by Jenny Frame
Table of Contents
Synopsis
By the Author
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
About the Author
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
Unexpected
Self-made business owner Dale McGuire has always enjoyed two things in life: women and fast cars. Now in her mid thirties, she’s restless and can’t work out why. Then one day a ten-year-old boy turns up, claiming to be her son, and her simple ordered world turns upside down.
Rebecca Harper bears the emotional scars of her father’s crimes, and now she has two rules: never let anyone get too close, and never admit weakness. Thanks to an anonymous egg donor, infertility didn’t stop her from having her son Jake. Now pregnant for a second time, she’s horrified when Jake brings home the woman he believes is his other mother.
When distrust turns to understanding and passion, can Dale and Rebecca, two women bound by fate, make a family neither expected?
Unexpected
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Unexpected
© 2017 By Jenny Frame. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-943-3
This Electronic Original is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, NY 12185
First Edition: August 2017
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Ruth Sternglantz
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])
By the Author
A Royal Romance
Heart of the Pack
Courting the Countess
Royal Rebel
Unexpected
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Radclyffe, Sandy, and all the BSB staff who work so hard to make our books the best they can be. I couldn’t have had a better experience since joining Bold Strokes Books, and I couldn’t hope to have a better editor than Ruth Sternglantz. Thank you, Ruth, for your patience and support. I really appreciate it.
To my friends Amy and Christine, I’m thankful to have your friendship and your support.
Thank you to all the readers who have supported my books and have given me such great feedback about George and Bea’s love story. I hope you enjoy their latest installment.
Thank you to my family who support and help me every day. I’m always grateful.
My darlin’ Lou, thank you for seeing all my oddness and weirdness as endearing qualities, thank you for understanding me without me needing to explain, and thank you for your fierce loyalty, no matter what.
You and our Barney boy are my happy ever after.
For my darlin’ Lou,
always and forever.
Chapter One
The dulcet tones of Britney Spears echoed through the workshop area of McGuire’s Motors. Dale McGuire had her head under the bonnet of a 1957 Jaguar and she sang along at the top of her lungs.
The weight in the car shifted and her best friend and mentor Sammy Brooks appeared at her side. “Do you have to sing along with Britney Spears, and do we have to hear her twenty bloody times a day?”
Dale glanced to her side and said in her low Scottish tones, “Hey, Britney was a big part of my youth.”
Sammy crossed her arms and gave her a mock glare. “Don’t I know it? When you lived with us, Britney and your other cheesy nineties pop were all I heard day and night.”
Dale chuckled and stood up. “You love it, Sammy. That’s my gift to you and Val. I keep you young.”
Ten years her senior, Sammy and her wife Valentina were the combination of the parents and siblings she didn’t have. They’d taken her in when she’d arrived in London, seventeen and still a moody teenager.
“Yeah, right. Of course you do, kid. More like you turn my hair greyer than it already is. How are you getting on with the engine?”
Dale took the bonnet off its stand and eased it closed. “All done. We should be ready for the race next weekend. She’s going to purr her way around the track.”
Sammy walked back to where she was working on the car door and said, “If we can just get her looking pretty too. That was some bump you took.”
As well as owning McGuire’s Motors in London, Dale ran a classic racing team along with Sammy, and spent most weekends tinkering with their pride and joy, a classic blue Jaguar XKSS.
“Yeah, well, the idiot wouldn’t let me pass his piece of shit car. Don’t worry, she’ll look like the dog’s bollocks in no time.”
Feeling the heat of the workshop, Dale undid the top part of her overalls and tied the arms around her waist, leaving her in a black sleeveless T-shirt. She reached into her pocket, fished out one of the lollipops she was never without, and stuck it in her mouth.
“You’re going to rot your teeth, you know that?” Sammy said.
Dale rolled her eyes and without taking the lolly out of her mouth said, “Yes, Mum. I’ve switched to sugar free so stop being so sanctimonious, and let’s get this bodywork done.”
Sammy walked to the workbench and gathered some tools they would need. “At least bloody Britney’s finished.”
Dale grinned, pulled out her smartphone, and restarted the song that played through the garage’s Bluetooth speakers.
Sammy growled and looked up to the heavens. “Fuck me. If I hear that song one more time I’m going to scream.”
Dale loved to infuriate her best friend, and loved to play the role of annoying younger sibling. It was part of who they were, and she knew Sammy secretly loved it.
“No thanks, you’re not my type, mate.”
