Three Times a Lady

Chapter 46

Dana closed the diary and wiped tears from her eyes. A moment later, her cellphone rang in her pocket.

She dug it out, flipped it open and placed it to her ear. ‘Hello?’

A male voice came across the line. ‘Dana, it’s Gary Templeton. I need to tell you something.’

Dana frowned. Templeton’s speech sounded slurred, like he’d been drinking. And she knew better than anyone how badly alcohol could cloud your judgment, how it could make you say and do things you normally wouldn’t say or do. Still, slurred or not, it was nice to hear Templeton’s voice. It had been a long time.

‘What do you need to tell me, Gary?’ Dana asked softly.

Templeton paused. Then he cleared his throat and said, ‘I’m in love with you, Dana. I’m sorry for telling you over the phone like this, but I’ve always been in love with you. Ever since the first time I laid eyes on you.’

Dana smiled and let the Cleveland cop down as gently as she could. ‘Thank you for telling me this, Gary, but I think it’s best if we just stay friends for now. Is that OK with you?’

A click sounded in Dana’s ear.

Dana frowned again and took away the phone away from her face, checking the battery indicator to make sure the damn thing hadn’t died on her. Five strong bars. She placed the phone back to her ear. ‘Hello? Are you still there, Gary?’

No response. The connection had been cut from his end of the line.

Dana flipped closed her phone and sighed. It wasn’t easy, but that was just the way the world worked sometimes. Sometimes the people you fell in love with didn’t love you back. And if they did love you back, you’d better yourself among one of the lucky ones.

Thankfully, though, that wasn’t something Dana needed to worry about right now.

Because she already counted herself among the lucky ones.





EPILOGUE

A week later, Dana flipped over onto her stomach on Fort Myers Beach down in sunny Southwest Florida, working on her tan and listening to her iPod while thoroughly enjoying the last day of her vacation.

Dana reached back and tugged at her yellow bikini bottoms to make sure that she’d maintained full coverage throughout the body-flipping manouevre. Tomorrow morning, she’d board a plane back to Cleveland and retrieve Oreo from Maggie Carter’s care. The old woman had already assured Dana it would be OK. After that, she’d get on with her life as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

After all, that was what she’d been born to do, wasn’t it?

The hot sun pounded down from high overhead in the blindingly blue sky above, and it took Dana several moments to realise that her cellphone was ringing beside her. She looked down at the caller ID and frowned, not recognising the number. Cleveland area code.

Dana removed the iPod earbuds from her ears and flipped open the phone. Wiping away sand from the mouthpiece, she held up the phone to her ear and said, ‘Hello?’

A woman’s voice sounded on the other end of the line. ‘Hello, ma’am, my name is Shelley Margolis. I’m a case manager for Child Protective Services in Parma. I’m calling to ask if you still have any interest in adopting Bradley Taylor Thomas. He’s been asking about you for two solid weeks now and he says that he wants you to be his new mother.’

Dana’s stomach lurched. Her hands trembled. She nearly dropped the phone to the sand. She couldn’t have been any more shocked if her parents had just strolled hand-in-hand up the beach and took a seat on her blanket beside her. ‘Of course,’ Dana said quickly, feeling her throat tighten painfully. ‘What exactly would I need to do, Miss Margolis?’

Adrenalin flooded through Dana’s body as Shelley Margolis ran down the laundry list of requirements for adopting a child. There would be background checks and home visits and a million other little things Dana would need to go through. And no doubt the child-care advocates would want to make sure that they got Bradley’s adoption exactly right this time, considering the unspeakable horror to which the little boy been subjected at the hands of the belt-happy judge, who in turn would now be spending the next fifteen years of his worthless life rotting away in prison from the crime of aggravated child abuse.

Dana continued to struggle for breath the entire time Shelley Margolis ticked off all the requirements involved. Somehow, though – despite the complete lack of oxygen reaching her lungs – she managed to mumble one-word answers in response to the case manager’s questions.

‘So, I’ll see you next Saturday at noon then?’ Margolis asked.

Dana sucked in a sharp breath that finally sent oxygen rushing through her system. The cool blast of air into her lungs steadied both her nerves and her voice. ‘Yes, of course, Miss Margolis. I very much look forward to seeing you then.’

The connection switched off and Dana placed the phone back down on the sand beside her, shaking her head in utter disbelief. After everything that had happened to them, pretty soon, two broken people might just get the chance to make each other whole again. And any way you cut the bread, that wasn’t a bad payoff.

Not a bad payoff, at all.

Dana sniffled as the first tears of joy began to form in her eyes. Before she knew it, the tears were streaking down her cheeks in a wet rush of emotion. This time, though, she didn’t care if anyone saw her crying.

Standing up, Dana brushed the sand off her body and began gathering up her things. She wanted to get home tonight to start preparing for Saturday’s first visit. Though she hadn’t known it, she’d waited her entire life for this day to arrive, and she didn’t want to wait a single moment longer now. After all these years of being alone, Dana had the chance to be part of a family again. A real family. After all these years of being alone, she just might become a mother. And if everything went well enough for the two of them, Dana would become mother to the handsomest little boy she’d ever seen in her entire life.

A regular GQ model, if ever there’d one.


THE END