A Love that Endures

by Forrest, Bella

  “I’m sorry,” David said, gazing at her. “That must have . . . really sucked.”

  “Sucked doesn’t begin to cover it. But, crap happens, I guess.” She shrugged. “I’ll get over it. More or less am over it already. I’m mostly just angry that he won’t leave me alone. I mean, the balls of him coming here!” She growled, her blood pressure spiking at the thought. She was sure he’d been lying about sending a second letter to inform her in advance. Otherwise, why hadn’t she received it? She’d gotten the first one all right.

  She wished she had gotten a warning, though. If she’d known, she would have been sure to steer well clear of the house, checked into a hotel for a few days or something. The risk of him coming here was immense, especially because he hadn’t bothered to wear any sort of disguise. His photo had been published frequently in tabloids since they’d started dating. She was just relieved neither David nor any of her housemates seemed to have caught on—and thankfully, she’d managed to catch herself in time and not use his full name. The jerk could have at least had the decency to wear glasses or a wig or something. He knew full well what would happen if people discovered her identity.

  Or maybe that was the point—since he obviously didn’t want Katy away at Harvard in the first place. Another low growl rumbled in the back of her throat.

  “That goo you’re preparing there reminds me of my mum’s chocolate babka,” David remarked.

  She tilted her head to one side, grateful he had changed the subject. “What’s babka?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Oh, it’s a Jewish thing. A kind of chocolate bread, basically.”

  “Ah, I see. You’re Jewish, then?” She remembered a second later that was a silly question. “You don’t know for sure yet, do you? Any news on those DNA tests?” Turning the topic to him was a good idea.

  He shook his head. “Nothing useful yet. One came back with zero matches. I’m hoping I’ll get the other two back within the week . . . Fingers crossed.”

  “Let me know what happens,” she said, genuinely meaning it.

  He nodded. “Sure thing.”

  There was a span of silence as they both refocused on their work, and then another question darted into her brain.

  “So, have you got any sob stories to share?”

  He looked at her, frowning.

  “I mean about exes,” she added quickly, kicking herself for how insensitive that had come off. Of course he had a sob story. Both his adoptive parents had died. If she wanted to know if he’d had any girlfriends before, she should have just asked outright . . . Her brain stuttered at that thought. What if he had a girlfriend even now? She hadn’t even considered the possibility. He’d seemed a little too friendly with her for that to be the case, but still, she ought not assume anything. He could be in a long-distance relationship with someone, for all she knew, and simply be eager to make new friends here. He’d literally just made a point of telling her this evening that he was happy to only be friends, hadn’t he?

  “Oh.” His face reddened a touch. “No. I’m lucky enough that I don’t.”

  Katy frowned, wondering what that was supposed to mean. He’d had relationships that hadn’t ended badly, or he’d never been in a relationship, or . . .?

  “I think your chocolate’s frying, by the way,” he added.

  Katy noticed the slightly burnt smell only then, and jumped, darting toward the stove with a curse. Whipping the pan off the flame, she carried it back to the table and poured the chocolate into the mixing bowl with the rest of the batter ingredients. She spread the mixture into two baking pans, her mind stuck on the unanswered question. His response certainly hadn’t clarified whether he had a girlfriend now. Not that she had a terribly good reason to be so curious about it.

  She just . . . wanted to know.

  David finished with the ice cream fingers and carried them back to the freezer, while Katy placed the pans into the oven. They returned to the table at the same time and stood there, meeting each other’s eyes for a moment.

  “Do you, um,” Katy began. She might as well just ask him outright. Then David’s gaze became too uncomfortable to hold, and her eyes dropped to the chocolate pan. “Do you want some of this chocolate?” she blurted, grabbing a spoon while giving herself a mental slap. She needed to think things through better before she started to talk.

  “Yes,” David replied, a wily smile unfurling on his lips.

  She dipped the spoon into the leftover chocolate and held it up to his mouth. As his lips parted and he ran his tongue over the metal, an unexpected shiver ran down her spine. She couldn’t help but stare at his lips as he licked, then swallowed, finding herself noticing for the first time just how well shaped they were. Quite thin, yet somehow full in the right places. And firm . . .

  “Did you mean to ask if I have a girlfriend?”

  Katy’s eyes snapped back to his in shock. “Wha-What?”

  His smile became a huge grin. “I’ve never really had a serious girlfriend, if that’s what you were wondering.”

  She could feel her face morphing through expressions so fast that she must have looked like a cartoon. “Huh. No. What . . . What makes you think I was wondering that?”

  He shrugged. “A calculated guess. That, and you’re quite easy to read.” His blue eyes glinted in amusement. “Hey, it’s fine, though—it’s a natural question.”

  She pursed her lips and stared at him for a long moment, struggling to decide on the best response. Eventually she went with, “Well, you’re quite full of presumptions.”

  Before he could say anything more, she pushed another scoop of chocolate into his mouth. David almost choked as he laughed and tried to swallow at the same time. Katy grabbed a second spoon and fed herself a big blob, too. Sometimes, full mouths were simply the best solution.

  Was she really that easy to read?