They heard the door to the garage open, and the sound of heels echoed across the workspace. A broad smile spread across Sammy’s face. There was only one pair of heels that made Sammy smile like that. The ones that belonged to her wife, Valentina.
“Lunch is here, if you two could stop playing with your tools for a second.”
Sammy stood up and said, “We’ll be there in a second, sweetie.”
“You better be. I walked all the way over to the other side of the shopping mall, in heels, may I add, just to get your favourite, Sammy.”
The look on Sammy’s face was something Dale secretly envied. When she met Sammy and Valentina, they had already been together four years, and were utterly devoted to each other. In the years since, they had gotten married and had a little girl. They were Dale’s idea of a perfect family unit.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of a car pulling up outside t
he garage and the door opening slowly. “Hello? Dale?”
Dale let out a sigh when she saw it was a woman she’d had a brief encounter with last Friday night. What was her name? Lesley, Lisa…?
Sammy slapped her on the back and said, “I’ll leave you with one of your groupies.”
“No, Sammy, wait—”
But it was too late, she was off and walking to the garage office, leaving her alone with the rapidly approaching woman.
Shit.
“Hi, Dale, you are hard to track down. I tried every other one of your garages and couldn’t find you, but the last one I tried said you might be here.”
“Lisa—” She took a guess and hoped she was right.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve got you now.”
Lisa stepped close to her, ran a fingernail down her biceps, and swirled it around her Celtic band tattoo, then pulled the lollipop from her mouth and licked it. It was supposed to be seductive, but all Dale felt was a need to get away. Lisa had been aggressively pursuing her for weeks, and she had gotten her.
“Are you going to be at Belles tonight? I’m going with some of my friends and I thought we could hook up again?”
Dale cringed at the word hook-up. Her whole adult life had been filled with hook-ups, mutually beneficial encounters that ended before they even began, but her body was becoming less and less interested. What used to seem exciting before was now becoming routine and boring.
“So? Will you be going, Dale?” Lisa asked.
Dale desperately searched for an appropriate answer. Why was it so hard to say no? Why was this all people wanted from her? These were the questions that had been rattling around her head recently.
“I…uh…”
“Dale?” She was about to agree to whatever Lisa wanted when Valentina shouted over to her from the office. “You have a call from the supplier you were waiting on.”
Thank you, Val.
“Sorry, I really need to take this call, Lisa. Maybe I’ll see you around? Bye.”
Dale nearly ran over to the office and shut the door with relief. “Val, you’re a lifesaver.”
“You’re welcome.” Val got Dale’s sandwich from the food bag and handed it to her.
Sammy was sitting on Val’s desk laughing. “Your face was priceless.”
“Aye, thanks for ditching me, mate.” Dale took a seat at her desk and started to eat her lunch.
“It’s your own fault. You will insist on having a gaggle of groupies following you about.”
“Would you stop saying I have groupies?” Dale said.
Val took a sip of her tea. “Dale, you bring on these awkward situations yourself. Why did you sleep with her if you didn’t like her?”
Dale shrugged. “I don’t know. She wanted to?”
“But you have to think about it more deeply before you jump in. Some of these woman are going to think you want more, a relationship,” Val said.
“A relationship? They don’t want a relationship with me. I’m someone to have fun with for a few nights. They want Dale from the bar—they don’t want the Dale you know.” Nobody does.
Val gave her a pointed look. “That’s because you don’t show them the real you. You could easily have a lovely girl who would want to walk through life with you.”
Dale’s chest tightened in panic at the thought. “You know I don’t like talking about this, Val. I give them what they want and I get something in return. It’s simple. I don’t even go looking for anyone. I just go for a drink and to unwind. I don’t know what they see that’s so exciting. I’m just me. A glorified grease monkey.”
“I don’t either,” Sammy joked.
Dale glared at her. “Very funny.”
“Behave, you two,” Val said. “Dale, you have this cool brooding thing going on. Every woman thinks they can change you. Domesticate you, like I did to Sammy.”
Dale stopped chewing on her sandwich and swallowed. “Domesticate me? I’m not a farmyard animal.”
“Believe me, mate,” Sammy said and looked at Val adoringly. “It’s much better in the long run to be domesticated and tagged.”
“Yeah, but Val’s already taken, so I’m out of luck,” Dale said.
Val was beautiful, warm, caring, and an all-round elegant lady, and Dale had always had a small crush on her. If she was to imagine a perfect woman, Val would come close, but she loved her as a friend and mentor, and Dale didn’t believe there was anyone else out there like Val. Sammy was lucky.
