“Oh.” He ran his hands over his face. “This is— I don’t know what to say.”
He was a good-looking guy, a fact that was emphasized by the fitted red XSport Fitness T-shirt and black athletic pants that showed off his toned physique. In light of the circumstances, the cynical divorce lawyer in Victoria assumed it was highly possible that Nicole Dixon was one of many women Peter Sutter had picked up at a bar over the last several years.
Which was why she was surprised by what he said next.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about that night with Nicole. I feel horrible that I left like that. I had no idea she was pregnant.” He paused. “Is she, um, sure the baby is mine?”
“Yes. But we’ll do a paternity test to confirm that before my client and I file a petition for child support.”
“Child support.” He took another deep breath. “My wife . . . Well, you were there, you know that she’s pregnant. I don’t know how to tell her about this.” He looked shell-shocked. “Melanie doesn’t know anything about Nicole.”
“Yes, I gathered that,” Victoria said dryly.
He cocked his head. “Wait—you think I cheated on her. No. Noooo, no. See, when I slept with Nicole, Melanie and I were on a break.”
Victoria nearly did a facepalm. It was like she was at home, watching a Friends rerun.
We were on a break!
“Your relationship with your wife is none of my business, Mr. Sutter. I’m here solely to represent the interests of Ms. Dixon and her child.”
“But Melanie and I really were on a break,” he said earnestly, as if it was important she believe him. “We’d been together for around three years, and we’d started talking about getting engaged. So, one day, I went out shopping for rings and, I don’t know, I started thinking about forever and how marriage means spending the rest of your life with just one person. And I guess I just . . . panicked.”
Victoria kept her face impassive, but she was hardly impressed with the story thus far. A man panicking over the idea of sleeping with one woman for the rest of his life.
How original.
Peter held up a hand. “I know; I’m not proud of that. I’m just trying to explain. Anyway, when I told Melanie I had doubts, she basically kicked my ass to the curb. We’d been broken up for about three weeks, and it just . . . wasn’t the way I thought it was going to be. I missed her. A lot. I was moping around, and my friends said I needed to get out and give being single a shot. So they dragged me out to the bar, and that’s when I met Nicole. If I remember right, it was her birthday that night.”
Victoria was a little surprised he remembered that. “That’s right.”
“I remember buying her a shot, and then she bought me a shot, and things just went from there. She was great. A lot of fun to talk to. We ended up back at her place and, well . . . I guess you know what happened next.” He paused, his expression turning more serious. “I think we both passed out, and when I woke up and saw that I was lying in bed next to a woman, it just felt . . . wrong. I knew the only woman that I should be lying next to was Melanie. And it hit me that I had lost the best thing that had ever happened to me, and . . . I got choked up about that. I didn’t want Nicole to wake up and see me crying and think I was some freak or that she’d done something wrong, so I just got the hell out of there.” He looked Victoria directly in the eyes. “But I know that was stupid. And if I see Nicole, I plan to tell her how sorry I am about that.”
Well.
She supposed that wasn’t the worst explanation she’d ever heard.
Still, the cynic in her had some lingering questions. “You could’ve gone back to Nicole’s place the next day to apologize.”
“Actually, the next day, I went straight to Melanie’s place to beg her to give me a second chance. She said she didn’t want to be with a guy who had doubts, so to show her how committed I was about us, I sat on her front doorstep every night after work until she agreed to talk to me.”
Okay, she’d bite. “How many nights did it take you?”
“Fourteen,” he said.
“Fourteen?” Victoria smiled slightly at that. “Good for her.”
“After that, everything happened fast. Melanie and I got back together and we decided we didn’t want to drag things out planning a big, fancy wedding. So we flew to Santa Barbara, where her parents live, and had a small ceremony with just family and close friends. That was nine months ago.” He rested his arms on the table. “As for why I never circled back to Nicole, I guess at first it was because I was so focused on getting Melanie back. Then after that, I don’t know . . . It seemed a little weird, the idea of suddenly showing up on Nicole’s doorstep. What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, remember me? Sorry I skipped out on you a month ago. And by the way—I’m getting married!’”
“At least she would’ve had the chance to tell you she was pregnant,” Victoria said.
“Well, I didn’t know that was even a possibility. I thought we used a condom. But we were pretty drunk, so . . .” With a sheepish blush, he cleared his throat. “Anyway. What happens now?”
“To start, I’ll give you the address of a lab you can go to for the paternity test.”
He nodded. “And then you’ll call me with the results?”
“That won’t be necessary. The lab will mail out two copies of the results, one to you directly and one to either Nicole or myself.”
Peter shook his head emphatically. “No way. They can’t send anything to my home or to work. I can’t risk that Melanie would find out that way. We agreed we didn’t want to know what happened while we were apart, that it didn’t matter,” he explained. “But now she’s pregnant. And she’s so excited about that. How am supposed to tell her that I might already have a kid with someone else—with a woman she never knew about?” He gestured at Victoria. “I mean, how would you react if you found that out about your husband?”
“Mr. Sutter, it’s really n—”
“I know, I know, it’s none of your business.” He shook his head, looking despondent. “I just don’t want to hurt her.”
Something inside Victoria softened. Yes, she thought Peter could’ve handled the situation with Nicole better—hell, the guy could’ve at least left a note before hightailing it out of her apartment. But now, at least, he appeared genuinely interested in doing the right thing.