Love in Catalina Cove

by Brenda Jackson

  Sawyer turned and looked at her. “That you didn’t give birth to a boy but to a girl.”

  Vashti stared at him, and then tilted her head like he’d suddenly gone bananas on her. “Sawyer, I had a boy,” she said, as if she needed to make sure he understood.

  He decided to play the role that obviously Banks didn’t want to play. That of devil’s advocate. “And how do you know that? Did you see the baby? Check out its genitals?”

  “No, of course not. By the time I came out of anesthesia, my baby had died and they had taken him away.”

  “And who told you that you’d given birth to a boy?”

  “My parents.”

  He didn’t say anything just gave her time to digest what she’d said. He watched her, saw the wheels beginning to turn in her head. These were the same parents who had tricked her into signing adoption papers. Vashti then asked both him and Banks, “Why would my parents tell me I gave birth to a boy when it was a girl? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “It would if they never wanted you to find out the truth,” Banks spoke up. “A blatant cover-up they never intended for you to know about.”

  Vashti didn’t say anything and Banks took that time to continue. “Working on that assumption, I was able to determine that there were four female babies born that day, the same day you are certain is your baby’s birthday. What I didn’t say is that there are only the names of three women listed as giving birth.”

  “That means one of the girls had twins, right?” Vashti asked, and Sawyer saw she was now not only following along but was beginning to think like an investigator.

  “That’s the only thing I can figure,” Banks said, “without seeing any further records. The reason I flew in was to meet with you personally before I continued. I am now working this investigation on the presumption that you gave birth to a girl and not a boy. Or to possible twins.”

  Vashti waved off the latter. “Trust me, I was not the one who had twins. I would have known. Compared to other girls there, I wasn’t that big. There were others with bellies a lot bigger than mine.”

  Banks nodded. “I will determine that as fact. At this point, given this information, I’m confident the child you gave birth to didn’t die that day.” He paused to let that sink in.

  Vashti nodded, but Sawyer wasn’t sure she was processing all the implications of that statement just yet.

  “Do you want me to proceed?” Banks asked.

  “Yes, although it’s going to take some getting used to whether I did have a daughter and not a son. Not that it mattered. I would have been happy with either.”

  “So what’s next, Banks?” Sawyer asked.

  “Now that we’re confident there was an adoption, I go back to the courts to see if I can get the records unsealed. Since she’s not asking for contact with the child, but just inquiring as to the well-being of the child, getting a judge to grant our request might not be too difficult. We won’t know until we try.”

  Vashti turned to Sawyer and said, “Even if my parents lied and my child was adopted, it won’t be fair to the adoptive parents to try and lay claim on that child after all this time. They’ve had sixteen years. For all I know the child might not even know he...she was adopted. I couldn’t disrupt its life that way. That’s why I made the decision if the child is fine and in a decent home, I will leave matters be.”

  Sawyer nodded, thinking that decision had been thoughtful of her. “And what if you discover the child has been shifted from foster home to foster home and isn’t okay?” He tried to push to the back of his mind that he’d pretty much stated how his life had once been.

  “Then I would ask for the court’s permission to claim my child and give it the loving home it should get.” She paused a moment and then said, “It was never my intent to give my child up for adoption.”

  She turned to Banks. “Proceed with the investigation. I need to know one way or the other that my daughter is okay.”

  Jeremy Banks nodded before standing. “I’ve discovered when it comes to reopening adoption cases, the courts are slow and often not readily accommodating. Look at possibly another four to six weeks before hearing from me again. If you don’t want to wait that long, you might consider talking to your parents about the matter again.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  VASHTI SANK DOWN on the sofa and released a painful sigh. How could her parents lie about her baby’s death? Not only that, but the sex of her baby? And then trick her into signing adoption papers when they’d known she had wanted to keep her baby? How could they do that to her? And then keep the lie all this time? She never gave birth to a boy but to a girl and her baby hadn’t died. Ms. Gertie had been right about that.

  “You okay, sweetheart?”

  She glanced up and saw Sawyer returning from walking Jeremy Banks to the door. “Yes, for a woman who just discovered how far her parents would go to save face in a community, I guess I am okay.”

  He dropped down beside her on the sofa to pull her into his arms. She tried resisting but he wouldn’t let her. “I’m not good company now, Sawyer.”

  “Why?”

  She jerked around and glared at him. “You know why. My parents lied to me. They lied to me and they tricked me,” she said in a louder voice in case he hadn’t heard or understood. “I’m mad.”

  “Be mad. You have every right to be. But what does your being mad have to do with me? With us? With my wanting to be here with you? With my wanting to be here for you?”

  Vashti didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. She doubted she could love him any more than she did at that moment. He was refusing to let her be alone when that’s all she’d ever felt since she’d lost her child. Alone. Yes, she’d had Aunt Shelby, but when Vashti had made the decision not to make Catalina Cove her home, she’d known that meant not having the close relationship with her aunt that she’d always had. Although she and Aunt Shelby still managed to do things together, it hadn’t been the same.

