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She lay down on the bed, grabbing the extra pillow to hug tight against her stomach. No, he wouldn’t be that cruel. They’d become friends this past week, if nothing else. Or so she’d thought. A friend wouldn’t leave her all alone tonight, would he?
Two tears tracked down her cheeks before she brushed them away and refused to cry anymore. She’d known the score when she’d asked him to marry her. His anger may have been unexpected, but the end result was not.
Despite being utterly exhausted, sleep eluded her. Robert was dead. The danger was gone. But the house was too empty with Colton’s departure and Noah sleeping next door. She couldn’t erase the horror of all that’d happened and didn’t want to stay alone in the house. Besides, every time she managed to get her mind off Colton for even a second, her thoughts circled back to Robert’s words on the cliff.
Lights were still on in the main house across the yard, so she slipped on a sweatshirt and pair of tennis shoes to go knock on the back door. Joel appeared in seconds.
“Kendra? You all right?” he asked, concern lacing his words.
“I couldn’t sleep, and it looked like you were still up, so…”
“Come in. I’ve got a pot of coffee on. Britt went to bed a little while ago, but I’m a little too wired yet.”
She smiled faintly. “It’s been a long night.”
He went to the cupboard and took out two mugs. After pouring some, he set one in front of her and sat down on the opposite side of the table. He looked at her over the rim of his cup as he took a sip. “You want to talk about it?”
She didn’t want to talk to Joel about what kept her up, but she did need to talk to him about something else. “There’s a chance we might be full brother and sister.” When his hand paused with the mug halfway to his mouth, she rushed on. “Just before he pushed me, Robert told me our mother had a DNA test done some years back. He said my dad is not my father.” She rubbed a finger up and down the handle of her coffee mug before lifting her gaze to Joel’s. “He could’ve been lying…but when I do the math between when Mom left and how old I am…it’s possible.”
It was only a moment before Joel nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is, but why wouldn’t she have told you?”
Something she’d asked herself a few times already. “Why would she? I’ve been thinking about it, and she probably worried I would’ve wanted to meet my real father. She would’ve had to face him again—and you. There could’ve been a custody issue and in the end she probably would’ve lost my dad. You saw the letter, you know how afraid she was of that.” She wasn’t able to keep the anger from her voice at the end.
Joel sat forward to cover her hand with his. “Don’t let her poison you, Kendra. You’ve got to try and keep it in the past and look to the future. I learned that the hard way—besides which, Robert could’ve been lying.”
“I hope not.” Joel looked surprised by her vehement statement and she added, “I don’t want to be related to him, and I need to know.” She hesitated, then took a deep, fortifying breath. “Could you ask Jack if he’d be willing to do a DNA test with me?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Colton slammed the back door of the guesthouse and threw his gloves on the counter before stalking to the fridge for a beer. Taking a deep swallow from the bottle he made his way into the living room and dropped down on the couch.
The damn bills just kept piling up. New medication, unexpected illness, emergency services. His mother had no chance in hell of keeping up with the bills and keeping her house. It was time to make the call to cash in his investments. It was only fitting, he thought with a flash of bitterness. He’d pay with his dream since his father had lost his.
He took a long drink, downing half the contents of the bottle in an attempt to swallow his guilt. He’d been a kid, damn it. He’d done the responsible thing of calling his dad instead of driving drunk. They’d drummed it into his head countless times. So, when could he expect to even the score? When was it enough? How many sacrifices would it take to erase the blame he’d placed on himself all these years?
Maybe part of the problem was that using his stocks would only catch them up for awhile, buy them a little breathing room. He’d need a hell of a lot more money than that to pay things off. A hell of a lot more money to buy off his guilt.
All you have to do is cash it.
Colton growled at the annoying voice that echoed in his mind.
“I don’t want her damn money,” he muttered to no one but himself.
He tried to forget her on a good day. On a bad day, he settled for not thinking about her every gol’ damned moment. All it took was working from dawn to well after dusk. Training two new full-time employees and doing any backbreaking physical work that assured he’d fall into bed too tired to dream about her warm, honey-brown eyes, kissable lips, sexy navel and desirable body.
Every morning he had to admit he’d failed. Miserably.
Man, he missed her. He couldn’t believe she’d been gone almost three weeks already. It seemed like yesterday and felt like years.
‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’
His father’s voice echoed in his head. Fitting, but definitely not what he wanted to hear at this moment.
‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’
Are you friggin’ kidding me?
Lifting his beer again, the flash of gold on his left ring finger halted his movements.
