Geez—he looked closely at her. Was she really tearing up there? Her voice was all rusty and she was blinking. The tip of her nose was even turningpink.
“You’re right—her name was Ella. It’s just that…no one ever refers to her by her name. Usually as ‘the baby’ or ‘your baby.’ You…startled me, is all. In a good way.” Her voice was soft and low. “Thankyou.”
“Well, okay.” He was a little confused, but he guessed he’d done something very right. Instead of resting on those laurels, though, he continued on to the more difficult portion of the conversation. “I’m not sure if Stephanie—or anyone—has told you anything about why I’m here in Wicks Hollow with my daughter, and her mother is in NewHampshire.”
“Not really. From what I understand, you didn’t really get to know Stephanie until recently.” To her credit, there wasn’t a trace of judgment in hervoice.
“That’s true. But what no one knows—except for Stephanie, me, her mother Cara, and Cara’s husband—is that I didn’t even know I had a daughter until this past year. Just about nine months or soago.”
Leslie’s eyes went wide with shock, then immediately softened with comprehension. “Oh my God, no wonder you…had such a strong reaction to my—mydecision.”
“Well, yeah. The baggage certainly helps when it comes to forming one’s opinions.” Declan gave her a wry smile, then went on and explained how his life had been turned upside down—but in the end, in a good way—by Cara’s phonecall.
“I can only imagine the hurt and anger and shock you must have felt when you found out,” she said. Her eyes were filled with pain and sorrow—he wasn’t sure why; was it just for him?—and she settled back in her seat, putting a little distance between them. “Partly because I spent quite a lot of time thinking about what that would be like for—for Eric, you know, if he ever foundout.”
“Cara kept the secret for sixteen years,” Declan said. “I had no clue it was even a possibility that I had a daughter out there. So, yes, it pushed a very sensitive button for me, and I’m not going to lie—it’s definitely a bump in the road of…this. Us. But,” he said with a forceful exhale of breath, “I don’t want it to be a dead end, Leslie.” He spread his hands. “I don’t know how else to explain it. I really…I feel a lot for you. A deep connection that I haven’t felt with anyone else…ever. But…it’s hard for me to ignore the fact that you made the decision to lie about something like that—something so personal tome.”
Tears glistened in her eyes and she leaned forward again. “I understand, Declan. I really do. I am not proud of that decision at all. It’s not something I would expect you to forgive and forget, especially since it’s something so close to yourheart.”
They looked at each other from across the table, sorrow and confusion mingling with hope andaffection.
“I’d like to tell you a little more about why I did what I did. Not to excuse myself, but to, maybe, set the stage a little better?” She sighed, as if knowing it was a lostcause.
But Declan was more than ready to let her talk. Truth be told, he was hoping she’d say something that would…well, help him accept and forgive. Even though the lie hadn’t been told to him, even though he hadn’t been in her life during that time, Declan couldn’t help but feel as if it were a personal betrayal—not only to him, but to any man who found himself in the same situation as he and Eric of the No Last Namehad.
“I didn’t plan to lie.” Leslie’s lips wavered and almost slid into a smile, but she continued. “But he was pushing me one day, telling me what I should do, what he wanted me to do, saying how much I would love living in Denver—we hadn’t even discussed the possibility of any other option—and I kind of blew up. And the words just tumbled out. ‘And I’m not even sure the baby is yours.’ Just likethat.”
She bit her lip, curling her fingers around the bowl-sized coffee cup in front of her. “If you could have seen the relief in his face…well, it was impossible for me to take the words back at thatpoint.”
“So it was sort of like second-degree lying instead of pre-meditated, first-degree lying,” he said slowly. There might be a light at the end of this tunnelyet…
“Maybe even self-defense?” she said. “For him, I mean. That doesn’t really make sense,but—”
He was laughing. Despite everything, he couldn’t hold back a little chuckle. “All right, counselor. Maybe. I guess I can see how you might have acted under duress. That does make it a little easier for me tounderstand.”
“I’m not telling you this to excuse my actions, really, Declan. I just was hoping to help you understand that I wasn’t really…it was a moment of passion, so to speak. And, later, I did regret it…and I think I would probably have told him the truth at some point.” Her grin was crooked and her eyes were sad. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I did completely misleadhim.”
“No. But…I guess I understand betternow.”
“Thank you for coming over last night, and for helping me,” she said, and abruptly rose. She was blinking, and he thought she might have been tearing up a little. “Oh, by the way,” she said, with her back to him as she began to clean up some of the mess in the kitchen. “I might actually have learned something from John Fischer lastnight.”
“What’sthat?”
“He was telling me that a lot of times, the bootleggers—or even normal people who wanted to keep whiskey or beer or wine during Prohibition—would build special hidden cabinets. Lots of times, it would be behind a falsewindow.”
“Interesting.” He glanced automatically toward the windows in the kitchen. “So he thought he could find thegems.”
“He was very certain they were in the house. He told me all about the research he’d done—I had no idea at that point he was a professional treasure seeker. But he was obviously certain enough of what he’d find to risk breaking the law bytrespassing.”
“Andassault. Let’s not forget that.” Declan shook his head, then all at once he noticed the time on the clock. “Holy shit.” He erupted from the table and banged his knee. “I have to pick up Stephanie…like, rightnow. She’s not, uh, getting as many rides from Emily Delton as she usedto.”
Leslie looked at him with faint amusement. “All right, then—off you go. I hope I’ll see you again soon, Declan. And not just when you’ve got to take a measurement, or fit an iron rod into pl—” She stopped short, her eyes wide with mirth as he let out a shortguffaw.
At that moment, he would have been very happy to be fitting a rod—of iron or otherwise—into place. His laugh faded into a mere smile and he came up to her at the sink and slid an arm around her waist. “I’d stay to help you clean up, but I’m already late. But…what do you think about dinner tonight? Just you and me—at Trib’s, if you don’t mind eating there again. We can…talk. If you still want to…talk…to me. I have been maybe a little bit of anass.”
“I’d love that, Declan.” There was relief and pure pleasure in her voice. “I really would. Whattime?”
“I’ll pick you up at seven. Does thatwork?”
