He’d just wanted to make things better for her. Take away her pain. But when he woke up in the early morning hours with her sleeping peacefully beside him, he knew he had to let her go. He knew whatsheneeded. He had to let her get away from Moonbeam and her father. Even if it was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Heather was like a bird, longing to soar. He wasn’t going to do anything to hold her back. Even if it crushed his heart in the process.
And, if he really wanted to admit the truth, he’d wanted to let her go before she had a chance to sayshewas going to leavehim.
He shoved the memories away. What had happened couldn’t be undone. And it really didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now except figuring out the legal mess with Blake.
Heather sat at a table at Sea Glass Cafe. She mindlessly sketched some mock-ups for a children’s book she’d been asked to illustrate. A teddy bear appeared on her page. Then a rabbit. A small girl with a puppy. Anything to ignore the seconds ticking by. She’d looked at the clock on the wall at least twenty times in the last few minutes. She put down her pencil and rearranged the salt and pepper shakers, lined up the menus so they were exactly parallel to the edge of the table, and straightened the roll of silverware. She’d been shocked when Blake called her and wanted to meet. Even more surprised that Jesse let him.
She mindlessly stirred her straw in the tea sitting before her. Not that the tea needed stirring. The ice cubes swirled around in the cool, caramel-brown liquid.
The door to the cafe swung open, and she looked up. There he was. Blake. He was dressed just like any other teenager in loose shorts and a t-shirt, a pair of flip-flops on his feet. All his clothes looked new. He’d tanned up some in the days he’d been here. A small, tentative smile rested on his lips as he wove his way across the room and slid into the seat across from her.
“Hi,”she said softly, the words hard to get out past the whirling emotions surging through her.
“Hey.”
“I was glad you called.”
He just nodded.
“Are you hungry? Want to order?”
“I’m always hungry.”He picked up the menu.
Emily came over to take their order.“Hey, Blake. Heather.”
“Hi.”Blake smiled at Emily.
“I talked to Mom, and if you want to work here, we could start you on Monday morning.”
“That sounds great.”Blake’s smile spread into a grin.“I’d love that.”
She took their orders and headed to the kitchen.
Heather looked over at Blake, wondering if he needed money.“You’re going to work here?”
“Yeah. I want to start paying Jesse back for his legal bills.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can pay them.”
Blake’s blue eyes glittered with surprise.“You’d do that?”
“Of course.”
“But, I want to pay them.”He shrugged.
She decided not to press the issue.
“I went and met the lawyer lady. She seems smart. And she had Jesse and I get a paternity test.”
Heather raised an eyebrow.“She did?”
“Yeah, so there’s no doubt. We should have the results back next week.”
There was no doubt in her mind that Blake was Jesse’s son. They shared some of the same mannerisms. Those same exact eyes. Blake reminded her so much of the young Jesse she’d hung out with all those years ago. She didn’t need a paternity test to know that Jesse was Blake’s father.
“And she got a message to my aunt, somehow. And got it in writing that it was okay that I could stay here. I don’t think my aunt was very interested in cutting her cruise short and coming back to get me.”
“Oh, that’s great. At least legally that much is sorted out.”
