Josh had been right. She’d been in total denial about the fact that she needed something. Again, a hang up from losing her parents. She subconsciously associated need with loss.
Or rather, she had been in denial until he’d come into her life for real.
Then it was impossible to ignore. But maybe these feelings were inevitable. She’d put her life on hold when she married Josh. But everyone needed someone. Everyone needed to be the most important person in the world to someone else. She was no different. Now she had to accept that for her, that someone else was never going to be Josh.
But she hated the thought of him accepting that he had to be alone, that he didn’t deserve love. He had so much to give.
She’d allow herself today to mope, and then she would get back up, dust herself off, deal with her grandmother and anything else that came her way.
She lay on the sofa where Josh had slept and burrowed her face in the cushion trying to get a brief scent of him, but he was gone. Her phone rang, and she grabbed it up and stared at the number. But she didn’t recognize it, and her heart sank. No good hoping.
“Hello. Lexi Slater here.”
The other end was silent for a moment, though she could hear someone breathing.
“Hello?”
“Hello.” A girl’s voice. “My name’s Evelyn. I think you might be married to my brother.”
…
All he could do now was wait. They’d told him it would take time. They had to contact Evelyn and her family and find out if she wanted to see him.
Would she?
He really had no clue.
But he hoped.
He was heading to his office when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and stared at the number. Lexi.
Did she want to talk about the divorce? No way. He wasn’t ready to talk about it, and he certainly wasn’t ready to do it.
He put the phone away without answering.
It rang again ten minutes later. Then five minutes. This time he took a deep breath and pressed the button.
“Josh?” She sounded almost breathless, excited.
“What is it?”
“Your sister called. She’s trying to find you.”
For a moment he couldn’t process the words. “I don’t understand. I just talked to social services, they told me it could take weeks.”
“You did? That’s wonderful, Josh. But she didn’t call because of social services. She hired a private detective to find you—apparently it wasn’t difficult.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Well, do. It must have been Evelyn who employed your friend. She’d promised her parents she’d wait until she was eighteen, and then she did it on her birthday.”
He rubbed a hand around the back of his neck, trying to take it all in.
“Josh?”
“Yeah. I’m just…” He shook his head. “She wants to see me? Really?”
“She’s on her way here now.”
“What? Shit.” Christ, he smelled like he’d been on an all-night bender, and he was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. He hadn’t shaved or showered or… Jesus.
“It will be okay, Josh. She’s never forgotten you.”
He stood in the middle of the street, panic and hope and a thousand memories battling inside him. “I’m on my way.”
A yellow Mini was parked in the drive. The sight stopped him in his tracks. She was here. He scrubbed a hand over the rough skin of his jaw as he came to a halt.
He could do this.
Lexi opened the door as he climbed the steps. “She’s here, Josh, and she’s lovely, and she looks exactly like you.” She held the door open for him, but stepped past as he entered.
“Are you going somewhere?”
“I thought I’d let you two have some time together. And…”
“And…?”
“Well, it seems to be a day for sorting out family stuff. I thought I’d go sort out my own.”
“You’re going to see your grandmother?”
“Yes. Wish me luck.”
“You want me to come? I mean, after I talk to my sister?”
“No, it’s something I have to do alone.”
He nodded. He could understand that. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.” At the last minute she rested a hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. “You’re a good man. She knows that.”
He found her in the kitchen, bending down stroking one of the dogs. He paused in the doorway to watch her. She was recognizable from the thirteen-year-old he had seen five years ago, but all grown up. A beautiful young woman, with long sun-kissed blond hair. She straightened and turned, then stared at him with dark blue eyes so like his own.
For a minute they studied each other. She was tall and slender, but he could make out the lingering remnants of the child she’d been, and something twisted inside him.
“Josh?”
He gave a nod.
She took a step toward him, reached out, and touched his cheek. “I remember you.”
“You do?”
“Of course.” She bit her lip. “Are you okay with me being here? My parents told me I had to be prepared for the fact that maybe you wouldn’t want to see me. Wouldn’t care.”
“I care.”