Gina Wilkins - The Soldier's Forever Family

She noted Adam wasn’t wearing a ring, which didn’t mean he wasn’t married or otherwise committed. Was he thinking of the awkward discussions he might need to have with his wife? Did Simon have siblings? If so, how would this development affect them? How was she going to explain all this to her son?

Adam moved his hand to the back of his neck. His tousled dark-coffee hair was longer now. Thick. Touchable. He’d gained a few pounds in the ensuing years, but they looked good on him. Really good.

It shook her again when their eyes met. His were the same smoke-gray as Simon’s. Exactly as she’d remembered, though she’d always pictured them gleaming with a smile. He wasn’t smiling now.

“Did you even try to find me?” he asked, his voice low and gruff.

Her chin rose. “You didn’t leave me an address, if you’ll remember.” Or even a goodbye, she added silently, her chest clenching with the memory of waking up and realizing he was gone. That the fantasy was over.

She couldn’t do this now. She needed time to gather her thoughts, to get her nerves under control. She took a quick step backward on the damp sand. “Simon needs his breakfast. If I don’t see you again before you go on vacation...”

His eyes narrowed sharply. “I’m not going anywhere. We have to talk. You owe me that much.”

Six years of emotions flooded through her—shock, stress, joy, exhaustion, wistfulness, laughter and tears. Her voice was barely audible even to her over the wind and waves and seagulls when she responded, “I don’t owe you anything.”

With that, she turned and hurried to her son’s side, taking his hand to lead him back to their suite. Simon cooperated without protest, probably sensing this wasn’t the time for rebellion.

She doubted she had completely avoided a painfully awkward conversation with Adam. She’d postponed it, at best. But at least he wasn’t trying to detain her, which would give her a chance to prepare for whatever was to come.

* * *

JOANNA SETTLED SIMON at the table on their balcony where he could look over the resort while he ate the breakfast of fruit, yogurt and granola she served from the kitchenette in their two-bedroom suite. They had a spectacular view of the beautifully maintained grounds, which were centered around a small, natural-looking lake decorated with blooming aquatic plants, fish-feeding piers and paddle boats. Masses of colorful flowers and shady trees lined winding paths. The sprawling U-shape of the resort allowed a glimpse of the ocean from their balcony through clearings in the trees.

To keep Simon occupied for a few extra minutes, Joanna set up her computer tablet in front of him with an educational video about seashells, his latest intellectual passion. Screen time during a meal was a rare treat for him, and he was obviously delighted. She left the sliding doors open when she went inside, but she moved across the room so he wouldn’t hear her when she made a call.

Her sister answered on the second ring, though her groggy voice made it clear she’d been roused from sleep. “Joanna? What’s wrong?”

Finally letting go of the tight rein on her emotions, Joanna blurted, “Maddie, he’s here.”

“What? Who’s there? Are you okay?”

Hearing the sudden anxiety in her younger sister’s voice, she drew a deep breath and tried to speak more calmly. “I’m okay. Mostly. I’m at the resort with Simon. And...and Adam’s here.”

“Adam? Wait. The Adam?”

Joanna swallowed hard and nodded, then remembered Maddie couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

“Oh, my gosh, what’s he doing there?”

“He works here.”

Maddie gave an incredulous laugh. “You’re kidding.”

“Do I sound like I’m kidding?”

Her sister grew abruptly serious. “No. Sorry. You must have been shocked.”

“That’s one way to describe it.” The feelings swirling inside her were so fierce, so complicated that she hardly knew how to define them. