Kane’s hands—large, callused, powerful—reached for her own and he waited for her to speak, his tall, lithe body taut. She was grateful for his strength in the storm that swirled around her. The weather had turned bitterly cold since daybreak, and she shivered as an icy gust whipped at her bare face and hands.
Kane slid an arm around her shoulder and their hips bumped together. She welcomed his closeness and felt warmer because his body blocked the frigid wind.
“Did you have any inkling of this?” he asked.
“None,” Charity replied.
“Who are they?” he asked Charity as he looked at the two girls that resembled her.
“I believe they are my sisters. I’d like you to meet Faith and Hope,” Charity said.
“Good God,” Kane said, dropping his arm and crossing to examine each of the girls.
Charity noticed that Faith had slipped the prosthetic device behind her back, concealing her defect. “We’re identical,” she told Kane. “Down to the moles beneath our right ears.” She hesitated, then added, “Except Faith doesn’t have a left hand. Did you lose it in an accident?” she asked.
“She was born without it,” Hope shot back. “It never grew.”
“Oh,” Charity said.
“I’m stunned,” Kane said with a laugh that was half shocked, half amused. “Three of you, Charity. It’s...”
“Appalling,” Charity said. “My parents are alive, Kane. They gave me away and kept the two of them.”
He crossed and embraced her, offering comfort. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
Charity hadn’t wanted to come to Kane’s home in north Texas for Christmas because she knew it was one more step toward a commitment. He’d already asked her once to marry him, and she’d refused. She couldn’t see the point. There was no such thing as love, really. If parents could abandon their own children, what hope was there that two people who weren’t even related could spend a lifetime loving one another? Better not to promise love in the first place. Or believe in the promises of others.
But she was feeling fragile, and Kane’s strong arms felt good around her.
“I think I’ve figured out what must have happened,” Faith said. The arm with the device at the end of it was no longer hidden, and she crossed to stand beside Hope. “I think it’s all my fault.”
“What are you talking about?” Hope said, frowning. “What could you have to do with Mom and Dad’s decision to—”
She held out the prosthetic device at the end of her left arm and said, “These don’t come cheap. Mom and Dad have made sacrifices for years to pay for the best care for me.”
Charity found herself looking into the same pained dark eyes that she saw in her own mirror every morning.
“I wasn’t in a position to refuse as a child,” Faith said. “They did what they thought they had to do. It must have been too great a financial burden for them to bear. I mean, three children all at once. And one of them...deformed.”
“Don’t ever use that word,” Hope said, turning on Faith. “You’re perfect in every way. You’re simply missing a hand.”
Charity felt another lurch of emotion. How lucky they were to have each other. She’d been so alone.
But she wasn’t alone anymore. She had sisters. Two sisters, like her in every way. Except that they were strangers to her. And from the look on Hope’s face, not likely to forgive her anytime soon for the monkey wrench she’d thrown into their lives.
“Maybe you girls ought to give your parents a call to prepare them before—” Kane began.
“No,” Charity interrupted. “I want to see their faces. I don’t want to give them a chance to make up some story.”
“My parents don’t lie,” Hope said.
Charity saw the bleak look that crossed Hope’s face when she realized that, of course they had lied—by omission—neglecting to tell their twin daughters that they were, in fact, merely two of three triplets.
“Why don’t the three of you come inside—” Kane urged.
“No,” Charity said, shaking her head. “For twenty-one years I’ve wondered who my parents were. I don’t want to wait a minute longer to find out.”
“They’re good people,” Faith said. “Good parents.”
“Not to me,” Charity retorted.
“If that’s the way you feel, why bother meeting them?” Hope shot back.
“I want to know what happened,” Charity said. “I think I’m entitled to know.”
“I’ve told you what must have happened,” Faith said.
Charity shook her head. “So why didn’t they get rid of you?” she said to Faith. “You were the one who was going to cost them a lot of money. Or you?” she demanded of Hope. “Why was I the one who got dumped?”
“Maybe they drew straws,” Hope said angrily. “What difference does it make now?”
She was right, Charity realized. What possible difference could it make to her now, if she finally knew why her parents had given her away? The fact was, they had. She was a grown-up. Her childhood was in her past. She would soon be a college graduate with a degree in economics. She was going to join the Peace Corps and serve in some foreign land for two years. At least, that had been her plan before Kane had proposed.
She hadn’t been able to say yes to him. But she’d been tempted. Despite her feelings about the unreliable nature of love. Because the thought of belonging, of being loved by someone, was seductive.
Charity knew why Kane had invited her to attend his cousin’s wedding. He was hoping the romantic atmosphere would induce her to want a wedding of her own. He’d told her about his cousins, eight adopted kids who’d all been loved and treasured by their parents, most of which, once Jake was hitched, would be happily married with families of their own.
He’d wanted to prove to her that love could last. He’d wanted to prove to her that when he said, “I do,” he meant it for a lifetime.
“Meeting your parents this way sounds like a bad idea,” Kane said to Charity. “I think you should wait—”
Charity pulled herself free of Kane’s embrace. “I’m not waiting. I intend to confront them now.”
Since she’d met Kane in August, she’d learned all his moods. Worry lurked in his dark eyes now. But she knew he wouldn’t try to change her mind. He respected her intelligence. He admired her spirit. He’d said he loved her.
She didn’t trust such a fickle sentiment, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t realized the difference between Kane and the other males she’d met during her university years.
When Kane had asked her out after class one night, she’d been reluctant to go with him, because she’d found him much too attractive. He had hair as dark as her own and deep brown eyes that made her emotions feel jumbled when she looked into them. Against her better judgment, she’d gone with him to have a cup of coffee.
The “date” had been nothing like anything she’d previously experienced with the college boys she’d gone out with. There was no leering. No groping. No boasting of athletic exploits or sexual conquests.
Of course, Kane was six years older, twenty-six to her twenty, so maybe that explained the difference in his behavior. It had been a welcome relief when he spent the entire evening encouraging her to talk about herself. He’d seemed genuinely interested in finding out what she wanted to do with her life. He’d even hinted that he’d be willing to join her, if she really wanted to spend two years in the Peace Corps.
He’d never pressed her to be more than his friend. She’d found herself gravitating toward him, having conversations about subjects she’d never discussed with a man. She hadn’t felt the need to distance herself from him, the way she had with the men who’d wanted more from her. But she hadn’t totally let down her guard with him, either. She hadn’t let herself fall in love with him.
<
br /> Because all she’d known was abandonment.
It had taken her a long time to admit to Kane that she was adopted. And that her experience hadn’t been anything like a TV fairy-tale-of-the-week.
Because she’d learned to trust and rely on him, it had come as a shock when she discovered that Kane wanted to be more than her friend.
Just before Thanksgiving break, he’d led her to a stone bench beneath one of the towering live oaks that dotted the University of Texas at Austin campus and urged her to sit. He’d taken her books from her and set them on the bench, then sat beside her and said, “I have something important to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“I was going to wait and take you to dinner tonight. But there’s been a family emergency and I have to leave right away, in the next few minutes, actually, if I’m going to catch my flight.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously.
“My sister, Karen, has been expecting her first child, and it arrived a little early,” Kane said. “She and the baby are both fine, but there were some complications and she has to stay in the hospital. She asked me to come and spend some time with her husband. He’s driving her nuts trying to wait on her hand and foot.”
Charity had felt her heart clutching at the thought of Kane leaving so soon. She’d agreed to join him at his home in northwest Texas over Christmas for his cousin Jake’s wedding, but she had no idea what Kane was doing after that. He was completing his graduate work this semester. She wouldn’t be done for another six months.
She laid a hand on his arm and said, “Of course you have to go, if your sister needs you.” She hesitated, then said, “Will I see you again before the wedding?”
“Of course, but there’s something I want to say before I leave.”
She looked at him expectantly and was surprised when he took her hands in his.
“I’ve been putting this off because I didn’t know quite how to say what I’m about to say.”
Charity felt the breath being sucked from her lungs. He’s changed his mind and is spending the Christmas holiday in Timbuktu. He’s found a job in the Middle East. He’s fallen in love with someone and—
“I’ve fallen in love,” he said.
“Oh, no!” Charity yanked her hands free to cover her face, which had contorted unexpectedly in despair.
He pried her hands loose and held them once more in his. His gaze was tender, and she was already missing him. Already regretting the loss of her best friend. She wanted to wish him well, but the words stuck in her throat.
He looked at her with concern, and she felt the tears brim in her eyes. “Please, Charity, don’t cry.”
“I can’t help it,” she sobbed. “How could you fall in love with—”
His mouth covered hers so swiftly, so completely, that she was too astonished to resist. His lips softened almost immediately against hers, coaxing a response, rather than demanding it. She was aware of the warmth of his mouth, of his tongue gliding along the seam of her lips seeking entrance. When she gasped at the erotic feeling, his tongue found its way inside to taste her and to offer pleasure.
She felt the kiss in her breasts, which ached, and in her loins, which drew up tight, responding to the exploding need inside her. She felt herself lean closer, open her mouth wider, welcoming the desire that fought its way past barriers that had been erected so high and so strong that no man had found a way past them. Barriers that had kept her safe from betrayal. Safe from suffering abandonment yet again.
Her growing desire was slowly but surely crushed by the terror that rose along with it.
She jerked away and stared, stunned and disbelieving, into the dark eyes of her best friend.
