He nodded thanks and turned to look out the window again.“You have a great view. Must be nice living on the beach.”
“It is. You want to go sit out on the deck? We should talk.”
They went outside, and the boy sat on the edge of a chair, alternating between looking at him and quickly looking back out at the water. Jesse set his drink on a table and turned to the boy.“I don’t even know your name.”
“Blake.”
He rolled the name over in his head. Blake. It seemed to fit him. Well, as much as he knew about the boy, which was exactly…nothing. Okay, so he knew his name and his mother’s name. And the fact both his parents were dead.
Only that wasn’t the truth. Both of his parents—he and Heather—were very much alive.Ifall of this was true.
But it couldn’t be. Because Heather wouldn’t have done this. Given up a child.Hischild. Without a word to him.
“Where do you live?”He suddenly wanted to know everything about Blake. Every detail of his life.
“I live in Lawrence, Kansas now. With my aunt. Only…she doesn’t really like having me live there.”
He frowned.“Does she know you’re here?”
Blake looked down at his scuffed shoes, then up at him defiantly.“Not exactly. She thinks I’m visiting my best friend in Nashville. That’s where I lived with my mom. My aunt let me take a bus to Nashville and my friend covered for me so I could get another bus and come down here. Anyway, my aunt was headed on a long cruise with her new boyfriend. She was glad to have a place to…dump me.”
His mind spun and whirled with all the questions he had.“How long has your mom been…uh…gone?”
“Nine months.”
“How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
He did the math and gritted his teeth. There was every possibility that Blake was telling the truth.
Because just one time in the history of his and Heather’s friendship…
That one night that she’d been so upset and he’d comforted her…
That one night they’d slept together…
And they’d both agreed it was a mistake never to be repeated. And it hadn’t.
But this? Anger and disbelief swept through him. Heather would not have kept something like this from him. She wouldn’t. Shecouldn’t.
But as he stared at Blake and watched him nervously drum his fingers on the arm of the chair, he was starting to realize that maybe all this was the truth. The twisted, cruel, and unbelievable truth.
“Here, look at these.”Blake thrust the paperwork toward him.
He took the papers and paged through them. A birth certificate with Heather’s name on it along with his. He glanced at the adoption papers with signatures and legal notarizations.
“It was a private adoption,”Blake explained.“I think Mom said it was through someone she knew from church. They knew this Heather woman who didn’t want her kid.”
He winced at the words, then looked at the last piece of paper. His heart clutched as he recognized the handwriting.
“My mom…birthmother…she wrote that letter to me.”
There was just no way to deny the truth. He scanned the letter Heather had written. Saying she loved the boy, but this was for the best and she hoped he had a wonderful life. A bit detached in the wording, but a few words of explanation.
“She left me this necklace.”Blake slipped a necklace from the pocket of his backpack and fingered a necklace with a silver sand dollar hanging from it.“I don’t know why. It’s not like a guy would wear it.”
He closed his eyes. He’d bet anything there was an inscription on the back.
