chapter 30
Sloane was nervous as she made her way down to baggage claim. She felt like a different person from the woman who’d left Seattle
a month ago. Back then, she’d been so single-minded, so caught up in her work and trying to make her business a success that
she’d gotten tunnel vision. The design studio was all she could think about, all she wanted to think about. It was a wonder
Ben had put up with the neglect.
A month away had given her a better perspective. She still loved her business and wanted to succeed, but Italy had reminded
her how much the people in her life meant to her—how much Ben meant to her.
He was waiting for her with a dozen roses in one hand, smiling as he caught sight of her rushing toward him.
“Feels like it’s been years since I’ve seen you,” she said as she threw her arms around him, nearly crushing the flowers.
He laughed as he stumbled back. She’d obviously hit him with more force than he’d expected. But then his arms went around
her, too, as well as they could with the flowers, and she felt the safety and security of being pressed against her life partner.
“I missed you so much,” he murmured.
She pulled back to look into his face. “I missed you, too. It’s so good to be home.”
He handed her the flowers, and she dipped her head to smell one of the fragile buds. “These are beautiful.”
“Impractical. But I thought this occasion called for impractical—something that would simply say, I love you.”
She let the warm glow inside her reflect on her face. “I love you, too.”
Other travelers were walking past. Some looked as rumpled and tired as she was, and yet they grinned when they saw the flowers.
An old guy even gave them a thumbs-up. They were becoming a bit of a spectacle, probably making people wonder if they’d just
gotten engaged, which was no doubt why Ben lowered his voice to a whisper when he said, “Did I dream what you told me about
having a baby?”
“That I want one? No, it wasn’t a dream. I meant it. I still do.”
“What about your business? I know it’ll be hard—”
“Lots of moms have businesses. If they can do it, so can I. I no longer see it as mutually exclusive.”
“I’ll help. I’ll do all I can to give you the time you need,” he promised.
“I know you will. But I’m not going to have a baby just to pass him or her off to you. I don’t want to be an absentee mom.
I want to be part of the experience. I’ll just have to learn how to become a better juggler.”
His eyes sparkled as he said, “I can’t tell you how excited I am.”
“I’m excited, too,” she said and was astonished by the fact that she meant it. She’d loved mentoring Lilly. She was going
to enjoy being a mother, too. She’d just needed a little test run to get her started.
“Come on, then. I plan to knock you up right away,” he said, and they both chuckled as they approached the conveyor belt that was beginning to spit out the luggage.
Should she call him?
Charlotte had hoped the DNA results would lead to information about her grandmother or possibly her aunt—give her a way to
contact them. Although she’d been curious about her father, it didn’t reflect well on him that he’d cheated on his wife and
gotten the neighbor girl, who was barely eighteen, pregnant. She hadn’t considered him anyone she’d ever want to know. But
the only thing that’d come through on the relatives’ section of her DNA report was a picture and an email address for one
Robert Sharp, who shared half her DNA.
He was older—gray and a bit weathered, but in a smooth, citified way. He looked like a retired banker or a salesman of expensive
suits. He also looked like a close relative. Even she could see how similar his eyes and nose were to hers—his smile, too—which was why she kept opening her DNA report and examining
his picture. There had to be a reason he’d had his DNA tested, didn’t there?
Maybe not. Maybe he simply wanted to know his ethnicity, or it was a gift from one of his other kids, all of whom would be
closer to Sabrina’s age than hers and might not know anything about his indiscretion.
She nibbled on her bottom lip as she tried to enlarge his photograph. He’d probably been quite handsome. He was still handsome. Maybe that was what had attracted Sabrina to him . . .
What’d happened back then? How did their relationship develop and how did he react when he found out Sabrina was expecting?
Charlotte had assumed these were questions she’d be able to ask her grandmother, if she could track her down.
But it didn’t seem as though any of the relatives on her mother’s side had submitted their DNA, at least not to this particular service.
She could submit to all the others and wait several more weeks. Something might turn up . . .
Or maybe they didn’t want to be contacted. That was just as possible.
How would Robert react if she reached out to him?
