“Then what? What did I say?” She frowned, thinking hard. “That we need you? That I love you? That you’re like a second…mother?”
“Just…don’t say that,” Tessa whispered. “It’s hard for me to hear.”
“Because you’ve never had a child?” Lacey drew back, nothing but concern in her blue eyes. “That doesn’t make you…” She let out a breath. “Or is it…”
Tessa closed her eyes, a tear spilling. Tears shenevershed except when she thought about…
“Or is it because youhavehad a child?” Lacey finished on the softest breath.
Tessa froze, silent and unable to lift her gaze and meet Lacey’s.
All Tessa would have to do was look at Lacey and the secret would be out. It would no longer be something that only Tessa and her father knew. And someone, somewhere, with a twenty-five-year-old adopted son.
The only person on the face of the planet who knew Tessa’s truth was gone. The person who’d flown to her side and taken her to the hospital and arranged everything, the whole time keeping her secret—and keeping it until the day he died—was gone.
Oh, Dad. I miss you.
Now she was alone with her old history pressing down on her shoulders like a lead weight, lifted by this sweet girl who wasn’t her daughter but might as well be.
After what felt like an eternity, she looked up and stared at Lacey, who had no more questions in her blue eyes. Only love, sympathy, understanding, and…more love.
“Have you…had a child, Tessa?”
Tessa swallowed and surrendered. “How did you know?” she asked on a breaking whisper.
“I don’t know. I just…sensed it. You change when someone talks about you being a mother. The light kind of goes out of your eyes and I…honestly, I really don’t know. I felt it, though.”
“Very intuitive of you,” Tessa murmured. “I’ve never told Kate or my mother. They never guessed.”
Lacey snagged her barstool and pulled it so close, their legs were touching when she sat down. “Tell me everything. I will never repeat it to a soul, but you need to share this.”
She nodded. She was right. Tessa needed to share this more than anything. And she trusted Lacey, deeply.
“It happened when I was twenty-four,” she started, then smiled. “Exactly your age.”
“What happened?”
“I was working for Carnival Cruise. Nothing glamorous, believe me. I was a waitress on a ship that sailed out of Port Canaveral, over on the east coast of Florida. I met a guy who was on a party cruise with his buddies, and we hit it off and…” She lifted a shoulder, not proud of her past. “I did some dumb things—chief among them not using protection. A couple months after that, I realized I hadn’t gotten my period and…” She made a face.
“Oh, Tess. Did you tell him?”
“Please.” She looked toward the ceiling and scoffed. “I didn’t actually like him enough to give him my number. How’s that for irony? I don’t even remember what town he was from. It was essentially a weekend hookup and…” She groaned. “Ah, Lacey, I’m so ashamed.”
“Don’t be. What did you do?”
She closed her eyes, going back to those terrifying days. She’d had options, but none of them felt right.
“I turned to the only man who understood right from wrong, and who wouldn’t judge me.”
“Artie Wylie,” Lacey guessed.
Tessa nodded. “He was my, you know, go-to parent. Not my mom. But Dad? Yeah. He came down to Florida, and we talked and talked, and he helped me figure out what I wanted to do, and that was to arrange an adoption through a local agency.”
Lacey just squeezed her hand, quiet.
“I had a baby boy. And here’s the sum total of what I know about him: He was seven pounds and ten ounces, nineteen inches long, and born at seven sixteen PM on February 19, 2000, in Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida.”
“Oh, he just had a birthday two months ago.”
