Their New-Found Family

by Rebecca Winters

  Once she’d retrieved her bag and had run in the house, Rachel started up the car again. To her chagrin, her precocious daughter eyed her with concern. “What’s wrong, Mom? You’re so quiet. Is Nana sick or something?”

  “No. This isn’t about your grandmother.” There was no easy way to broach the subject. Once they reached the street and merged with the traffic Rachel said, “Your father called me this morning after you left for Kendra’s house.”

  Natalie stared at her incredulously. “On his own? I mean, Alain didn’t tell him to call?”

  “No.” Rachel was still in shock. In fact she’d been in this condition all day, and had gone home from work early. “No one told him to do anything. He made it abundantly clear he was acting independent of his nephew.”

  “Oh, Mom—”

  “He’ll be in Concord tonight.”

  “You’re kidding—” The joy in her daughter’s voice was beyond description. “Does he know about me?”

  He knows.

  “Not about you specifically, honey. He hung up before we could have a long conversation. But I can tell he suspects we had a child together, and he won’t rest until he discovers the truth for himself.

  “That’s why he decided to fly here immediately. I told him to call the house this evening and I’d make arrangements to meet him tomorrow.”

  “Why can’t we meet him tonight?”

  “For one thing, it may be too late. For another, you and I need a little time to talk about this and what it’s going to mean.”

  “What do we have to talk about?”

  “I’m sure he’s married and has a family. Finding out he has a daughter will change his life as much as it’ll change yours.”

  “Do you think he won’t love me as much as he loves his other kids?”

  “Of course he will. But that’s not the point, honey. Meeting you is going to transform his world. And your existence will come as a huge surprise to his wife and children, not to mention his parents and his brother’s family.”

  “But he’s my father, too!”

  “Of course. The fact that he’s made the decision to see us as soon as possible means he does care. That sounds like the Tris I once knew, and it’s obvious to me he hasn’t changed in that regard even if that portion of his life is a blank. But we have to discuss how this is going to impact all of us.”

  “You’re talking about visitation. I mean, if he wants to go on seeing me.”

  “Yes.”

  “You think he won’t?”

  The tremor in her voice made Rachel want to reach over and crush her daughter to her, but she couldn’t do that until they arrived at the house.

  “Honey? Right now he doesn’t know positively we had a baby together. That’s why he’s coming. To find out.

  “I’m sure a lot of possibilities are going through his head. Before we make any assumptions, we have to wait until you two have met and we’ve talked this through.

  “Don’t forget you and your father live on two different continents. The situation isn’t like your friend Molly’s. She can spend every other weekend at her dad’s house because it’s only a mile away from her mother’s.”

  Natalie’s chin trembled. “You’re just saying these things because you don’t think he’s going to want a relationship with me, huh.”

  Rachel pulled the car up in front of their townhouse and turned off the engine. Eyeing her daughter she said, “I’m your mom and love you more than life itself. I’m trying to be as honest with you as I can.

  “The truth is, I don’t know what he’ll think when he finds out he has a child. My greatest concern is to keep you from being hurt, but it isn’t possible to shield you from everything.”

  Her daughter’s pained expression was the last thing she saw before Natalie opened the passenger door. She grabbed her things from the back seat and ran inside the house.

  After locking the car, Rachel followed, but her heart was so heavy she felt like her body weighed a thousand pounds.

  The second she stepped in the living room, the house phone rang. She almost jumped out of her skin before hurrying into the kitchen to get it.

  Natalie had beaten her to it. Her brows furrowed before she put her hand over the mouthpiece.

  “It’s Steve,” she whispered. “He’s worried because you weren’t at work and haven’t been answering your cell phone. Please call him back on it. I want to keep our phone free in case my father calls.”

  Rachel took the phone from her and apologized to Steve for not calling him earlier. She told him something important had come up and she would call him back in a little while on her cell phone.

  Not two seconds after Rachel had replaced the receiver, it rang again. She picked up immediately, thinking maybe he’d tried to tell her something vital and she’d cut him off too soon.

  “Steve?”

  “Afraid not. Bonsoir, Rachel.”

  Her breath caught. “Tris—I—I wasn’t expecting you to phone for another couple of hours at least.”

  Natalie was right there and knew her father was on the other end of the phone. Rachel could tell her daughter was so excited and nervous at the same time, she was practically dancing on the spot.

  “I’m parked across the street. I take it that was my daughter Natalie I saw run in your house just now. She’d be the right age. From a distance she has the look of my mother.”

  A moan escaped Rachel’s throat. Evidently he’d had a conversation with his nephew since phoning her. “Yes.”

  There was a palpable silence. “Does she know who I am?” his voice grated.

  “Yes.”

  After she heard his sharp intake of breath he said, “Does your husband know I’m her father?”

  Rachel trembled. “I-I’m not married yet.”

  After a tension-filled pause, “Alain thought you were. So what are you saying? Are you engaged to this Steve? Living with him?”

  No. Not even close.

  She wheeled away from Natalie’s probing glance. It was uncanny how much he sounded so much like the old, decisive Tris who was a natural born leader and refused to let anything get in the way of what he wanted.

