportunity of having a father in her life for all these years, so please don’t stand in their way any longer. You fear things that may never happen.”

      But Ryla knew that her fears were founded by facts. Because she’d already seen how unfaithful Noel could be with her own eyes, and she didn’t know if she could ever get over that. “Okay, Mom, I’ll try.”

      However, before she could fix her mind around working out a solution so that Noel could be just as much a part of Jaylen’s life as she was, he came back into the kitchen and asked to speak with her in private. Ryla got up from her seat and followed Noel outside to his Escalade.

      Once they were by the side of the truck, Noel turned to her and said with pride in his voice, “She’s a pretty amazing kid.”

      Thinking this was their time to share, Ryla perked up and said, “And she’s smart, too, Noel. Her teachers are constantly telling me how quickly she learns and moves on to the next subject with ease and understanding.”

      “My mother used to tell me that the teachers said I was so smart that they couldn’t keep up with me when I was in elementary school.” Then his eyes clouded over with sadness as he said, “I’ve missed a lot of her life.”

      “I know,” Ryla admitted. And then as if she had thought of something that would help him look on the bright side, she said, “But, Noel, you were running around living the single life and doing all sorts of crazy things the first five years of Jaylen’s life—you wouldn’t have had time for her anyway.”

      Anger replaced sadness as he ripped into her. “Don’t tell me what I didn’t have time for. You never gave me the chance. And maybe I wouldn’t have gotten myself in so much trouble if I had known that I had a daughter to take care of. Did you ever think about that?”

      “I know you’re not trying to blame me for all the womanizing and drinking you did while in the NBA?”

      “I see that you know how to read the tabloids. It’s a shame that you couldn’t figure out how to pick up a phone and use it.”

      “I didn’t have your number,” she protested.

      “You had my mom’s home number, and you knew her address. So, you have no excuse for what you did—you’re just selfish.” He shook his head. “I had no idea that you could be so heartless.”

      “Heartless!” she exploded. “That’s rich, coming from a cheat.”

      His eyebrows furrowed as he questioned her. “What are you talking about? I never needed to cheat.... I won or lost all of my games fair and square.”

      “I’m not talking about basketball,” Ryla said with a roll of her eyes. “Everything doesn’t start and end with a basketball.”

      “Then what are you talking about?”

      Ryla hugged her arms around her chest and changed the subject. “I’m not going to even go there with you. All we need to talk about is Jaylen and that’s it.”

      “Whatever.” Noel was frustrated and knew he needed to get out of there before he said some things he’d end up regretting. “So, when can we schedule the DNA test?”

      Ryla uncrossed her arms as she swung around to face off with Noel. “You just met Jaylen. Can you honestly

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