“Children?” The eager look she gave me told me she would have loved siblings.
“No other children,” I replied blandly, and saw some light go from her eyes before they brightened again with her next question.
“Richard said she has a house in New Jersey?”
“She does but she spends part of the week here in New York,” I replied honestly, figuring I hadn’t given too much away by telling her that.
“Wow, I’ve lived and worked here for almost twelve years and I could have passed her in the street.”
“Twelve years?” I asked, shifting the conversation on to a less invasive line of questioning about Tricia.
“Yeah, although I spent the first year or so in Baltimore before we moved all over, Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan. I came to New York for college. After graduating from Rochester, I gained an internship and more substantial roles at Bank of America,” she chuckled. “I’m still in a senior accounting specialist role.”
For a long moment I said nothing, my heart racing because I felt I would have had to have cloned Tricia to have found anyone more alike. Then and there I had wanted to forget the DNA test and give Erin the confirmation she had needed. I’d wanted to tell her the woman I’d been talking about was the love of my life and her mother. But I knew it wasn’t that easy, and for Tricia, at least, she would need to see the result in black and white before she’d accept her daughter.
Forty minutes later, Erin waved me goodbye and I watched as she hitched her strap on her purse higher on her shoulder and wove her way through the crowds on the street, as she made her way back to work. When she had mingled into the crowd and I could no longer see her, I pulled out my cell, knowing it would be a long twenty-four hours for all of us and I came up with a last minute plan and called Tricia.
“How would you feel about a boat ride today?”
Tricia had been scrambling eggs the following morning when her cell phone had started to ring. Throwing the pan off the heat, she turned off the stove and swiped up her cell in her hand. Her eyes darted to me as she answered the call, and I knew it was news about the DNA test.
“Yes?” she snapped, making no attempt to hide her anguish. I stood motionless, watching her every move, focusing in on her face and she suddenly dropped to her knees. “You’re sure?” she asked quietly and swallowed hard. I swear I felt my blood as it ran through every vein in that moment and my heart stuttered as I held my breath. “Thank you,” she said in a whisper, cut the call, and dropped her hand with her cell to her lap. The vacant look she gave me told me her mind had gone blank.
“What? I barked, unable to contain how anxious I felt after I’d watched her receive the news.
“She really is mine,” she mouthed, the words still inside her head as she closed her eyes, swallowed, and then her jaw dropped in a silent scream. Engulfed by an overwhelming tide of emotion, her body shuddered in a series of hiccupped breaths as she stared up at me from the floor.
Tears fell from her eyes and dripped off her chin in a heartbreaking scene as her grief, guilt, and loss from thirty years past suddenly threatened to drown her. “I … I … never thought this would ever happen,” she whispered, her voice raspy and shaking while her lips quivered from her effort to talk through her highly emotional state.
“Come here,” I replied, scooping her up off the floor and carrying her toward the couch. I sat down and cradled in in my lap.
“Of course, she’s yours,” I whispered, pressing my lips to her cheeks, kissing her tears away. “There wasn’t a doubt in my mind from the moment I saw her picture.”
“Picture? You have a picture? Why didn’t I ask for that? I mean I knew there had to be one, but I was too scared to ask. What the fuck was I thinking?”
“You’ve had so much to think about this last couple of weeks. Do you want to see what she looks like?” She nodded, and I pulled out my phone. I had never downloaded the picture to my cell, leaving it in my email, as I hadn’t wanted to share it until Tricia had been prepared for it.
Opening it, I gave it to her and sat quietly as I heard her breath hitch as she stared at the screen. I knew instinctively she was as shocked as I had been by their likeness, the first time I’d opened the picture.
“She’s really beautiful,” she mumbled, stroking her finger down the screen.
