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“Hey Jake! Come back here!” Brenda called as she neared the door. “Momma needs to….”

 She stopped short when Kat pulled the door back and revealed a shocked AJ and Nick on the front porch.

 “Oh my.” Brenda said quietly.

 “You can say that again.” Nick mumbled.

 AJ finally looked up from Jake and was glaring at Kat. She could feel his eyes boring into her and she asked Brenda to take the baby upstairs and get him cleaned up.

 “Sure, no problem.” Brenda said grateful to get out of the line of fire. She grabbed Jake and headed upstairs.

 Kat opened the door wider and invited the two men inside. They followed her down to the living room and sat down in the chairs across from the sofa that Kat had settled on.

 “I think we need to talk.” said Kat softly.

 “No shit! Ya think?” AJ yelled.

 Nick reached out and put his hand on his friend’s arm. “Calm down man. There’s a baby here.”

 “Yeah, my baby! The one she didn’t feel the need to tell me about!” AJ said still shouting.

 Kat didn’t blame AJ for feeling the way he did. She turned to Nick and asked him if he would mind giving them a few minutes alone.

 “Absolutely not!” Nick said jumping out of the chair. “I’ll be out back.”

 Once Nick left, Kat turned around to face AJ. “I know you’re mad…”

 “Mad is a fucking understatement! I’m beyond mad! What the hell is wrong with you?” AJ yelled shooting out of his chair. He was so angry that he started pacing around the room. “I would never have thought you do something so sneaky!”

 “AJ, I…”

 “You’re no better than Michelle!”

 Kat reeled back like she’d been slapped in the face. “I’m not Michelle.”

 “You’re just like her. Instead of having someone else’s kid and saying he’s mine, you had my baby and never told me!” The wheels were turning in his head. “Did you know about him when…”

 “No.” Kat said firmly. “I found out I was pregnant a month after you left.”

 “You left! You left me! I did not leave you! Let’s get that straight right now!”

 Kat nodded. “I found out about Jake a month after I left.” She took a deep breath and continued. “I didn’t even tell Brenda or my family. No one knew I’d had a baby until after he was born.”

 She waited for AJ to say something but he just stared at her. “I got pregnant when you came to stay during Christmas. He was born October 22nd.”

 “That’s in two weeks!” AJ shouted.

“I know. He’ll be a year old.” She paused. “No one knew about him until I moved back in with Brenda in March.”

 AJ glowered at her.

 “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

 “You should be!”

 “I’m sorry for a lot of things. I made a lot of stupid choices and decisions. I have to live with that. But you need to know that I wasn’t doing this to hurt you.”

 “What did you think it would do?”

 “Honestly, I don’t know. I was scared AJ. You were gone, I had moved 100 miles away, I was pregnant and alone. It was just Jake and I for 6 months. I don’t know if the choices I made were right or not but I made them. I can’t undo them.”

 “No kidding.”

 “I didn’t even know where you were AJ. As far as I was concerned, you had moved on with Michelle and I wasn’t about to come back into your life and mess you up again.”

 “You should have tried!”

 “I know that now. I’m sorry, I really am.”

 “Are you going to leave again now?”

 “No.” Kat said shaking her head. “I have to be here. Now that you know about Jake, I want you to be able to see him.”

 “Wow, that’s so nice of you!”

 Kat put her head in her hands. She was tired and didn’t want to fight anymore. She looked up at AJ but found he was staring at the living room door. She turned and saw Jake standing there with a picture frame in his hand.

 He toddled over to his mother and reached up for her. She picked him up and settled him on her lap. He pointed at the picture frame and then pointed to AJ. Kat nodded her head and Jake turned to face AJ.

 “Dada!”