Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📕

on the highway to Erie before anybody spoke, and it was Eli who broke the silence. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"I've been trying to--to think what to say," Marilyn admitted. She'd felt numb ever since Eli had dropped his bombshell. "Or which of the million things buzzing around in my head I ought to say. Or ought not to say. Or--"

"Say 'em. Say 'em all. I've probably thought 'em already." Eli slumped down in his seat.

"You're really Pete's father?"

"Wild, isn't it? I had the tests done a couple years ago, when DNA testing started getting big, so I could be sure I'd have some say in what happens to Pete. You know, if Tee had trouble or something like that. I half expected 'em to come back negative, maybe more than half. But they didn't."

Now that he'd started talking, he couldn't seem to stop. "If he can sleep on the floor tonight, I'll get started finding a place for us to stay in the morning."

Marilyn bit her lip, thinking. She didn't like that idea.

Eli obviously saw it, because he started backpedaling. "Or just drop us at a motel. We'll be fine."

She liked this new idea even less. "Don't be ridiculous," she snapped. "Of course you and Pete can stay. I just--I have a house." What was she suggesting?

"Yeah?" He sounded cautious.

"What if I opened it up? It's three bedrooms, two baths. The yard is small, but not any smaller than anything else in Pittsburgh." She didn't like the idea of Eli trying to live with his little boy in a hotel room. It wasn't just the little boy. She wasn't ready to say goodbye to Eli yet. That is, if he wasn't.

"You mean for me and Pete to move into by ourselves? Or would you come too?" Eli said.

"Do you want me to come?"

"Hell, yes. I don't know anything about taking care of kids. You raised one all the way to eighteen. I figure you know something about it. Enough to keep me from screwing up too bad. But don't, if you don't want to."

Her heart sank. "Is that why you want me there? To help with Pete?" She understood that well enough.

Eli turned toward her, twisting in the seatbelt she made him wear. "I want you, Marilyn, plain and simple. Any way I can get you. Anywhere. Any time. I thought you knew that."

"A child changes things. It always does."

"Doesn't change that." Eli grinned at her, obviously trying to wheedle a returning smile. "Just makes it a little complicated to get there."

Marilyn couldn't help giving him the smile he wanted. He could charm money from a miser. "Okay," she said. "We'll all move in."

"None of this separate bedrooms shit, right?"

"If that's what you want." Oh, she hoped it was.

"Oh, yeah, babe. That's what I want."

She took a deep breath, slow and silent so he wouldn't notice, relieved that it was settled, for now anyway. Then her smile turned wicked. "You realize my family will probably throw sixteen kinds of hissy fit about this. I mean, they've been after me to move back into my house, but not with company."

"So, why are you smiling?" Eli asked warily.

"I wish I could see their faces when they find out you're moving in too." She chuckled. "I'm tempted to call and invite them over for dinner."

"Think they'd come?"

"Who knows?"

Silence fell in the car again. A more comfortable silence than before.

"Why didn't you tell me Pete was your son?" Marilyn asked after several miles. She knew Eli had secrets. This one shouldn't hurt her feelings any more than the others, but it did. "Why didn't you want me to know? Did you think I'd change my mind about you?"

"No, nothing like that. I don't--" Eli hunched his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable with the subject. "Nobody knows. Or almost nobody. Pete doesn't even know. Fitz does, because he wouldn't keep him until I told him. I had to write out one of those medical permission slips so he could take the kid to the doctor if he got a cold or something. Teresa knew. Nobody else. Except now you."

"Why the big secret?" She could--almost--understand him keeping it a secret from her, but from the boy himself? "Why didn't you want anybody to know?"

He sighed, fingers tap-tapping on his jeans. "A kid should have a father he can look up to. That sure as hell isn't me."

Marilyn frowned. That didn't make any sense. "Why not? Have you been to prison?"

"No. Hell, no. I've never been arrested since I turned seventeen." He paused. "Well, okay, I've been arrested a couple times, but stuff like at the college the other day. Mistakes. They always let me go after a few hours. A couple days at most."

"I find it a little hard to think you're trying to avoid child support."

Eli shook his head. "I sent money every month. Most times straight to the landlord so Tee couldn't spend it on rock."

"So..." It didn't make any sense. "Why?"

"Let's just say I'm not the greatest role model in the world and leave it at that, okay?"

"Okay." But she couldn't of course. It was obvious Eli loved the boy. He made sure Pete could always reach him and kept in frequent touch. He provided emotional and financial support. Obviously the idea of day-to-day responsibility for Pete overwhelmed Eli, but that didn't explain why Eli didn't want Pete to know he was his father.

She finally managed to stuff the questions into a back corner of her mind. Eli was telling him now. Why he'd waited so long didn't matter. A little boy's welfare did. Which reminded her--

"Eli, give me your cell phone."

"You're driving. What's the number?"

"Joey's. It's--"

"I got it." Eli punched the number in quickly. Marilyn decided she was both impressed and surprised. Impressed that he'd have her brother's number programmed in already and surprised that he'd want to.

"Yeah, Joey, it's Eli. Marilyn wants me to give you a message." He looked over at her, eyebrows raised, waiting.

"Give me the phone." She held