Page 4 of Dancing in the Rain

Dying. Drew’s chest felt flash-frozen. Breathing strained his lungs. He didn’t even know this woman. He didn’t even know if she was telling him the truth. But courage glowed in those blue eyes along with unshed tears and her terrible words felt real. “How long?” he asked, his voice sounding like a hairbrush was scraping over his vocal cords.

“Maybe a few months.” She drew in a long breath. “I’ll give you my name and contact information. I know this is a lot to take in. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll understand. But if you’re interested in meeting Chloe, I feel I owe it to her to give her that. Ifshewants to meetyou.”

“You don’t even know me.” The words grated out. “I could be an asshole.”

She gave a small smile. “I did some research on you, but yes, you could be an asshole.”

“What kind of research?”

“Come on, you’re an NHL player. There’s all kinds of information about you.”

“Was.” He cleared his throat. “Iwasan NHL player.”

“Right. I read that you had to retire because of a knee injury.”

“Yeah.” He hated to use the wordretire, but he had to face the reality that his career was over.

“Also, I checked the sex offender database for this state and had a PI do a bit of digging.”

His eyes widened. “Jesus.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out a business card and a photograph. She slid them both across the table to him. His gaze dropped to the small photo, a standard school photo with a blue background. A young girl’s face beamed up at him.

She wasn’t blond like her mother. Her hair was dark, like his.

That didn’t mean anything.

He studied the picture and couldn’t really say he saw any likeness between him and the girl. Nor did she look like her mother, although she did have the same eyes.

Sara rose to her feet. “Sorry, I’ve taken more than five minutes.” She nodded at the card and photograph. “Thank you for listening, Drew, and again, I apologize. Both for dumping this on you now, and for not being able to tell you when it happened.”

“We were eighteen years old.”

She nodded. “I know. We were young. Hormonal. Maybe a little drunk.” One corner of her mouth lifted. “But Chloe is the best thing in my life.” Her voice choked a little. She could talk about her own death, but apparently speaking of her daughter made her emotional. “I’ll never regret what happened for that reason.” Her chin wobbled but she smiled. “I think you’d like her, Drew. But it’s your choice, and I’ll understand whatever that is.”

She turned and left the coffee shop.

Drew watched her walk out, following her with his gaze as she passed the window. He turned back and his eyes fell on the picture again. He slowly reached out to pick it up.

His daughter.

Really?

Jesus fucking Christ.

He did remember that night. And he did vaguely remember Sara, now. He remembered a cute, curvy blonde with a bright smile. So different from how she looked now, yet it was the same person. They’d flirted a little, drank a lot, and somehow ended up upstairs in a bedroom at the house party. They hadn’t talked a lot and they’d both been clear it was just a hookup. He’d left the next day to go back to Boston and hadn’t thought more about her.

Had he really left her knocked up? Not knowing who the father of her baby was?

Hell, there was no maybe about it…hewasan asshole.

He rubbed his face.

Wait, wait. Hold the fuck up. He’d had no clue he was a father.

And honestly…he still didn’t know for sure. Sara may have said she didn’t want anything, but he wasn’t born yesterday or even two days ago. It was entirely possible this was some kind of scam.

He set down the picture, shoved his chair back, and stood. He grabbed his coffee. And paused.

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