  More to the point, what was she doing shamelessly flirting with this man her cousin adored? She might not be able to control who he liked, but she didn’t have to exacerbate things. She just couldn’t seem to help herself.

  She was secretly glad she’d gotten an answer from him. Quite thrilled, in fact. She wondered how a charming guy like David hadn’t gotten wrapped up with a girl before. Surely he’d had no shortage of suitors. Perhaps he was the serious type and had just kept himself too busy with study.

  Keys suddenly rattled against the front door, and a few seconds later, Cassie burst breathlessly into the room, shopping bags dangling from her arms.

  “Guys!” she said, her eyes bugging. “You know you just left this stuff out there!”

  “Oh, sorry,” Katy said. “We totally forgot!” Dropping the spoons in embarrassment, she hurried to her cousin and relieved her of the shopping.

  “Anyway,” Cassie announced, pulling a bottle of sparkling water from one of the bags. She popped the lid open and took a deep swig. “I managed to get rid of your guy. He shouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.” She threw Katy a triumphant smirk, and Katy forced a smile back.

  “Thank you so much, Cass,” she said. “You have no idea what it means to me.”

  “Anything for my birthday girl,” Cassie replied with a wink.

  Katy’s heart clenched. Cassie was such a good friend to her . . . Her eyes roamed across the room to David, noticing a blotch of chocolate on the side of his mouth that he hadn’t managed to clean up. A much better friend than I’m currently being.

  18

  David

  “Have your final results come through yet?”

  David clasped a hand to his face. “Look, Zeke, if you ask me that one more time, I’m going to—”

  “Realize what an ah-ma-azing friend I am. Hell, I bet I’ve been thinking about it more than you.”

  “And that’s kind of creepy,” David muttered.

  It was six in the morning, and he was still in bed. Zeke was at his desk, his hair a small jungle, eyes wide and bloodshot. Half a dozen empty coffee cups sat on his right, and a pile of coursework
lay in front of him. He’d pulled an all-nighter to get it done in time, and David sensed a collapse was imminent. Right after one last manic burst of conversation.

  He leapt up from his chair, grabbed David’s phone off the shelf, and handed it to him. “Why don’t you check while I go brush my teeth?” he asked. “They could have come through overnight.”

  Groaning, David took the phone, and Zeke staggered out of the room. He’d only explained about the tests because his roommate had walked in on him spitting into a tube. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have bothered, unless he received some good news. Superstitious or not, constantly talking about it made David feel like he was going to jinx things somehow.

  Truth be told, he’d been procrastinating on checking his email for the last couple of days. Ever since the second test came back with no matches, he’d been afraid to get the results of the last one. If it came back with zero leads, too, he didn’t know where that would leave him. He didn’t want to think about the disappointment it would bring.

  Setting his jaw, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and pulled up his mail app. No point burying your head in the sand . . .

  He scrolled past the stack of spam mail that had somehow made its way into his inbox, and his finger froze on an email titled “Know your truth.” It was from Geneseed, the final testing service.

  Holding his breath, he tapped it open.

  “Congratulations! One member of our database matches your results,” the first line read.

  “Holy crap,” David gasped, hurriedly scrolling down and drinking the text in.

  A cousin. They suspected they had found his cousin. A first cousin.

  Not only that, but it gave a list of regions David’s blood was estimated to flow from. 35.1 percent North American. 30.2 percent Brazilian. 19.2 percent Northwest European. 15.5 percent Southern European.

  “Whoa.” He breathed in a slow stream of air. The Brazilian part he never would have guessed. This test had been more expensive than the others, but it had clearly been worth it.

  He quickly tapped on the link to his “cousin’s” profile. There was no photo or textual description. But there was a name. Joseph Best. And a place of birth: Long Island, New York.

  As well as a cell number and an email address.

  David felt his palms begin to sweat. Joseph Best . . .

  This was crazy. Crazy crazy crazy. If these results were legit, and that man really was his cousin, and either of those contact methods worked . . . He set his phone down for a moment and sat upright, breathing hard.

  This had all come at him so suddenly. He’d spent his whole life in the dark regarding his birth family, and now all this at once was almost too much. It was going to take a while for it to even sink in. It felt like he was in a dream.

  “So what did it say?” Zeke asked, bursting back into the room.

  His eyes lit up with excitement at the stunned look on David’s face. He rushed over to David and gazed at the phone screen.

  “Oh. My. God. They found someone! They found someone!” He whooped so loud it probably woke every boy on the floor, but David was too overwhelmed to care. “Joseph Best, eh? That’s a pretty cool name. Any idea of the surname’s ethnicity?”

  David brought up his browser and googled it. “Anglo-Saxon,” he articulated slowly. “Which would fit with the Northwest European percentage.” He wondered whether Joseph was on his mother’s or father’s side.

  “Eh?”

  David shoved the percentages list in front of Zeke’s nose, and the boy’s eyes grew wider. “Wow. This is so bloody cool, man! I want to do one of these.”

