But what was another month after twenty-five years?
For two and a half decades, she had carried the weight of her decision—the one she finalized and stuck with in a hospital room, surrounded by people with gentle voices and kind, professional smiles who assured her this was the best thing.
She barely got to hold him. Only kissed his forehead a few times and never gave him a name.
With Dad at her side, she’d signed papers with shaky hands and cried afterward. Then he’d taken her home and promised he’d keep her secret until the day he died. And she’d never told another living soul until…Lacey.
Then, bam. Smacked in the face with betrayal. He was not only her son—he was anaccomplicein that betrayal. He’d lied to her. They both had.
Was it no wonder that Tessa Wylie trusted no one on this planet? She was lied to by her own flesh and blood.
She swiped her cheeks with the back of her wrist and tried to pull herself together. But it was no use.
A sob broke loose from her chest, raw and unrelenting. The wind caught it, and still she kept going, kept sobbing, heading nowhere at all, slicing through the open sea on a beautiful boat as she suddenly felt like she’d lost all control.
Tessa slowed the boat, finally cutting the engine. The silence was louder than the motor ever had been. She was far enoughout now that Destin’s coast was a shadow, far out to nothing but water and sky and pain.
She dropped to the seat behind the console, buried her face in her hands, and let herself fall apart. She surrendered to the kind of crying she hadn’t done in years—big, guttural, soul-twisting tears that made her chest ache and her heart feel like it had been crushed in a vise.
She wasn’t just crying over the betrayal. She was crying for the baby she gave up. For the mother she never got to be. For all the birthdays she missed and the scraped knees she never kissed. For the lullabies she never sang. And, apparently, the football she’d never watched him play.
Surrounded by nothing but water, sun, and air, she finally dried her eyes and let the wild fury subside as the sun worked its way across the sky.
She’d be okay. It would all be okay…at some point.
Right now, she just had to be completely alone. Closing her eyes, she slowed her breaths, feeling her body settle into the rocking of the boat. It took her away, far away, to fishing days with Dad and even further back to laying in a hammock with Kate.
Kate. How would she take this news?
She moaned at the thought and started to sit up just as she heard the distant hum of a boat engine. Blinking against the light, she looked around, spying a small boat speeding toward her—familiar, blue-trimmed, one of the marina’s older fishing vessels. Was that Seamus’s boat?
It was, but Seamus wasn’t at the wheel.
Roman was flying along, standing behind the center console, all muscle and brawn and wind-whipped golden hair like a god skimming the seas to make a mythical rescue.
Tessa froze.
Her breath caught as he slowed down and coasted up beside her, calm and careful. He tossed an anchor, then grabbed the bow railing and pulled himself aboard with practiced ease. Tall, sure-footed, he moved with the quiet confidence of someone who had her father’s blood in his veins.
“I did not give you permission to come aboard,” she said.
“Or break your heart.” He took a step closer and she shot her hand in the air.
“Don’t,” she said, standing from the seat. “Don’t come near me.”
“Tessa, please. You have to give me a chance to say my piece.”
“You had a chance. Weeks of a chance. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He huffed out a sigh. “I’m not even sure anymore, but I’d love a do-over.”
Tessa wrapped her arms around herself. “Because you’ve been caught? No do-overs in life, Roman. Consider that your first—and last—lesson from…your mother.”
He looked hard at her, with genuine hurt in his eyes.
Hewas hurt? That was rich.
Still, she couldn’t look away. Couldn’t stop seeing what had been in front of her for a month. He was clearly, obviously, unquestionablyhers. How could she have been so blind?