  However, this man, this handsome, sexy man, was letting her be angry, but not alone. She eased up from the sofa and he stood as well. That’s when she wrapped her arms around him and all but melted into his embrace. She looked up at him. “Thank you.”

  He lifted a brow. “For what?”

  “For wanting to be here with me when I’m not in a good mood.”

  He shrugged. “It happens to the best of us at times, Vashti. And like I said, you have a right to be mad. Are you going to call your folks?”

  She shook her head. “No, I called them before and they lied. This time I plan to pay them a surprise visit. I want them to look me in my face and tell me I gave birth to a son who died.”

  She looked at Sawyer and said, “Until then, I refused to let them take away my joy. And right now, Sawyer, you are my joy.”

  Swallowing deeply, she looked up at him wondering if he knew what she saying. If he had any idea just what she meant. Granted she hadn’t come out and told him that she loved him but that was the closest thing to it. Words of love would come when she was certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he could love her back.

  She watched as his expression grew serious and when he reached up and cupped her chin, she felt heat rush through her veins. “And you, Vashti Alcindor, are my joy as well.”

  She wondered if he was holding back expressing his emotions like she was doing or if he was merely repeating what she’d said. She settled with the latter as she leaned up on tiptoes.

  The moment their lips touched she felt slightly off balance with the immediate rush of desire that overtook her. And when he slid his hand to the nape of her neck to claim her mouth greedily, she couldn’t fight back a moan. It seemed forever before they broke off the kiss, needing to pull air into their lungs.

  “Sawyer?” she whispered close to his neck.

  “Yes, baby?”

  “Do you have to go
back to work?”

  He drew back and looked at her and the smile that creased his lips sent flutters off in her stomach. “No. McMillan is covering my shift the rest of the day. I’ll do the same for him on Wednesday when he takes his father for an eye appointment. So what do you have in mind, Ms. Alcindor?”

  “Come with me and I’ll show you, Mr. Grisham.”

  Taking his hand, she led him toward the bedroom.

  * * *

  “VASHTI! WHAT ON earth are you doing here?”

  Vashti wondered how many mothers, who hadn’t seen their daughters in close to a year, would open the door and say such a thing, instead of throwing their arms around them to let them know they were glad to see them. She’d been to this house only twice. Neither time had been by invitation.

  “I’m glad to see you, too, Mom,” she said, entering the house when her mother widened the door and stood aside.

  “Of course, I’m glad to see you. It’s just that your father and I weren’t expecting you.”

  When do you ever? She wanted to say, but didn’t. She had followed Sawyer’s advice and instead of flying out to see her folks first thing Monday morning, she had waited a couple days, until her anger had subsided some. She was still mad, but the extra time gave her the ability to control it.

  She glanced around the spacious living room. When her parents had sold their home in Catalina Cove, they’d made a killing and had then moved to Pensacola for a place that was walking distance to the beach. “Where’s Dad?”

  “Out back tending his garden. I didn’t notice any luggage.”

  She turned her attention back to her mother. “I don’t intend to stay. I came to talk to you and Dad.”

  “What about?”

  She picked up on her mother’s nervousness. “I’ll let you know when you get Dad in here.”

  Her mother didn’t say anything. She just looked at her oddly, before saying. “I hope you’re not here to cause trouble about anything. I didn’t want to tell you this, but your father has a bad heart.”

  “So do I, Mom.” And it breaks even more whenever I look into your face knowing that you and Dad lied, she almost said, but didn’t. “If you go get Dad, I can say what I came here to say and be on my way.”

  Her mother hesitated a moment before opening the set of French doors to go outside. Vashti paced for a minute, trying to hold her anger in check. Sawyer had offered to come with her. But she knew that meant not only rearranging his schedule, but Jade’s as well. He had, however, taken her to the airport and would be there when she arrived back in New Orleans later that day.

  “Vashti, what do you want to talk to me and your mother about?”

  She turned to find her parents standing side by side as if they were a unified force. There was no doubt in her mind they were.

  Since they appeared to be glued to the spot where they were standing, she would cover the distance separating them. She would admit they both looked well. No sign of the heart issues her mother claimed her father had. But she wasn’t surprised. Once a liar always a liar.

  She came to a stop in front of them. “I want to know why you lied to me about my baby.”

  When her mother started to speak, Vashti raised her hand for silence. “No, Mom. No more lies. I’m not asking if you lied because I know you did.”

  “You know nothing but the lie Gertie told you.”

  “Wrong, Mom. Ms. Gertie might have got me to thinking, but I hired a private investigator who proved everything she said was the truth. I also know the two of you tricked me into signing papers to give my baby up for adoption, so no more lies. I just want to know why you told me I had given birth to a boy when I had a girl? Why you told me my baby had died. And why after all these years when I questioned you about my baby, you still lied? Why, Mom, Dad? Why?”

