Hidden by Tara Taylor Quinn Page B

fall starkly into the silence. He should take the words back. He sat there with that knowledge, waiting to see what would happen next, feeling an almost morbid curiosity, as though detached from the whole thing.
    Her feet pulled away from his leg. And that was all.
    After a couple of long minutes, Scott picked up hisbook. Read about the Vikings coming into an Ireland made up of separate warring clans that left them vulnerable to takeover.
    â€œWhere is he?” The book fell closed in his lap.
    She turned over, showing him her back.
    â€œIs he here? In San Diego? Over on Coronado?” Had he taken leave of his senses?
    There was no movement on the bed at all. He took a deep breath. And another. Considered going out to the kitchen for a beer. Might have done so but he didn’t feel like drinking.
    â€œListen, Trish, I’m not trying to give you a hard time here. But the other day, when you went missing like that, it scared the hell out of me.”
    There. He’d admitted it. To himself. To her.
    She still said nothing, but rolled over onto her back, her head turned slightly toward him.
    â€œI was scared for you, thinking you’d been abducted or badly hurt. And I was scared for me and Taylor, too.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    He sighed, ran a hand through his hair. He really needed to get it cut again, much as he hated the bother. “You don’t have to be sorry. I understand and accept your explanation. I don’t care about that. But what if something had happened?” He turned to look at her but she didn’t quite meet his gaze.
    â€œI have no legal rights to Taylor, no way to enroll him in school. If some stranger comes knocking at the doorclaiming rights to him, I have no way of knowing if they’re valid or not.”
    â€œWe agreed not to—”
    â€œFor that matter,” he interrupted, realizing he had no patience for reminders at the moment, “I have no idea whether there’s even anyone out there to contact about him. Anyone who’d need to know if something happened to you.”
    â€œThere isn’t.”
    There was no logical reason for him to take satisfaction from that response. So what did it say about him that he did?
    â€œWhat about his father?”
    â€œThere’s no one named on his birth certificate. You know that. And without that, no one has a claim.”
    â€œThere’s always DNA testing. If someone suspects he might be the boy’s father and cares enough to pursue the issue.”
    Shadows danced across the room, making ghostly shapes on the wall.
    â€œIf someone cared enough, don’t you think he’d already have done that?”
    So the guy knocked her up and took off. The thought shouldn’t surprise him so much. It was an age-old story. Happened all the time.
    It just didn’t seem to fit with his vision of Tricia. She wasn’t the type of woman a guy ran from.
    And then something else occurred to him, cooling his blood. “Do you know who he is?”
    She glanced over at him, her brows raised.
    It was a fair question. Considering.
    â€œWhat do you think?” she asked.
    â€œYou do.”
    â€œOf course I do.”
    â€œIs he alive?” His gut told him to shut up. He didn’t often ignore that message.
    â€œLast I knew.”
    â€œWhen was the last you knew?”
    â€œListen, Scott, this isn’t going to work.” She sat up, shoved aside the covers, her legs over the side of the bed as though ready to take off. She twisted around to face him. “I can’t do this. I understand that you’ve reached a point where you need answers. I do. Really.”
    He doubted it. How could she understand something he didn’t get himself?
    â€œYou’re absolutely right, too,” she continued. Being right had never sounded so much like a death sentence. “With Taylor here, in your care, you deserve to know his pertinent information. But I’m not