“How could you?” she gasped, wiping her hand across her mouth, as though she could erase what had happened.
“I’ve fallen in love with you, Charity.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t say that. We’re good friends. That’s all.”
He grasped her hands, which she realized were trembling badly. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had,” he agreed. “But friendship isn’t all I need from you. Or all I feel for you.”
The terror was growing, a beast that threatened life and limb. “You can’t love me.”
He looked at her, his heart in his eyes. “Why not?”
“Because.” I’m unlovable. She didn’t say the word. But she felt it in the deepest core of her being.
“I do love you.” He took a shaky breath, then said, “And I want to marry you.”
She stood abruptly, jerking her hands free, agitated, confused. He rose and put his hands on her shoulders, which was all that kept her from bolting.
“I’m sorry this is such a surprise,” he said. “But I didn’t want to leave for the holiday without telling you how I feel.”
“I have to go,” she said. “I have to study.”
She grabbed her books and had already whirled to run when his arm snaked around her waist, and he turned her to face him again.
“I thought you might feel the same way I do,” he said. “I thought—”
“You thought wrong,” Charity said. “I don’t love you. And I have no intention of being married. Ever!”
His eyes clouded and his face looked strained. “You sound pretty certain about that.”
“I am. You of all people should understand why I could never trust a man to...to...”
“To stick around for the long haul?” he finished for her.
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Yes.”
Because he’d been her friend, she’d told him how her drunken mother had admitted that Andy Burnette had left her because she couldn’t have children. Charity wasn’t even their baby. She was adopted, and Andy hadn’t been able to love a baby that wasn’t his own flesh and blood. He’d left her mother high and dry, stuck with a baby to raise and feed and clothe.
Once her mother had sobered up, she’d apologized and assured Charity that she was no burden, but rather the light of her mother’s life. Sometimes, Charity had even believed her.
But she’d already been dumped twice in her life. Once by her real parents, and once by the father who’d adopted her. She was no glutton for punishment. She’d looked with a jaundiced eye at every man she’d dated, wondering if there was one who would ever stick around. She took what they offered—sexual pleasure—then walked away before they could leave her. They’d taken what they wanted and left without ever getting to know her.
All except Kane. Who’d become her friend.
She looked at him with troubled eyes. “How could you do this? I trusted you. I lo—” She felt a spurt of panic as she realized what she’d been about to say. She didn’t love him. She was never going to love anyone. Because she couldn’t count on anyone to love her back. She’d jerked free and run as fast as she could.
Away from temptation. And from pain.
Her whole life had been shadowed by the choice her biological parents had made to give her up for adoption. At last, she was going to have the chance to face them. At last, she was going to find answers for the unanswerable questions that had plagued her all her life.
She turned to her sisters and said, “I’m going. Right now. With or without the two of you.”
Once again, Hope and Faith exchanged a look that Charity found easy to read. They were coming along to protect their parents. And why not? When it had really mattered, their parents had protected them.
“Let me come with you,” Kane said to Charity.
“I think this is something better resolved with just family,” Hope said before Charity could answer him. “Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “We’ll bring her back in one piece.”
Charity was amazed that Hope could find humor in the situation. She felt shattered by wh
at she’d discovered. Perhaps the answers she sought would provide a healing balm.
“Will you wait here for me?” she asked Kane. “I don’t think this will take long.”
“I’ll be here,” he said.
In his eyes she saw what he hadn’t said. To pick up the pieces.
“Let’s go,” she said to her sisters. “The sooner this is done and over with, the better.”
Charity slipped into the back seat of the car, while Faith slid behind the wheel and Hope buckled herself into the passenger seat. Charity stared at Kane as they drove away.
She wanted this confrontation. Her biological parents couldn’t hurt her any more than they already had. In fact, she was looking forward to the opportunity of getting a few things off her chest. At long last, she could tell them how she felt about what they’d done. Hope turned in the seat to face her and said, “You’d better watch what you say. If you attack my mom and dad, I’ll—”
“They’re my parents, too,” Charity reminded her. “I can say anything I please.”
That shut Hope up, but Charity could see both girls were worried about the coming showdown.
“I can’t wait to meet Mr. and Mrs....” Charity frowned and asked, “What’s your last name?”
“Butler,” Hope replied.
“I can’t wait to meet Mr. and Mrs. Butler.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY
FAITH FELT SICK INSIDE. SHE DIDN’T need her parents’ confirmation to know that she was the reason Charity had been kicked out the door. She wasn’t responsible for the way she’d been born. But that didn’t mean she didn’t feel guilty for the sacrifices her parents had made to provide the medical care she’d required. That remorse paled in comparison to the shame she felt knowing that, because of her, Charity had been given away.
She met Charity’s gaze in the rearview mirror but couldn’t hold it for long. “I’m sorry, Charity.”
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