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Miranda pulled him out of his thoughts. “Would you have stayed with her if she told you about the baby?”
“We were so young. Jessica... she was rich and spoiled, looking for a good time and a chance to be whoever she wanted to be away from her stern father. She thought being with me, someone so different from the country club, prep school boys she’d known, was fun. Until reality set in that I couldn’t give her the life she’d run away from to have a fling with me.”
“Did you love her?”
It was so easy to fall back into the memories of that summer twenty-five years ago. “In the moment, when it was new and exciting and everything was wild... yeah. I loved being with Jessica. But after a while, it became clear that I wasn’t enough forher. I barely had a dime to my name. I had an idea and a plan. She wanted to use her daddy’s money to pay for all of it. I wanted to make it on my own, not be handed something her father would probably claim as his own because he paid for it. I wanted to show her that I could build something from the ground up.”
Pride shone in Miranda’s eyes. “And you did.”
“After she and I parted ways, yes.”
Miranda eyed him. “Was it amicable?”
Nate shrugged. “She was disappointed I didn’t want to do things the easy way, because for her, everything was easy with Daddy’s money. I was frustrated she didn’t understand I wanted to earn it. It got to the point I felt like she didn’t believe in me. She thought I wasn’t good enough.” Nate raked his fingers through his hair. “Apparently so much so that she didn’t think I’d be a good father to our daughter.”
Miranda frowned and shook her head. “You’re a wonderful father.”
He held his arms out wide, then let them drop. “Why did Jessica give her my name but not let me see her?”
Miranda’s lips pressed tight. “I don’t know her, or why she’d do this, so I can’t say. But I find it odd that your daughter obviously knows your name and never came looking for you for answers.”
“Well, I’m damn well going to find out why. Jessica can’t keep hiding her from me forever. Not anymore.” He took two steps toward their bedroom door and stopped short.
Miranda blocked his path. “Hold on a minute.”
He tried to relax and be patient.
“I know this is a shock and a surprise.” Miranda’s measured tone kept him on alert.
“For both of us.” He wanted her to understand he hadn’t expected this at all, and he understood this would change things in the family.
Miranda nodded. “So maybe you should proceed with caution.”
He went still. “What do you mean?”
“If Summer knows who you are but has never come to see you, maybe it’s because she doesn’t want you in her life.” Miranda put her hand on his chest. Her eyes filled with sympathy. “I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but it could be true. For whatever reason.”
His mind reeled with all the possibilities of how and why it had happened like this. “And what if that’s not the case?”
“Then maybe finding out what the real reason is first, before you rush into her life unannounced, would be a better way to handle things. It would give you both a chance to come together when it’s right for both of you.”
He implored her with a look. “She’s my daughter. I don’t know anything about her. I missed everything in her life. What if, whatever the reason is for that, she hates me for not being there? What if she thinks I abandoned her? I can’t live with that.”
“You don’t know that’s the case. We don’t know anything right now, except her name.”
“So what are you suggesting? That I send her an email? Call her? How do I go about approaching her that doesn’t seem like I’m inserting myself into her life if she doesn’t want me in it?”
“Send Cody. He can be the buffer and find out why Jessica didn’t tell you and why Summer never came looking for you. Summer is an adult now, right? She wouldn’t need permission if it’s what she wanted to do.”
Nate sighed, his heart sinking. “Because she doesn’t want to know me.”
Miranda wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, there must be a reason. Maybe once you know it, you’ll know how to go about introducing yourself to her.”
Nate thought of something. “If she took the DNA test thing, too... I mean she had to have taken it to be in the system and to bematched with Haley... So maybe she’s looking for family. Maybe she’s looking for me.”
Miranda nodded. “Maybe so. But I still think sending Cody is the best course of action to ease into this.”
Nate deflated as the urge to go see her immediately waned and caution took hold. “I just want to meet her.”