  “No.”

  “Then you and Natalie are alone right now?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “I’m coming in.”

  He clicked off before she could beg him not to.

  Tris was angry.

  It was a deep, profound anger. The kind that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to forgive her for her silence all these years.

  Frightened in a brand-new way, Rachel put the phone back on the hook.

  Natalie pulled on her arm. “When am I going to see him?”

  Help.

  “Right now. He’s walking up to the front door.”

  Just then the doorbell rang.

  “Oh my gosh— He knows who I am, huh.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I answer it? Please?”

  Her daughter’s beautiful dark brown eyes, so much like Tris’s, shone with a luster she’d never seen before.

  “Go ahead,” she said through wooden lips.

  Ever since Rachel had learned about Alain’s phone call, she’d had the presentiment that their lives would be thrown into chaos, never to be the same again.

  With one unexpected turn of events, her carefully orchestrated life with Natalie had been caught up in a whirlwind by forces she’d couldn’t combat or control.

  She had no choice but to be carried to another place. Until it blew itself out, no one could predict the amount of destruction it would wreak.

  Tracing her daughter’s footsteps, Rachel reached the end of the hall leading into the living room. She hung back as Natalie opened the front door, so she could still witness what was happening.

  When she saw the tall, spectacular looking man standing on the threshold, the sight of him reduced her limbs to water.

  It was Tris. But over the last twelve years, the good-looking nineteen-ye
ar-old heartthrob she’d fallen in love with had changed into the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in her life.

  His hair was more black than brown. He wore it shorter than he’d done in his early college days. Natalie had inherited his coloring and height.

  He had a straight nose which he’d also bequeathed to their daughter. But where her chin was softly rounded like Rachel’s, he possessed a firm jaw and a cleft in his she’d always loved to touch and kiss.

  Unlike the jeans and polo shirts he’d worn on the ship, he was dressed in an expensive looking gray suit. The combination of his silk tie with its various shades of charcoal, silver and gray toned with his white shirt, dazzled Rachel’s eyes.

  At a glance his whole demeanor proclaimed him the successful, wealthy hotelier of the prominent Monbrisson family.

  As Rachel took in everything from the distance, she watched father and daughter studying each other with the same searching intensity. Since opening the door, Natalie had been speechless. With good reason.

  No father in Concord or anywhere else had his powerful physique or striking masculine features. He spoke first.

  “I always wanted a daughter. You’re so beautiful, Natalie, I can hardly find the words.” His low voice sounded husky.

  “I always wanted my dad,” she answered in a tear-filled voice.

  “Then how about a hug.”

  Rachel’s eyes blurred as she watched him crush their daughter in his strong arms. He picked her up and rocked her, causing her dark ponytail to swing back and forth. The contrast between his elegance and the T-shirt and shorts she’d worn to hockey practice made the picture even more poignant.

  Natalie’s quiet sobs of joy were interspersed by endearments he spoke to her in French, forcing Rachel to look away.

  Though she couldn’t help but be thankful Tris was showing Natalie the unqualified acceptance she craved from a father, another part of Rachel’s soul was horrified to realize that she’d kept them apart all these years.

  Just the way Tris communed with his daughter as they quietly picked out the similarities in each other, Rachel realized he would never accept her reasons for failing to look him up in Montreux.

  Not telling him he was going to be a father after she’d returned home and gone to the doctor was the most terrible mistake she’d ever made in her life.

  He would see the last twelve years as wasted time he could never get back or recapture with his daughter. He wouldn’t buy any explanation of Rachel’s.

  Tris isn’t going to forgive me.

  As that reality crept over her, she started to shake uncontrollably. Just then the phone rang again. Steve—She hadn’t called him back yet. Though they didn’t have a date until tomorrow night, naturally he was wondering if something was wrong.

  Rachel hurried to the kitchen to answer it. Much as she didn’t want to hurt Steve’s feelings, she would have to tell him the truth, that Natalie’s father had shown up and she couldn’t talk right now. She would have to call him tomorrow.

  Heaven help her, but Tris was back in her life in a way she could never have imagined.

  Tris studied his adorable dark-haired daughter who was examining him with her heart in her eyes.

  “How do you say ‘Dad’ in French?”

  “Papa.”

  “That sounds like grandpa. Can I just call you Dad?”

  Delighted and moved by her desire to acknowledge him as her father, he said, “There’s nothing I want more.”

  He was rewarded with a glowing smile. “I have a present for you, Dad. Just a second while I get it. Don’t go away!”

  “I came here to see you, ma fille. I’m not going anywhere else.”

  Her lovely brown eyes set in that appealing eleven-year-old face filled with tears again. “I’m so glad. What does fille mean?”

  He had to clear his throat. “My precious daughter.”

  She gave him another strong hug before her long legs disappeared up the stairs. Once again he was struck by her remarkable resemblance to the family, his mother in particular.

  His parents weren’t going to believe it. Once they got over the shock, they would adore their granddaughter who exuded a rare sweetness and vulnerability. Come to think of it, those were some of the qualities he admired in Alain.

