Chapter Thirty-six

The tone of his voice was calm, slightly challenging, but she was used to him by now. The stare down was intense, two pairs of eyes trained on each other, daring and waiting. She smiled warmly, knowing that picking a fight with her was just his way of changing the subject. She wouldn’t blame him anyway. She knew what it was like to suffer under, yet love a dysfunctional parent.

Studying the slight creases on his face, she knew that though he had probably wanted to change the subject, he was equally curious about the father of her children. She reached out to him, placed her warm palm on his cheek and smiled when he impulsively leaned back, more from surprise than anything else.

“The father of my children is the most clueless man on earth. I have no idea why I ever fell in love with him, but I don’t regret it for a single day. He gave me the best gift I could ever receive from anyone, my boys.”

He swallowed. She suspected he did not think she would answer his question directly. He’d