“Playing…no, Flynn, no. What I feel for you is real.”
“Like hell it is. Guess I was stupid enough to let another woman fool me.”
“Flynn,” she said standing and touching his arm.
“Hey, you mind letting go of me?”
His words stung and hurt, but she guessed she had only herself to blame.
“How do you know my mother so well?”
“You really up to hearing the whole story, Natalie?”
“I have to.”
****
He sat in a chair, intentionally as far away from her as he could get. She’d put a knife through his heart with her lies and deception, and the fact that he loved her and wanted her made it all the worse for him. He put his hat on his knee and ran his fingers around its rim.
“Guess you should know the story from the beginning. My wife didn’t die. She was having an affair.” He took a deep breath. “I decided to get away from this place for a bit. I began driving and I somehow ended up in Rapid City, South Dakota.”
“I was in this little ma and pa café having breakfast one morning, and there was a couple in their late thirties, early forties sitting on a table nearby. They kept looking at their watch and finally in strolls your mother with a baby carrier.”
He stopped. He could still see the image as if it had happened just yesterday. Yeah, it had stuck in his mind and never left.
“She walked up to the couple and said here’s your baby and all the papers you need for your attorney.”
He wiped a tear from his cheek. “Shit, I’ll never forget that day as long as I live. The couple took one look at Emily and…”
He broke down sobbing. He couldn’t help it. He remembered the look like they’d seen the most horrible thing in the world.
Flynn looked over at Natalie. He was telling her this awful story about her flesh and blood, but she’d wanted to hear it. “They told your mother she’d failed to inform them about Emily being a retarded baby. They wanted a perfect child, and they stood about to leave.”
He glanced over at Natalie. Her lower lip was trembling. This was just as hard for him telling the story as it probably was for her sitting here listening to it. He remembered the baby beginning to cry at that point.
“Your mother said she couldn’t take the baby back with her. She didn’t want it either and… and, shit, they argued back and forth like Emily was something they’d bought in the wrong color or a sweater that had a hole in it.”
He put his hand to his mouth sure he was going to be sick like he almost was that day. He hadn’t believed that people could be so cruel to a helpless baby.
“Your mother told them either they took the baby or she’d have to leave it on the doorstep of the local social services and hoped someone would give it a home.”
“How could my mother have done something so awful?” Natalie was sobbing and he almost weakened into rushing over to her and holding her tight.
“I had to do something. I knew in the pit of my stomach I was that little baby’s only hope. I strolled over to them and was about to tell them I was going to call child protective services and have all of them arrested for being such a bunch of assholes. And that’s when I looked in the carrier and saw her. She looked at me and I swear she stopped crying. She smiled at me, and I knew I had to take her. I told your mother to give me the paperwork, and I’d adopt her as my little girl. I thought maybe the baby would bring my wife back to me, but when I got home, but she like the couple couldn’t…. well, she left that day, and I didn’t hear from her again until the divorce papers arrived a few weeks later.”
He’d done his best to block out that day and the weeks after. All he remembered now was his Emily and the joy she’d brought into his empty life.
Natalie stood, so did Flynn.
“Do you want me to tell Emily who I am or will you?” asked Natalie.
“I’ll tell her but only after you’ve left town.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I think you are. I want you out of Timber Creek today. I don’t want to ever see you again.”
She took a step toward him. “Flynn, you can’t mean that. I love you.”
Natalie reached for him, but he dodged out of the way. If she touched him, shit, if she as much as touched him, he’d give in.
“I have Emily, and that’s all I ever really needed.”
Chapter Twelve
“Where’s Natalie?” asked Emily pushing the mashed potatoes around on her plate.
“She had to go back to Florida. Now eat your food and no more playing with it.” He tapped the table by her plate and glanced at Rory.