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out into politics
or religion seeing where the other one stood, but never getting down to details
or arguments. The more one gave, the more the other one wanted to. Going back
and forth from serious to lighthearted, Devlin changed back to serious.
    “Where’s his father?” Dev asked as he
played with a lock of her hair.
    “Out of the picture.”
    “Care to elaborate?”
    “There’s really not much to tell. Deke and
I were both studying at Columbia University in New York City. We were both
young, and were going to change the world with our art.” She gave him a sad
smile. “We graduated, then spent time trying to sell
our art. It wasn’t a bad relationship, I guess you could say it was
comfortable, but we both put all of our passion into our art and not each
other. Then as they say, at one point, one thing led to another, and nine
months later Leo was born. Somehow a baby didn’t fit into his lifestyle, but we
got married anyway. We had a small studio, which wasn’t even big enough for
both of us, but with a baby added in, there really wasn’t enough room. Once the
baby became a toddler, it was apparent Deke wanted nothing to do with him. One
day I woke up and he left, never to come back. I get a check a couple of times
a year. Anywhere from ten bucks to a couple hundred. I
really don’t want it, but I put it away for when Leo’s older.”
    “It couldn’t have been easy.”
    “It’s nothing that thousands of other
single parents don’t go through all the time. Leo has grown up without a father.
I vowed to myself he’d never know how difficult things were for me at times,
he’d always know I love him and I’m there for him, no matter what.”
    “He’s a lucky little boy.”
    “I like to think so.”
    They continued to talk long into the night
until it was late and time for Devlin to say goodnight. It felt natural when he
leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. When she went to bed, she had
a smile on her face. For the first time in years, she’d spent an enjoyable
evening with an attractive man, and except for her one mom moment of freaking
out about him possibly being a murderer, she’d relaxed and enjoyed herself. Not
to mention, she could now say she’s kissed the famous Devlin Cross – well, he’d
given her a kiss on the cheek. She chuckled to herself. Now there’s a memory
for when she’s an old lady.

 
    Chapter
Four

 
    Hayden
followed Devlin from the city, wondering where he was going. She hoped he’d end
up somewhere they could ‘accidently’ run into each other. It took everything
she had not to bust into his meeting and demand why he was ignoring her text
messages. She was more important than anything else. Frowning, she didn’t
understand where he was going. She’d passed him at one point and looked over.
He was focused straight ahead with a smile on his face. Using the voice-activated
search engine on her phone, she tried to figure out where he could be going. If
she knew his final destination, she might be able to get there first and make
it look more like he ran into her, and not the other way around.
    Watching his hand tap on the side of the
door to whatever music he was listening to, she frowned when nothing came up in
her search that he’d be interested in. She knew everything about him; she had
filled a whole notebook with his likes and dislikes. She’d even memorized
everything down to the exact amount of pepper he liked on his eggs based on his
activities from the night before. If there’d been a movie premiere and he’d
been up late, he’d like more pepper. If he’d been shooting a movie and it
hadn’t been a late shoot, and he’d arrived home at a decent time, he’d barely
use any pepper. She knew him, knew all about him. She’d been studying him for
years; there was nothing she did not know.
    When he signaled to exit the turnpike, she
didn’t know what to expect, but the small town with a small main street was
definitely not it. He seemed to