He stopped and stared. “Seriously?”
She nodded mutely. “And there was not one damn person I could tell who would listen. I don’t know who my son’s father is. But whoever it is, as far as I’m concerned, raped me that night.”
“Were you drugged?”
“I didn’t get tested,” she murmured. “I tried telling the sheriff. Nobody believed me. I hid in shame, until I couldn’t hide it from parents any longer.”
He stopped, closed his eyes, and swore.
She nodded. “I did plenty of that too. And then I figured that, even if you did come back, you’d take one look at me, and you’d run away.”
“Not because of that. Daniel just told me that I had a child. It was a bit of a shock. Because, of course, I knew I didn’t have one.”
She nodded slowly. “And I wouldn’t have passed it off as yours, except that nobody would believe me. Everybody insisted that you were the father, no matter what I said.”
“Of course. I made a great scapegoat. Did you ever tell your parents what really happened?”
“No,” she admitted slowly. “At the beginning, I was just too upset and confused. Figured that I deserved whatever had happened because I went to the party and because I was drinking. As you well know, I couldn’t handle alcohol very easily. Still can’t.”
“No. You never did do very well with that, and you were so young that it made sense.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter because I certainly drank as a way to try to forget that you had left me.” She shrugged. “I went wild once you were gone.”
“To be expected. A little bit of rebellion never hurt anybody.”
“Until she wakes up the next day, not remembering anything, with a massive headache, and finding out a few months later that she’s pregnant.” Her voice was harsh. “And you want to talk about feeling alone? Yeah, that was me then.”
“And, of course, your parents would never have accepted my child either.”
“But neither could they afford to send me away, which was their alternative answer for their shame.”
“I’m sure they relied on the church to make their decisions. and I’m sorry for whatever happened to you.”
She lifted her gaze above him and shrugged. “So am I in many ways, … but, once I realized I would be a mom, I still hoped for the longest time that you’d come back here, and then I gave up hope, and I started living again. But I didn’t get a chance to live much, what with my father’s sudden death. In that way, my mother became very dependent on me and very quickly ended up with Alzheimer’s, and I still don’t know if it was all related.”
“If it’s possible, I’m sure it was. Your parents were very interdependent.”
“That’s a good way to put it.” She laughed, then looked at him. “And why are you here now?”
Chapter 2
Maybe Jasmine shouldn’t have been so harsh in her original greeting, but it had been a shock. All she could think about were the nights that she’d laid here, hoping and hoping and hoping that Harley would actually return, and yet knowing in her heart of hearts that he had never planned to. That he just said that to keep her quiet and happy. She sighed. “Did you ever even think about coming back?”
“All the time.” Steadily he looked at her, then smiled. “I really cared. You know that.”
“And yet you didn’t come back, … so how much did you really care?”
“I cared enough to leave you to make decisions on your own and to see what you really wanted for your life. Did you ever get flowers on your birthday those first three years after I left?”
She frowned. “Flowers were delivered here. I remember being surprised. But it’s not like I knew they were mine, other than it was on my birthday.”
“Well, that was me.”
She stared at him, frowning. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, for some reason, I thought you’d figure that out.”
“How was I supposed to figure that out?” She shook her head. “Nobody could figure that out. No word from you in almost a year, and, all of a sudden, flowers arrive out of the blue. My name wasn’t on them.”
“I didn’t want to make it too obvious, and I didn’t want, … in case you had found a partner or married or done something, … I didn’t want to cause trouble. But I figured when you saw that they were daffodils that you would know.”
She stared at him and sagged against the steps. “Oh my God. I never made that association.”
“That it was daffodils?” He looked at her in surprise.
The corner of her lips kicked up. “That the daffodils were from you and were sent to me. I thought at the time it was a very strange choice for flowers because most people didn’t deliver daffodils. It was always roses or other types of floral bouquets.”
“But at the time that we were together,” he explained cautiously, “daffodils were your favorite.”
“That’s quite true.” She smiled. “They still are.”
“And you didn’t once wonder?”
She looked at him immediately and slowly shook her head.
“Wow.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “That’s something I didn’t expect.”
“I guess we were both a little on the dense side back then.” She finally burst into a laugh. “I just can’t imagine. Here I’d be, sitting, staring at these flowers, and you’re probably waiting for somebody to contact you.”
“Well, a card was there too. Did you get that?”
She frowned and nodded. “Sure, nothing but a bunch of numbers, not my name.”
“Yes. My phone number.”
“I didn’t even dial it. It wasn’t written like a, … like a phone number.” She frowned. “I don’t even remember if I still have it. I’m pretty sure I don’t. I know my mother was pretty upset that I could be getting flowers.”
“Why?” he asked in an odd tone.
She smiled. “Because she was sure that they were hers and that they were from my father. Mind you, this was after his death. And was my first real indication that she was losing her memory. As I recall at the time, I didn’t have any reason to believe they were for me. I just told her that they were for her to make her happy.”
“Wow.” He stared at her, shook his head. “That’s just bizarre.”
“The whole thing’s bizarre,” she admitted. “Including the fact that you sent me daffodils and didn’t leave a note.”
“I did leave a note. I left you my phone number.”
“I’m not sure that came through. It wasn’t … It was missing a digit, I think. It wasn’t the ten digits. It was like nine, … nine digits. Not ten.”
He frowned and then he started to laugh. “You know what? Something so simple, like that, would sink a ship because it’s just a stupid error.”
“Well, you had to phone in the order, I presume?”
“Yes, I phoned it in and asked to have it delivered on your birthday,” he murmured.