Then it dawned on him what she was doing, protecting their daughter from him. She didn’t trust him to stick around. And the fact that he was keeping the past from her was just one more strike against him.
The thought of missing out on his daughter’s life overwhelmed him. For one crazy moment, he considered blurting out the awful truth. But how on earth would the revelation that he was the son of a monster—a rapist—going to help his cause? His chest tightened. The truth about his past certainly wouldn’t make him a candidate for Father of the Year.
It’d be best for ever
yone, his newly found daughter included, if he kept his secret to himself. He’d just have to keep Kara distracted until the past was forgotten.
Besides, he wasn’t the only one who’d been holding a secret. Anger simmered in his gut over being kept in the dark for so long. If the snowstorm hadn’t brought them together, he might never know he was a dad.
Still, Kara thought she was doing the right thing by protecting her daughter—their daughter. The phrase stuck in his brain.
“You should get inside,” he said, letting the subject drop for now. “I’ve got to go.”
* * *
Saturday evening, after spending the afternoon scouring the internet for job opportunities, Kara sent out her résumé to five companies advertising for an office manager. Hopeful that someone would take an interest in her application, she headed to the Pleasant Valley Care Home. After signing herself in, she paused and scanned the list of recent visitors, searching for Jason’s name. No such luck.
To her utter frustration, her thoughts had dwelled on him since their winter storm odyssey. When he’d first laid eyes on Samantha, she’d noticed how he’d struggled to hide his surprise. And after he’d boldly stated he wasn’t planning to have kids, she’d been shocked by his insistence that he was Samantha’s father. Thankfully, he’d finally accepted the truth.
Maybe she should have explained her daughter’s background, but the circumstances hadn’t been right. Standing outside in the freezing cold while Samantha waited inside for her hadn’t lent itself to a heart-to-heart talk. Besides, what did it matter? Kara wasn’t in a relationship with him. There wasn’t even a possibility of it.
After seven long years, he still couldn’t face her and explain what had made him break her heart. He didn’t trust her then and he sure didn’t trust her now. But he did owe her the truth...and she intended to collect.
Kara’s footsteps echoed through the empty corridors of the nursing home. No matter how many trips she made here, she could never shake the unease that came over her when she entered the well-kept facility. Maybe it was the idea of her own mortality—that she might one day end up here, too.
Halfway down a brightly lit hallway, in front of room 115, she stopped and gently rapped her knuckles on the open door.
“Come in,” Joe’s voice rumbled, followed by a coughing spell.
She stepped into the room, finding him propped up in bed with a college football game on the TV. His roommate was lying wrapped in a sheet, with his back to them and the privacy curtain partially drawn.
When Kara’s gaze settled on Joe’s gaunt features, her heart clenched. His thinning white hair was a stark contrast to his yellow pallor. Some people had good days dotted with occasional bad ones, but it seemed since he’d put the Summit up for sale, his days had all gone downhill.
“And how are you?” she asked, as was her habit. But she truly cared about his answer.
“Awful,” he grumbled, hitting Mute on the television. “They won’t let me have a cigar while I watch the game.”
“You can’t smoke. You’re on oxygen.”
His whiskered face contorted into a frown. “Didn’t say I was gonna light it.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.
Joe had had to give up a lot of vices when his health collapsed and he’d ended up in this place. He still fussed about wanting a juicy, rare burger with fries, and the cigars, but not the alcohol. Maybe at last he realized how it’d destroyed his life.
“My boy. You’ve seen him?” A wet cough ensued.
Kara filled his glass with water from a plastic pitcher and handed it to him.
“I did see him. You could have warned me you sold the Summit to him.” She wanted to be angry at Joe for keeping such an important fact from her, especially after all she’d done for him over the years. But it was hard to be upset with someone so ill.
He at least had the decency to drop his gaze to his bony hands. “I need you to convince him to come see me. Tell him I’m sorry.”
Kara wrung her hands together. Maybe she should back out of being the go-between for these two. After what Jason had told her about what went down between him and his dad, it might be asking too much of Jason to reestablish the father-son relationship.
“I tried,” she said, still not sure how to proceed. “He’s very stubborn.”
Joe made an attempt to reach for something on his nightstand.