AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I slip my hand into my damp panties. I’m hot and so wet my fingers slip when I move them over my clit. I press harder and rub until I find the spot I need and let memories stand in his place.
In less than two minutes, I’m shuddering my release and biting my lip to stifle the moans it pulls from me.
I lie there trying to catch my breath and decipher the bittersweet tightness in my chest. I’m happy for the unexpected gift from my sister. I still miss her. I’m grateful for Jude’s on the pulse understanding of what I needed and when. But it doesn’t change anything. Because just like Carter’s epiphanies, all of this feels too little, too late.
Or… is it?
I would have loved to have Bethany’s present all these years. But I don’t think I would have been able to see it for the key it is before today.
I have one last thought I have before I succumb to a delicious exhaustion. It’s time to see what these wings of mine can do.
19
Carter
Maybe
“Are you sure Loren Bosch was your daddy?” The quiet question, spoken in a hushed whisper, is one I’ve never been asked before.
I look down at the small woman walking beside me down the aisle of the now empty church and nod. “Yeah. I know I don’t look anything like him, but he’s my dad.”
Her shrewd, dark eyes narrow as if my answer only cast more doubt on my claim.
“But you…” She waves a hand in front of my face. “You’re white.”
I chuckle and quicken my pace so I can open one of the double doors we’re approaching. “He was half white.”
“And last I knew he was married to Penn. Who is one hundred percent not white.” She gives me a look that says to cut the shit as she walks past me and out into the hot noon day sun.
I come to stand next to her on the small landing at the top of the stone steps that lead to the huge black paved parking lot that had been packed with cars when I got here this morning. “She’s not my biological mother.”
She cranes her head to look up at me, her white lace covered hand comes up to shield her eyes from the sun. “But…that means…he stepped out on her.”
“As men have been known to do,” I say with feigned flippancy. No one had ever been this direct and having to spell this out is triggering.
She shakes her head. “I guess. I didn’t see them but once or twice after their wedding, but that man worshipped the ground she walked on. Damn.” She shakes her head again.
“So, where’d you think I came from?”
“I assumed you were adopted. Cause I thought Loren was one of the good guys.”
“He was. But he was human, too.” It seems Penn’s unequivocal forgiveness and grace has rubbed off on me. Normally, I would have joined in the condemnation of his character. Now, I can see what a disservice I’ve been doing myself by castigating the circumstances of my birth.
“I guess he was. So your mama—who is she?”
“All I know is that she was from here.”
She drops her hand and gapes at me like I just told her Martians were real. “He didn’t set foot in this town after he left. How in the hell did he manage that?”
“They met randomly at a conference in Austin. Her name is Susan Kendicott.”
“Susan who?” She screws up her face.
“Kend—”
She puts a hand on my arm. “I heard you. But I don’t know anyone with that last name.”
“Well—” A loud car horn interrupts me, and we both turn in the direction it’s coming from. I almost choke on my tongue when I see Beth climbing out of her car and waving as she approaches us. “Oh shit.”