  Her father had the sense to look away, but her mother didn’t. “You were sixteen, Vashti. You embarrassed us when you acted like nothing more than a parentless slut. People talk. They talked about us. But you didn’t care. All you cared about was yourself and not what being pregnant was doing to me and your father. What people were saying. How our life was changing. So yes, we lied. You didn’t need to be a mother. You were only sixteen, for heaven’s sake. You wouldn’t tell us the name of the guy who got you pregnant. For all we knew you could have gotten raped. All we knew was that you didn’t even have a boyfriend. Or you weren’t supposed to have one. You acted like you were happy to be pregnant, but for us it was a total embarrassment. People wanted to know the name of your baby’s father and thought it was shameful that we didn’t even know.”

  Her mother paused a moment before adding, “As far as I’m concerned, we did the right thing with the adoption, even if we tricked you to do it. You finished school and went to college and made something of your life. If we had to do it over again, we would.”

  Anger filled Vashti to the brim. “My baby was your grandchild. Did that not mean anything to either of you?”

  At first she thought neither would answer and then her father surprised her and said, “Yes. But like your mother said, you were too young to be a mother and we figured you would get married one day and have other babies.”

  “But what about that one, Dad? My daughter. My little girl.”

  Her parents quickly glanced at each other as if there was something else. Something Vashti had missed. “Is there something else I need to know? Do you know who adopted my baby?”

  “No,” her mother quickly said. “There’s nothing else and it was a private adoption.”

  Vashti tightened her hand on her purse straps. The latter meant her parents had no idea who had adopted her child. “Then I have nothing else to say, other than you were wrong for what you did to me. I intend to find my child, to make sure she’s okay. So, all you did was done for nothing.”

  “Why can’t you leave well enough alone, Vashti?”

  They obviously didn’t have a clue what their actions had done to her and it was obvious they didn’t care.

  “Because I can’t leave well enough alone. I guess it’s the mother in me, the parental connection in me that can’t let go. It’s obvious neither of you knows how that feels.”

  She headed for the door, opened it and walked out.

  * * *

  THE SUN WAS going down over the cove when Vashti unlocked the door to Shelby by the Sea. The moment they were inside Sawyer walked up behind her and drew her into his arms.

  From the moment he’d seen her at the airport, he’d known what the outcome of the meeting with her parents had been. The sad look on her face had said it all. Her parents had betrayed her, and she was hurting over it.

  “Do you want to take a walk on the beach?” he asked, leaning in to nibble on the underside of her ear. He was somewhat satisfied when he heard her pleasurable purr.

  “I’m really tempted, but not now. I just want you to hold me for a while.”

  He wanted to do that as well and tightened his arms around her. After they stood there for a few moments he whispered. “I’m ready to listen when you’re ready to talk about it.”

  She lifted her head from his chest and he saw pain so sharp in her eyes he felt like someone had hit him in the gut. He also saw the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. Whatever happened between her parents had hurt. The lies. Their actions. Their ultimate betrayal.

  “They admitted to lying, Sawyer. My parents admitted to giving my baby away,” she said softly. “Even now they felt they did the right thing.” She paused a moment and then said, “I don’t think I can ever forgive them for what they did to me.”

  Sawyer didn’t say anything. He knew what her parents had done seemed unforgivable now but one day she had to forgive them. In his line of business he’d seen families torn apart and then refuse to work it out because someone didn’t want to forgive. It was like a sore that wouldn’t heal and
if allowed to fester would only get worse.

  “Vashti?”

  “Yes?”

  “I know your parents have let you down, but I think you need to remember something.”

  She lifted a brow. “What?”

  “They are human and aren’t perfect. They made a mistake.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “I know what you’re saying, Sawyer, but do you have any idea how I feel? What they did to me? I have a child out there somewhere who probably thinks I never wanted her. That I didn’t love her. A child that I wanted to raise myself but has been raised by someone else. That’s not fair. It’s just not fair. I hate them.”

  And then she broke down and cried in his arms and the sobs tore into him. He heard the pain. He swept her off her feet into his arms and headed for the sofa to sit down with her in his lap, where he continued to hold her while she cried. “You’re incapable of hating anyone. You’re too full of love. It’s takes up too much time and effort to hate. It’s time and effort you can be putting into love.” He wondered if she got what he was saying. He wished more than anything all that love she had inside of her could be shared with him.

  “I need to go see Reid Lacroix,” she said, suddenly sitting up and pulling out of his arms.

  He frowned. “Reid Lacroix? Why?”

  “Because now I know for certain that I have a daughter out there somewhere.”

  Sawyer felt even more confused. “Why would that matter to him?”

  Vashti slowly pulled her hands from his chest, as if too late she’d realized she had said too much. Breaking eye contact with him she looked away, and he knew she was trying to decide what to tell him. Then as if she’d made up her mind about it, she looked back at him and placed her hands back on his chest.

  “It would matter to him because his son, Julius, was the father of my child. That means my daughter, where ever she is, is Mr. Lacroix’s granddaughter.”

  * * *

  THERE. SHE HAD shared her secret with another person. Vashti watched as an expression of surprise lined Sawyer’s features. “The identity of my baby’s father was a secret,” she heard herself say. “The only other person who knows is Bryce. I never told anyone else. Not even my parents or Aunt Shelby.”