Nobody's Son by Shae Connor Read Free Book Online Page A

said you’d be meeting up tomorrow night again?”
    Shaun nodded. “Yep. They finished up that project Friday, so he’s finally free.” The two of them usually had a standing pool game on Wednesday nights, but Darnell had been working late almost every night for weeks, trying to get a house finished before the end of August.
    Gran lifted an eyebrow but didn’t look at him as she spooned up more stew. “Good. Maybe he can get out of you what you don’t want to tell me yet.”
    Shaun’s face heated, and he picked up his tea glass to take a long swallow. He hadn’t actually thought she’d forgotten about that, but he’d hoped to make it through dinner without her poking at it.
    “So,” he said, reaching for his spoon again. “What else do you have going on this week?”
    She swallowed her stew, sipped her tea, and dabbed at her lips primly with her napkin before launching into the details of her various group meetings and the dinner with her church friends she had planned Thursday night. Shaun responded mostly with nods as he finished his meal. He didn’t know if he’d be ready to talk to Darnell the following night, but he definitely wasn’t getting into anything with his gran now.
    He needed more time to figure things out in his own head first.
     
     
    SHAUN HAD deliberately chosen a meeting place nowhere near home. Daily Grind was a terminally hipster café-cum-coffeehouse not far from the Atlanta airport. The tiny space sat nearly empty at midafternoon, except for a few young people bent over laptops and tablets and a lone middle-aged man sitting at a table near the window. Even if he hadn’t seen Willis Erwin’s picture online, Shaun wouldn’t have had trouble picking him out.
    Shaun didn’t bother with coffee. He just walked over and, ignoring the way the thought made his skin crawl, sat in the chair across the table from the man who might be his father.
    Erwin regarded Shaun silently for a moment, then said, “Thank you for coming.”
    Shaun jerked a nod. “Figured I should find out what you need to say.”
    Erwin leaned forward, wrapping both hands around his coffee mug. “Well. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m a drunk.”
    Shaun raised his head to meet the other man’s gaze. “Okay.”
    “Officially, a recovering alcoholic, but I figure why mince words.” Erwin shrugged. “I’ve been a drunk most of my life, and I screwed up a lot of stuff because of it. Lost a wife and almost lost my business, and it still took almost dying for me to straighten up.”
    He settled against the back of his seat, one hand still on his mug. “I started going to Alcoholics Anonymous almost a year ago. Made it all the way up to step eight, where you’re supposed to name the people you hurt and start making amends. That’s why I started looking for your mama.”
    This was the part Shaun dreaded. “What does she have to do with it?”
    Erwin had the audacity to smile. It only served to make him look more creepy. “We worked at the Piggly Wiggly together when I was eighteen. She was a cashier, and I was working stock. She was a pretty little thing, your mama. Smooth skin and curves. I knew the first time I saw her she would be—”
    “You’d damn well better get to the point before I get up and walk right outta here.”
    Erwin’s expression darkened, but he clearly got the picture. “We got together a few times. Hooked up, I guess the kids call it now. She was—” He stopped and shook his head. “One day she didn’t show up for work. The manager wouldn’t tell me why. I looked up her number and called and left messages, but I never heard another word. I figured she didn’t want to talk to me.” He looked Shaun up and down. “Guess now I know why.”
    Bile rose in Shaun’s throat. “You think she left because you got her pregnant?”
    Erwin shrugged. “I didn’t then, but when the PI told me about you, I did the math. The timing works out right.”
    “And the reason you never tried