I walked toward the door, but just before I left, I said, “I hope to God that one day I’ll understand why Harry was such a miserable son of a bitch. But until then, I’m going to take immense pleasure in believing that he’s rotting away somewhere in hell watching his grand plan fail.”
36
Noah
I STARED AT the back door of Wilhelmina’s and took a minute to just close my eyes and fucking breathe. This morning had been…a lot.
A lot of information.
A lot of emotions.
And a lot of feelings to process.
I had a son. A son. And that was…
It was amazing.
Scary as hell, but amazing all the same, and I needed to fall into that feeling, not the anger that kept trying to creep back in. I could deal with that later. Right now, I wanted to marvel in the fact that the most wonderful woman in the world had given me the most precious gift I would ever receive—and she’d done it all on her own.
Laurel… Wow. What she must have gone through and dealt with day in and day out at such a young age, I couldn’t even imagine. Add to that the pain of losing her mother and the burden of Harry’s fucked-up deal, and I had no idea how she’d survived.
But she had. In fact, she’d thrived. She’d carved out a highly successful career for herself, made a beautiful home for her family to grow up in, and raised a young man that everyone sang the praises of.
I’d been wrong earlier in thinking the girl I’d known was gone, because she was the foundation of the exquisite woman who now stood in her place.
I hit Laurel’s number and waited for it to connect, and the second her voice came through the phone, my chest tightened and a smile crossed my lips.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Laurel.”
“Noah.”
My name in her voice was like music to my ears, and I almost asked her to say it again just so I could feel the warm rush it sent through me.
“Hey.”
She chuckled softly. “I believe we already covered that.”
“So we did.”
She paused, and I imagined her standing at one of those large windows of that house, staring out at the trees in her yard.
“How did it go? Are you okay?”
It was a testament to the kind of woman Laurel was that she was concerned for my feelings after all that my family had put her through. But here she was, worrying, caring, offering more compassion than she should to the son of a man who had made her life a living hell.
“It went…as expected. You were right. Mom had no idea. She’s pretty upset about it. Ryan? I think he knew all along and is dealing with that. Justin and Bree I have no clue, and honestly, I’m too busy trying to process my own feelings to worry about theirs. They’re going to have to deal with this on their own, as far as I’m concerned. I can’t hold their hands through it. I’m too damn angry.”
“I can understand that.”
I was sure she could. She must hate my family for what they’d done. How she worked with them day in and day out was beyond me.
“But Noah?”
“Hmm?”
“Keep an open mind with them. They didn’t know. Just like you. And I’m sure they’re feeling very angry and betrayed. Upset at me—”
“Why the hell would they be upset with you?”
“I lied to them for years.”
“No,” I said. “You were blackmailed for years. That’s a big difference, Laurel. You have nothing to be sorry for. And if they try to say otherwise, you come and see me.”
She went quiet, and I knew her well enough to know that she was probably wondering if she’d done the right thing back then. If maybe she could’ve done something different.
But there was no changing the past, just learning to deal with it, and right now I wanted to do something I’d never done before.
“Hey, Laurel?”
“Yes?”
“Jake—he’s on the baseball team in high school, isn’t he?”
I could all but hear her smile as she said, “Yes, he’s the pitcher. Just like you were.”
Her words brought me up short, and I lost my train of thought as the full impact of them hit me. Jake was a pitcher, just like me.
“Noah?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was gonna see if he’d like to meet me over at the field. We could hit a few balls.”
“I think he’d love that.”
“As in hitting balls out of the field and not at my head, right?”
Laurel started laughing, and I couldn’t help but join in. “Either way, I think he’d enjoy it. What time should I tell him to meet you?”
“Um…” I looked at the clock on the dash of my car. “About an hour? I’ll get dressed and head on over.”
“Sounds good. I’ll tell him to meet you there. And Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Thank you?
“For not blaming him. For wanting to know him, when others might’ve—”
“Laurel?”
“Yes.”
“He’s yours—”
“And yours.”
“I know. But either way, I’d want to know him just for that. Tell him I’ll see him in an hour. And hopefully I’ll see you not long after, with all my teeth in place.”
“I look forward to it.”
“So do I. See you then.”
AN HOUR LATER, I stood center field and tossed the ball in and out of my mitt. The sun was shining now, and it looked like it was going to be a nice day. I could only hope that was a glimpse of things to come.
The sound of an engine rumbling made me look over to see Laurel’s car pulling up to the curb. It came to a stop, and Jake pushed open the door and climbed out.
It was strange looking at him now, knowing who he was, because I could very plainly see he was younger than I’d first thought. Yes, he was tall, my height exactly, but he
