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What I didn’t have, was a phone.
Alone and able to process all that had happened, I finally thought about Liam’s willingness to marry me. That had been the key that unlocked my feelings. Though he’d said it when we’d been alone, his declaration to my father made it real. His explanation had been well thought out and made a lot of sense.
What I didn’t know was if he loved me too. Or was it just the honorable thing. He cared for sure. I needed the words. In two days, would I have them?
Seventeen
Liam
David insisted on riding with me to the private airport where I was to meet Griffin. I’d tried to get David to wait. His house was left defenseless, and I didn’t know what Nicolas might do.
“Remind me again,” David said. “You met Natalie weeks ago, not years?”
“Does it really matter? When it’s right, it’s right.”
“You did all of this for a woman you barely know?” he chided.
“I’ve known her longer than you, and you were ready to marry her sight unseen.”
“That’s different.”
It was a good thing he was in the back. I didn’t want to see any smugness on his face.
“It’s not. I can’t say I believe in love at first sight. But I can say it’s pretty darn close. Like my brothers have told me, when you meet the one, you know. The fact that you haven’t fought me hard over her means she’s not your person. Lick your wounds and let it go,” I said.
“I wasn’t given a chance.”
“Again,” I began as I pulled to a stop. “You don’t need a chance. When I met her, I couldn’t keep her off my mind. As much as I tried to keep us just friends. It was always more than friends between us.”
“She told me she wasn’t a virgin. Was that you?”
I didn’t answer. I got out of the Yukon and walked toward the small terminal.
“It was, wasn’t it?” he called after me. A plane was landing when I stepped in the terminal, if you could call it that. There were two groupings of leather chairs to the left and a counter to the right. I passed them both with David on my heels. “This is a shit situation.”
“That I got you out of. You’re welcome,” I said.
I exited out the other side of the building to walk toward the plane. They rolled the stairs over to the door. To this point, I hadn’t met my new boss, Griffin, in person. When he came down the stairs, I was taken aback.
He was a big guy with bright blue eyes and wore jeans, a button-down, cowboy boots and hat. When he spoke, it was nothing like the Scottish accent I’d gotten on blast whenever we’d spoken.
“Howdy,” he said, sounding as native as any Texan would.
He held out his hand and that was when I remembered David, who took his proffered hand.
“We’ve got you a team assembled of three men. I can get you more if you need.” Three guys appeared. I’d been so busy in shock over Griffin’s personality swap.
“Two men will be with you at all times. They will rotate. But one will stay at the house. They blindsided you this time. That won’t happen again.”
It was eerie how perfect Griffin’s rendition of an American Southern accent was.
“Liam, keys,” Griffin ordered.
I handed them over.
“They’ll drive you back. I’ll contact you once we land in New York.”
He shook David’s hand. The man didn’t bother with a sendoff. I clearly hadn’t made a friend. I sighed as Griffin waved me up the stairs.
“You can fly, right?” he asked, his Scottish brogue was back now that David wasn’t in earshot.
“Yes, why?”
“Technically, the pilot should be on a break. So—”
“So you need me to fly.”
He nodded.
“And what was up with that whole Texan vibe?”
“People trust their own easier.” He left it at that. “I do have some news for you.” He picked up the manila envelope. “But you might want to wait to open it until after we land.”
It had to be the DNA results. “We have time while they refuel and do the maintenance checks.”
“I’ll leave you to it.” He moved to the back putting his phone to his ear.
I sat in one of the front chairs without going to the cockpit. My hands shook as I tore open the flap. It wasn’t that I was nervous. I had no reason to doubt the outcome. There was also a lot riding on it, especially with my declaration to Nicolas. I could use this as leverage to get Royce to comply with my request.
There was only one sheet there. It read:
The DNA data supports the biological relationship between the potential father sample and the child sample.
I grinned to myself because I’d won. But there was more.
The sample of the potential father is likely to be that of the uncle of the child. For more conclusive results we would need to test the mother and the brother of the samples.