Val looked at her seriously. “You can’t be alone forever. Sammy and I know you have your reasons, but everyone needs love in their life.”
Over the past year or so that’s what had been worrying her. Being alone, forever. But there was no other option for her.
* * *
After lunch Dale was in a reflective mood. Val’s words resonated inside her and wouldn’t shut up, so she decided to work on the books and lose herself in the surety of numbers, while Sammy went back to work on the car.
She scanned over the accounts quickly as she clicked from page to page on her laptop. Business was good. Since buying out her former employer eleven years ago, Dale had grown McGuire’s Motors steadily. But as good a business brain as Dale had, she couldn’t have done it without her best friends Sammy and Val.
When she bought the business, she asked her friends to help her. Sammy was her area manager floating between all the sites, and Val was her secretary, PA, and all round office angel. This freed Dale to handle all the business side of things.
The way the books were looking, they could afford to expand if they wanted to, but did she want to? Dale was never really driven by money. She wanted enough so that she and her friends didn’t need to worry about month-to-month income or their futures. But she had no family to support, and as long as she was comfortable that was okay. The one thing that did drive her was the determination to succeed. She was self-made, and very proud of that fact. She came to London with nothing and now she had a thriving business. That did give her satisfaction, and yet she was unsettled.
Dale got up and walked over to the window. She leaned against the frame and let out a sigh. “There has to be more than this.”
Val popped her head around the door and said, “Dale? Do you have a minute?”
Without turning Dale said, “I’ve got too much time.”
“Dale, seriously. There’s someone here to see you,” Val said.
Dale turned around and was surprised at the worry on Val’s face. “Yeah, who is it?”
“I’ll let them explain.”
Val opened the door and a young boy with a soaking wet blue jacket and red backpack walked in. Dale looked from him back up to Val again.
“What—?”
“Are you Mary Dale McGuire?” the boy asked.
Dale narrowed her eyes. “Yes, but I don’t like to advertise the Mary bit. Call me Dale. What is this all about?”
“Yes.” The boy did a fist pump. “I found you at last. I knew I could.”
Dale walked back to the front of her desk, leaned on it, and crossed her arms. “Listen, what’s your name?”
The little boy walked forward and held out his hand for her to shake. It struck her immediately that he was entirely too adult and formal for a child.
“My name is Jake Harper.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“How can I help you, Jake? Are you lost? Are your parents around?”
“No, I’m not lost, and one of my parents is here.”
Dale, on the other hand, was utterly lost, but somewhere deep inside she had a sinking feeling. “Where? What is this about?”
By now Sammy had joined Val at the office door and seemed equally perplexed when Dale looked to her for help.
Jake held out a document and said, “You’re my other mum and I’ve been looking for you. It was hard but I knew I’d find you.”
“Sammy, if you…” Her words died in her throat as she took the document and saw her details on
a printout from the Orchard Fertility Clinic.
Dale’s hands started to shake as she read. “No, no, this isn’t real.” She looked up at Sammy and snapped, “Sammy, is this some sort of joke?”
“No way, although I wish I had thought of it. Whoever did has made you go white as a sheet.”
When Sammy started to laugh she got an elbow from Val. “Dale, what does the paper say?”
“This must be a fucking joke.”
“You shouldn’t swear, you know,” the boy said. “Mummy says you should use your intelligence to create positivity with your words.”
This was insane. A boy called Jake was standing in front of her, saying he was her son and giving her a lecture on swearing.
Dale had almost forgotten about the egg donation she had made eleven years ago. It had been done on a whim, and she hadn’t given it too much thought since, although the clinic had warned her that any children resulting from her donation had the right to have her details at age eighteen. Which none of those children could yet be. And the boy in front of her was hardly in that age group.
“How old are you, Jake?”
“Ten. It was my birthday last week.”
Dale felt her legs turn to jelly. “Val, could you take Jake outside. I need to make a phone call.”
Val held out her hand. “Come on, Jake. Let’s get some juice.”
Jake looked between her and Val, weighing up whether or not to go. “You won’t just disappear, will you?”
A surge of emotion welled up inside Dale, and she had to gulp it down hard. “No, I just need a few minutes and Val will bring you back.”
“You promise?”
Dale knew what it was to feel unwanted and to have promises be broken, so she forced a smile onto her face. “I promise, and Val will tell you that I always keep my promises.”