  She would help fill that hole in his parents’ hearts left when Bernard and Francoise died.

  Already Tris loved her with an intensity he didn’t know himself capable of. The spontaneity of her love, her complete openness and generosity of spirit had overwhelmed him.

  He hadn’t yet spoken to the blond woman who’d chosen not to make an appearance yet. Tris could only guess why she’d decided to stay out of sight.

  Undoubtedly her guilt in keeping Natalie a secret from him all these years was the primary reason he’d been given the chance to be alone with his daughter for a little while.

  But he wasn’t complaining. By the two of them getting acquainted on their own, there’d been no awkwardness. The bonding that had just taken place was extraordinary, almost as if he’d always known his daughter.

  While he waited for Natalie to come back, he looked around the cozy living room filled with shelves of books and some framed prints of his favorite Impressionists.

  He liked the combination of comfortable brown leather furnishings and glass tables with flowering plants. An oriental rug covered the hardwood floors. Whatever else he thought about Rachel Marsden, he had to admit she’d created a lovely home full of warmth and character for their offspring.

  “Here—” Natalie reappeared and ran over to him, handing him something. “Does this look familiar?”

  Incroyable. His old hockey ring.

  “I’ll say it does. My team was called the Montreux Meteors.”

  “That’s what Mom told me.”

  His mind reeled. All these years Rachel had kept Natalie a secret from him. He couldn’t comprehend it.

  “After we won the pro tournament at the end of the season, we were presented these rings. It wasn’t until after I went home from the hospital that I realized it was missing from my finger.

  “I thought I’d left it because jewelry is always removed before surgery. But when I inquired later, they said I hadn’t been wearing a ring.”

  “Mom said you gave it to her as a promise ring until you could buy her an engagement ring. She said you were going to take her shopping for one after your training camp was over.”

  Another groan escaped. He rubbed his thumb over the raised letters that spelled out Meteors. A stylized hockey stick formed the T.

  Natalie’s mother had memories of the night he’d given this to her. But he couldn’t share in them. All he could do was marvel that the fruit of their undoubtedly passionate union was standing in front of him.

  His gaze flicked to Natalie. As he continued to study his daughter, he realized her smile, the shape of her face and lips, were physical traits that had to belong to her mother, the woman he’d made love to twelve years ago.

  She must have been exceptional for him to fall so hard. But the fact that she’d kept all knowledge of their daughter from him revealed a serious character flaw in her nature. He ground his teeth in an effort to tamp down his fury.

  The important thing here was to get acquainted with his flesh and blood first. Recriminations would be pointless.

  But as Rachel Marsden would come to find out, there was going to be a price to pay for her sin of omission.

  Suddenly Tris sensed he and Natalie weren’t alone.

  He looked beyond her to the stunning woman with shoulder length ash blond hair who’d just entered the living room. Of medium height, she exuded the beguiling femininity he’d caught glimpses of in his adolescent daughter.

  Even from the distance separating them, he could see her dark lashed eyes were an incredible translucent green.

  Helpless to do otherwise, his gaze traveled over her high-boned cheeks and wide, full mouth. It finally dropped to her slender yet rounded figure not quit
e hidden beneath the classy pastel blue suit she was wearing.

  His pulse throbbed wildly in his throat and temple, a sensation that hadn’t happened for so long, he couldn’t remember the last time.

  He resented this initial gut reaction to her, but attributed it to the fact that he’d been inordinately curious about the mother of his child who anyone could see was growing into a real beauty herself.

  “I gave your ring to Natalie before she started school,” Rachel began in that almost breathless voice he’d heard on the phone. “I wanted her to know something special about her father that was interesting and uniquely you.”

  “Yup,” Natalie chimed in. “I thought it was so cool my dad was a professional ice hockey player. That’s the reason I wanted to play it too. But I had to wait until I turned ten.”

  “You play hockey now?” Tris murmured in a bemused state.

  Natalie nodded. “Mom just picked me up from practice.”

  “She’s your daughter,” Rachel inserted. “You’ll be proud to know the coach thinks she’s so talented, he gave her the position of left wing. Because of her fearlessness, she helped their team win the regional Peewees championship last season.”

  “Do you still play, Dad?”

  “Not since my accident. Do you love it?”

  “Yes! My team’s called the Concord Cavalry,” Natalie informed him with a broad smile. “Tomorrow’s our first practice game before fall season starts. Will you come and watch me play? We rock!”

  For a moment Tris feared this was some kind of fantastic dream from which he would awaken and find himself alone and desolate. Feeling Natalie’s arms go around him had completely changed his life.

  He watched Rachel put protective hands on their daughter’s shoulders. “Honey? Your father just got here. We have no idea what his plans are, or if he brought his wife and children with him. Why don’t we all sit down to talk.”

  With those words, the gloves had come off.

  Rachel Marsden was staking her claim. Now that he’d been allowed to see his daughter, she couldn’t wait for him to announce his imminent departure from her house and the country. Undoubtedly the man she planned to marry was waiting for her to phone him with the all clear signal.