Page 60 of Love & Rockets

“Yeah, sometimes things really can be that simple.”

“There wasn’t only me and Gracie involved.”

“No, there was also her father,” he said hotly.

“And her father’s wife. And a daughter,” she said, every bit as angrily.

Those little bombshells took the wind right out of his sails. “He was married?”

“Very.”

Her reply was short and tight, a clear indicator she didn’t want to discuss the topic any longer. But he couldn’t let it go. Turning the information he’d gleaned so far over in his mind, he matched it up with years of speculation, but still he came up empty. Darla was a master at playing her cards close to her chest. She’d kept this secret for nearly a decade and a half. And he knew without a doubt, she’d hold onto it until she decided she was damn good and ready to let someone know.

“I never could see any of Harley Cade in her. I guess I looked, like everyone else, but I couldn’t really see him as the father. Now I know why,” he said at last.

“Yeah, well, I had a reputation to uphold.”

“And Harley?”

“Is the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“But you two have never been more than friends.” Not a question, but a conclusion. A simple statement of what they both already knew to be true. And she’d told him the truth about Gracie’s dad too. Whether he had all the details or not was irrelevant. He had the data he needed. He blew out a breath. “I’m crazy about Grace.”

“I know you are,” she said quietly.

“I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

“I know that, too.”

“But you don’t know I got my girlfriend pregnant my senior year in college.”

He didn’t know exactly why he told her. Maybe he felt he owed her a little truth of his own. Not tit for tat in hopes she’d spill more. For some reason telling her felt natural. Perhaps because, like Darla, he’d never told another soul.

“No, I didn’t know.”

Her quiet reaction sparked something inside him. Long-repressed anger fired in the pit of his stomach and traveled through him, gaining momentum with every passing second. He felt as if some wily coyote had strung a fuse through every artery, vein, and capillary and piled crates of TNT all around his heart. A part of him wanted to leave the tidbit dangling there like bait. She’d confessed to sleeping with a married man, and he may or may not have a love child running around out there in the world. But then it occurred to him maybe she’d had as little choice in the matter as he’d had. The Earth tilted off its axis. Sheer horror extinguished the flare of anger.

“Darla—” His voice came out in a broken squawk. But he couldn’t stop himself from asking. He had to know. “Did he... Were you...willing?”

“Oh, Jake,” she said, breaking off on a soft sob.

“It’s okay.” He rushed to reassure her, though he was pretty damn sure neither of them felt okay about anything. “It’s not your fault.”

She laughed and then hiccupped, her voice thick with tears. “Oh, but it was. It is.”

“No—”

“He didn’t rape me, Jake. He didn’t coerce me in any way,” she hastened to add. “If anything, I didn’t give him much of a choice.”

“I don’t understand,” he admitted at last.

“I know you don’t. And I’m glad you don’t. You’re a good and decent person who grew up with a nice, normal family.” She laughed shortly. “Never thought I’d lump Brian Dalton in the nice, normal category.”

The need to defend his little brother was as automatic as breathing. “Brian’s a great guy.”

“I know he is. Which proves my point. Your mom was our room mother, Jake. And your dad is the sweetest man.”

Wasn’t hard to see where her train of thought was headed. Part of him totally understood. The other part was annoyed she was falling back on the old ‘my parents didn’t understand me’ gambit. “And your parents weren’t,” he concluded flatly.

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