“Like her mother,” I agreed, and kissed her temple. “When I met her yesterday, she took my breath away because you are like peas in a pod. That picture doesn’t do her justice. This goes at your pace, baby. I’m sure I’ll get a call very soon from Erin when she hears the result. No one is rushing you into anything, Tricia, remember Erin has no idea who you are yet, nor your connection to me, so take all the time you need and I’ll be here to do whatever you want to do next.”
“You are the most incredible person I have ever met in my life,” she replied, kissing me in what I knew was a mixture of joyful and sorrowful tears. “I’ve landed you in all of my mess and yet you still love me.” Her words tugged at my heartstrings because it broke my heart it had taken this long for someone to give her the courage to face her secret, seek the truth, and come to terms with the fact the woman she had trusted the most had still been reluctant to accept responsibility for letting her daughter down.
“Baby, with what you’ve been through, I think it makes you the strongest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, and your mess is my mess. The last thirty years have been the toughest time of your life, but I promise you, I’ll do everything it takes to make the next thirty the best you’ve ever had. You deserve to be happy, and frankly, I think I’ve earned that right as well. Together we’ll face the future knowing neither of us has to face that alone.”
“Careful, next thing you know you’ll be proposing to me,” she joked through a sniffle and I took her head in my hands. It was a move I’d found which appeared to center her. Pulling her head closer, I kissed her tenderly and tasted her salty tears as they washed over my lips.
“Baby, if I ever do that it will be when you least expect it, but that isn’t a question for today. Right now, you have more questions than answers. The last thing I’d want to do is distract you from something you’ve waited most of your life for.”
I knew many other men would have jumped at the opportunity Tricia had presented me with, but unlike her mother, I knew Tricia’s needs came first. Had I been selfish I could have asked her then and there to be my wife, but I thought my question could wait. From where I stood support, love, and understanding were in far greater need than me getting down on one knee and trying to impress her with a flashy diamond ring.
What she had gone through was a highly traumatic event for a woman of any age, but at such a tender age, it had felt especially cruel. As we looked forward to the next phase of her life, I figured only time would tell if Tricia could find peace from the mistake she made, the woman who let her down, and the daughter she had yet to meet.
Grab Resist Me: Tricia and James, Part 2, (Book 4 of the Unchained Attraction series) for the concluding part of the Resist Duet
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Acknowledgments
Edited by Karen Hrdlicka
Timeline Proof Krista Webster
Final proofs Sue Noyes & Lisa Perkins
Cover design Francessca PR & Design. picture Adobe
Beta team: Wendy Hodges, TL Wainwright Author, Nikki Costello.
About the Author
K. L. Shandwick is a writer of contemporary, suspense, and new adult romance who retired in 2015 to write full time. Previously, she was a registered midwife and social care professional, but during her teenage years she followed her passion for music by working as a merchandiser for rock bands. K.L's writing career only started when she was challenged to write a chapter of a book. This led to her first series,
The Everything Trilogy.
K. L. lives on the outskirts of York, UK. She started writing after a challenge by a friend when she commented on a book she had read. The result of this was ‘The Everything Trilogy’. Her background has been mainly in the health and social care sector in the U.K. This is evident in her fiction as her books tend to focus on the relationships of and surrounding her main characters. Writing is a form of escapism for her and she is just as excited to find out where her characters take her as she is when she reads another author’s work.
Also by K.L. Shandwick
The Everything Trilogy
Enough Isn’t Everything
Everything She Needs
Everything I Want
Love With Every Beat
just Jack
Everything Is Yours
Last Score Series
Gibson’s Legacy
Trusting Gibson
Gibson’s Melody
Piper: A Last Score Spin off
Ready for Flynn Series
Ready For Flynn, Part 1
Ready For Flynn, Part 2
Ready For Flynn, Part 3
Flying Under the Radar
Unchained Attraction Series
Dare You, Part one, Billie and Sawyer
Dare Me: Sawyer and Billie
Other novels
Missing Beats
Exhale and Move On
Free to Breathe
Another Life
SOULED
Resist You (Unchained Attraction Book 3) Page 26
