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“I don’t care if it does,” he insisted.
Leo hugged her as soon as she reached the stoop, even though he’d just seen her that morning. Then he called his dog, bringing Zeus inside, too, as Hendrix led her into the living room.
Lynn and Stuart were waiting for her, both of them sitting on the couch wearing somber expressions.
“Ellen,” Stuart said politely.
As she braced herself, Ellen’s eyes slid to Lynn. Was she angry? Upset? About to scream and yell? Her mouth was a straight line—a slash in her face—and her eyes glittered with determination, but Ellen couldn’t tell what that meant. Would she let Stuart do the talking, or would this encounter end up in an ugly shouting match?
“You wanted to see me?” she said, looking back at the man she’d always believed to be her father.
Stuart scooted forward and pulled a letter from the back pocket of his crisp, deep-blue Wranglers. “The results of our DNA test came in the mail today. Did you receive a copy?”
Ellen had expected the results to be posted online well in advance of any hard copy notice. She hadn’t even checked her box. She paid her bills electronically and rarely received anything besides junk mail so she picked up her mail only once a week. The past several days she hadn’t even thought about it. “No.”
Taking the letter from the lab out of its envelope, he unfolded it and handed it to her.
Ellen let go of Hendrix. She was shaking and needed both hands to be able to control it. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to notice.
Her eyes skimmed over the numbers and percentages to read the conclusion at the bottom:The alleged father is excluded as the biological father of the tested child.
He’d been right. Somehow, he’d known all along.
Trying to tamp down the tidal wave of emotions that hit her until she could get out the door and into her truck, where she could be alone, she nodded and started to hand the sheet back to him, but Hendrix asked if he could see it, so she gave it to him instead.
“You’re not a match,” he murmured.
“I’m sorry...for everything,” Stuart said, looking pained.
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about now,” she said and turned to leave. She wasn’t sure if she expected Hendrix to go with her or not. He seemed to belong with them. He’d always been with them. But Leo grabbed her and hugged her again, asking if he could come over next week, and Hendrix followed her out.
“Are those not the results you wanted?” he asked.
She didn’t know how to answer that question. It wasn’t that they weren’t what she wanted so much as the drastic change this made to the narrative of her life—the unknown she now faced and her mother’s infidelity and deception. “I don’t know what I wanted.”
“At least this way it’ll be a lot easier for us. So there’s that. I hope it sort of makes up for what you’re feeling.”
“Have they offered you your job back?” she asked dully.
He looked down. “Yes.”
“Good.” She cleared her throat. “I’m happy for you.” She opened her door and started to climb in, but he stopped her.
“Ellen...”
Hot and tingly and on the verge of tears, she desperately wanted to get away so she could recover in private. But he caught her arm. “I told them we should buy Truesdale Well and Pump Services and work together.”
“You didwhat?” she cried.
“Would you be interested? Or at least consider the possibility? Because I won’t go back to work for them without you.”
“You wantmeto join forces with Lynn and Stuart? Be part of their company instead of running my own?”
“It’ll bemycompany—ourcompany—when Stuart retires. I’m going to get it in writing, the price and everything, before I agree to come back.”
“Do you mean that?” she asked in shock.
He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “I mean it,” he whispered into her ear. “I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you.”
