to say. He’d spent many hours in a courtroom with the right response ready at every moment, but here in the hallway he didn’t have a clue how to respond.
“When I was eighteen, I was very naive and believed in love.” She took a deep breath. “I believed in love so strongly I knew the moment we made love you’d fall deeply in love with me. How stupid was that?”
“I’m sorry I hurt you.” They were the only words he could push through his dry throat. She was sincere and honest, and he hated himself at that moment. Hated what had happened between them. Hated he’d destroyed her belief in love.
“And I’m sorry I believed in a love that didn’t exist, but only in my dreams.”
“Angie...”
She held up a hand. “No. Let me say what I have to say because I know you’re not going to stop until you hear the whole story.”
“What story?” He didn’t understand what she was talking about. “We made a bad decision, and we both realized that afterward.”
“You did. I thought I loved you. Even though it was a teenage crush, my feelings were very real to me.”
He clasped his hands until they were numb. The numbness spread to his wrist, his arms. “It’s been so many years ago I don’t understand why we’re talking about it now.”
“You said our night together was a mistake.”
“You agreed.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t say much of anything. You did all the talking. It wasn’t a mistake to me. It will never be.”
He swallowed hard. “You were so young. You had your whole life ahead of you and—”
“You never asked how I felt. It was all about you and what you’d perceived you’d done.”
He drew a long breath. “What does this have to do with your ex-husband not being here?”
“I made bad choices when I was eighteen, but I thought I had made the right choices at the time. Looking back, I can see I was desperately trying to save my pride because that was all I had left.”
He didn’t say anything because he was completely lost. He had no idea what she was talking about. Yet he could clearly hear in her voice that he’d hurt her. He didn’t know how to make that right. They had both moved on to different lives. He saw no reason to dredge it all up again. He had to say something, though.
“You were very young, and I think your feelings for me were blown out of proportion.”
“You could be right about that, because those feelings soon faded.” She sat up straight and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I felt very foolish.”
“Angie, what are you trying to tell me?”
“Like I said, I believe things happen for a reason. You came around that corner at that precise moment and literally crashed into everything I had been keeping a secret for ten years.”
“What...what are you saying?”
She didn’t answer for a moment, and he sensed she was gauging her next words. “I’m saying Erin’s father doesn’t need to be notified because he’s already here.”
“What?”
“You’re Erin’s father.”
Chapter Four
The hallway went dark. Completely. Like a rabbit hole. And he was tumbling down, down, down. The only sound he heard was his heart slamming against his ribs in panic.
You’re Erin’s father.
He’d known.
Somewhere in his subconscious, he’d known. That was why he couldn’t leave the hospital. Angie had desperately wanted to get rid of him, and that had triggered his lawyer’s antenna. True, he’d just run into her child with his truck, but he’d sensed it was more than that. So he’d kept prodding. Kept insisting. Kept questioning.
Oh, my God! He’d hit his own child.
How could that be?
He rose to his feet like a drunk who’d spent too many hours in a bar. His head hurt. His nerves were shaky, and he couldn’t focus beyond the now.
You’re Erin’s father.
“We used protection. How could she be mine?” He was still holding on to the belief that it wasn’t possible he had a child and didn’t know.
“Condoms are not one hundred percent foolproof. You should know that.”
He shook his head. “No...no...” But from her steady gaze, he knew she wasn’t lying. “How could you do this to me?” burst from his throat.
Her head down, her hands clasped in her lap, she replied in a voice that seemed to echo through the hole in his heart. “How was I supposed to tell you when you weren’t here?”
“My father knew how to get in touch with me. You could have asked him.”
“I did. I made the trip twice, and both times he thought I wanted to speak to Rachel. He called her in Paris so we could talk. The second time Rachel didn’t answer and I asked about you. He told me you were engaged and getting married around Christmas. He added that you’d found the perfect wife for your political career. I couldn’t tell you after that. I could have ruined your life.”
“That’s supposed to make it okay?”
Angie kept her head down. “Of course not.”
“Why? Why would you keep it from me all these years?” He tried to keep his voice calm but feared he’d failed. He sounded like a drill sergeant.
“If you remember, you were in Europe. When I realized you were back and living in Houston, I tried your cell number and it wasn’t working anymore.”
“It was stolen in Paris, and I got a new one.”
“I was young and didn’t know what to do. You didn’t love me, and the fact that I was pregnant would only wreck your life, your career. That’s the way I saw it then.”
“So you thought it was better for your daughter and me to never know about each other. Wait. I’ve been back for over two years in Horseshoe and in that time you couldn’t find a moment to tell me the truth?”
She heaved a sigh. “I tried. Three times, if you’ll remember.”
“When?”
“You were home for a while before I even knew you were back in Horseshoe, but when I saw you talking to Wyatt outside the courthouse, I left the bakery and walked over. I asked if you had a few minutes to talk, and you looked at your watch and said you had a meeting in fifteen minutes and that you would catch me later. I waited, but you never made any move to get in touch with me.”
He
