“I promise you I won’t say a word.”
“Thank you. I’m just not ready to get into it with anyone yet. I’m still dealing with the fact that it’s even happening, you know?”
Madison nodded. “I totally get it. I mean it. No one is going to hear anything from me.”
“Good.” Karin released her grip on Madison’s hand and grabbed the ginger ale. “It was just supposed to be a one-night thing, you know?” She drank. “But there was more than one night. There were several nights. I kept saying never again. I’m so full of crap. Because anytime I could get away, I would call him. And each time I would remind him—and myself—that it was the last time.” She glanced up at Madison again. “I’ve known him forever, since kindergarten, can you believe it? We’re the same age.”
“I know. Aislinn told me you two were in the same grade in school and Sten mentioned that you and Liam dated in high school.”
“High school.” Karin stared into the middle distance. “It seems like a million years ago. Sometimes I...” Right then, Madison’s phone buzzed with a text. Karin blinked. “You should check that. It could be Sten.”
Madison pulled the phone from her pocket.
Karin was right.
Ready to go. I’m on my way to the office.
“I hate to leave you.” Madison scooted closer to Karin and gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “I can put him off.”
But Karin just shook her head. “No. You go on. Thanks for holding my hand. It helped. You’re a keeper.”
Madison sighed. “Maybe tell your brother that.”
“Believe me. I have.”
A few minute later, Sten came through the door from the front office. “What have you two been up to?”
“None of your business,” his sister said.
* * *
That night, Sten took Madison out to a nice restaurant on the river in Astoria. She wore a red wig and red-framed glasses—glasses she’d once used in a movie role. They had regular glass for the lenses. He said she looked hot and someone was bound to recognize her.
She shrugged. “Whatever happens, I’ll live.”
What happened was nothing. Nobody recognized her. Or if they did, they either respected her privacy or plain didn’t care.
It was a great little restaurant, with windows framing a view of the river. Old pilings stuck up out of the water, seagulls perched on them contentedly. From their table, they could also see the Astoria-Megler Bridge arching over the wide Columbia all the way to the Washington side.
They shared a nice bottle of wine and she snapped a lot of pictures of the river and the seagulls.
“Just like a tourist,” he teased.
She took pictures of him, too, so sexy and handsome in his gray fisherman’s sweater, his hair kind of windblown, looking back at her through her phone’s camera lens as though he wanted to eat her right up.
And he did, too—but that was much later, in her bed at the cottage. They made love for hours. Past midnight, as she drifted off to sleep, she realized she had never felt this close to anyone.
Or this happy.
* * *
Thursday first thing, she got a call from Percy. The DNA results were up online.
“Oh, Percy.” She giggled like a nervous kid. “Just tell me.”
“Well, all right then. It’s official. You are my great-niece and you have a great-aunt, our dear Daffodil. You have five brothers and four sisters. Because of course, we count Aislinn, though the results show she is no blood relation to you or the others. And we include Finn, as well. He may have disappeared years ago, but we all have faith he will return to us in time.”
She thanked Percy, hung up and grabbed Sten in a celebratory kiss.