Charlotte really didn’t want to invite anything painful into her life. Dealing with Cliff had been difficult enough. He wasn’t
used to losing, and once he realized she really wasn’t coming back, he’d grown so vindictive. He’d taken the clothes and other
personal belongings she’d left at the Malibu house and thrown them all out in the driveway. She, her father and Lilly had
to go collect everything. He’d also been seen partying all over town with numerous women, which had set the internet ablaze
again.
None of that was pleasant, but six weeks had passed since she’d returned from Italy. Six weeks that, in the quiet moments
of her day—usually when she was supposed to be working on her book—she’d been opening and reopening this email to stare at
Robert’s picture.
Six weeks had also passed since Julian had walked out of her life. That was far worse than what Cliff was doing; she was at
peace with her decision to go ahead and end her marriage. It was Julian’s abandonment that cut deeper than anything because
she knew a relationship with someone who had his character would bring the fulfillment she’d been missing.
And she was worried about him. She knew he’d started treatment, but was it helping? Did the medication have side effects?
How was he processing everything?
At least Lilly seemed to be happy. That was what mattered, Charlotte told herself.
Penny had been teaching her to knit. They’d also started a garden.
And she’d been going swimming at night with Don.
So she had plenty of love and attention.
Don had even mentioned getting her a puppy after Charlotte turned in her book and could help train it—and given how much Lilly still mourned the loss of Old Blue, Charlotte thought that was a fine idea.
Charlotte was grateful to her parents for making Lilly’s life so full because it gave her a chance to work. They provided
a great distraction even for moments like these, when she couldn’t quit thinking about Julian and missing him.
Or she couldn’t quit thinking about the results from .
Was the fact that her birth father had submitted his DNA an invitation? That was hard to believe, but she supposed it was
possible . . .
It was late on a Saturday afternoon when she was supposed to be finishing her book, and Don and Penny had taken Lilly to the
movies, that she finally decided if she was ever going to move on, she had to at least send Robert an email. He could ignore
her if he wanted to. Then she’d have her answer as to whether he wanted to be in touch.
After she wrote him, she went back to her manuscript for a while. But it was only an hour or so later that she switched over
to find he’d responded with his number and a question:
Do you mind if we talk over the phone?
Her heart began to pound. She told herself not to call. She wasn’t sure she could tolerate it. She also didn’t want him to
have her number, just in case he was weird and wouldn’t leave her alone afterward.
But she could always block her number before she called, which, in the end, was what she did.
“Hello?”
His voice sent a chill down her spine. She knew almost nothing about him, and yet she had him on the phone. Her birth father.
“It’s me,” she said, “Charlotte.” She realized he probably wouldn’t know her name and added, “I think I might be your daughter.”
She rolled her eyes at her own comment. He was definitely “closely” related. What else could he be? “Actually, my DNA results
suggest it.”
“I wondered if there was someone out there,” he said. “I’d almost given up. If I hadn’t given the DNA company permission for
push notifications, I might’ve missed it. As it was, it popped right up, and I was so surprised I just about crashed my car.”
Her chest tightened. “You’ve been looking for me?”
“I didn’t have much to go on, so I couldn’t really look. I took that DNA test hoping if I did have a child with Sabrina, he or she might contact me.”
“Why would you care?”
“Guilt, I guess. Wanting to make things right—or as right as I can at this late date. I know you have no reason to believe
this, but I honestly wasn’t the type to cheat. I never cheated before that day or after. I also never dreamed I’d have sex
with a girl who was barely eighteen and certainly didn’t set out to make that happen.”
Charlotte glanced out the window, hoping her parents and Lilly wouldn’t return quite yet. “You’re saying it was all Sabrina?”
“It takes two. I’m not blaming her. But when she came over to my house in a bikini one day and asked me to come kill a spider in her bedroom because her parents weren’t home to do it, things got out of hand.
I’d noticed her before, of course. And I knew she’d noticed me.
She’d always walk over when I was watering the lawn to talk to me or wave every time we passed.
Anyway, that day she let me know she was interested, and I .
. . I didn’t walk away like I should have. ”
He sounded totally sincere. And Charlotte had learned a lot about Sabrina—knew she’d loved the excitement of the taboo and would’ve enjoyed feeling so attractive that