  A sliver of doubt crept into David’s heart, then. How could he be sure the match was genuine? There had been a paragraph at the bottom of the email explaining that the company’s methods were cutting edge, and there was a clear match in their DNA, at around 20 percent, which indicated cousins. But still, David couldn’t help but feel this was too good to be true.

  “Are you going to call or email him?” Zeke asked. “He’ll surely be able to lead you to your parents!”

  “Assuming we’re definitely related, and this hasn’t been some massive mess up,” David replied, his voice a touch uneven.

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Zeke said. “Contact him and see what he says. For all you know, he may know about a long-lost orphan who was given away by his aunty at birth.”

  “Right,” David said, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Just need to contact him.”

  The lump formed again. This time, it stuck like glue, hindering his breath.

  What if Joseph didn’t know anything about David? Like, anything at all? What if his parents had meant for him to be kept a secret? It had been a closed adoption, after all. For all he knew, he could be the result of an illicit affair. What if his existence resurfacing caused pain, or even a break in the family?

  Half a dozen worst-case scenarios flitted through his mind. Now that it seemed like he finally had something concrete, was he even ready to take this step?

  Not right now, he realized. He needed to think this through more. Or even better, talk this through.

  And he knew just the person to do that with.

  * * *

  After the quickest shower of his life, David raced over to Professor Bell’s office, scarfing down a protein bar and a carton of orange juice on the way. The professor usually arrived early, but there were typically a bunch of students who tried to catch him at the beginning of the day, so David wanted to make sure he was first in line.

  He managed to reach the office first, though he’d barely been waiting five minutes before other students started to gather round. Less than half an hour later, the professor showed up, his thin leather briefcase in one hand, a mug of steaming coffee in the other.

  His expression brightened as he laid eyes on David. “Well, good morning. What brings you to see me so bright and early?”

  David fidgeted with his collar. “I just wanted to have a brief word with you about . . . something we discussed a while ago.”

  The professor gave him a canny look and nodded down at his briefcase. “All right. Do an old man a favor and slip my keys out of the side pocket.”

  David obliged, and a few moments later, the two of them were stepping into the room. David closed the door behind them and made his way to the seat opposite Bell’s.

  “Glad to see the bruises have gone down,” Bell remarked, a twinkle of humor in his blue eyes.

  David returned it with an anxious smile as he sat down.

  “So what is it?” Bell asked, leaning back. “DNA results come back?”

  David nodded. “Good guess. I’ve got the contact details of a guy who’s supposed to be my first cousin. His name’s Joseph Best, and he was born in New York. Seems he’s still there, judging by the area code. But the problem is . . . I’m just not sure what to do with all this information. I mean, I can’t very well just call up out of the blue, can I?”

  The more David thought about it, the more he resisted the idea. He had no clue how Joseph might react, or the potential domino effect his call could have. He was dying to know where and who he’d come from, but he was starting to worry this whole project was entirely selfish. His biological parents might not have raised him themselves, but they had given him the gift of a great childhood with the Rosens. Was he really entitled to anything more than that?

  Plus, at least he knew something of his regional ancestry now. It was more than he had before. Maybe he should just leave it at that . . .

  “Why ever not?” Bell asked, his tone incredulous.

  David paused, frowning. “Because I have no idea of the circumstances surrounding my adoption,” he said, after a beat. “I’m worried it’ll come off as intrusive. If any of my family wanted to contact me, I’m sure they’d—”

  “Add themselves to a family DNA database, just like Joseph has done,” Bell finished bluntly.

  David shut his mouth at that. He supposed the man had a poin
t.

  Joseph could have signed up to the service just for the regional report—a personal curiosity project that could have nothing to do with David—but then why would he have made his profile public? It had to mean that he wanted to be contacted—or at least was open to the idea.

  David needed to calm down. He was letting his nerves get the better of him. “Okay, I guess you’re right.”

  “Just call him up,” Bell said simply. “Do it this evening after work hours. Introduce yourself and see what he says. If the situation is delicate, I’m sure he’ll tell you. Play your next move by ear.”

  “Right.” David nodded slowly, letting the words sink in.

  Bell smiled, giving him a moment. “Was there anything else?” he asked.

  David shook his head. “No, that was all. Thank you. You’ve helped a lot.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Bell said. He set his mug down and dug a pile of papers out of his briefcase.

  David took it as his cue to leave, knowing Bell had to get on with his day. He rose to his feet.

  “Let me know how it goes,” Bell called, as David backed toward the door.

  “I will . . . and thanks again.”

  He stepped outside, allowing the next student into the room, and found a place to stand alone in the corridor. The nerves were tamping down, slowly being overridden by pure and unadulterated excitement.

  Bell had helped David give himself permission. Now, answers were just one call away.

  19

  Katy

  She and Cassie needed to talk. More specifically, Katy needed to talk to Cassie.

  Her guilt over David had been growing steadily more uncomfortable, and she hated that she was keeping it from her cousin. She needed to just come out with the truth—yes, Katy liked him, too, but she still wanted to see Cassie happy and would make an effort to avoid him if Cassie still wanted to try and pursue him. At least she wouldn’t feel like such a traitor any time she found herself alone with the guy and her heart started leaping like a maniac.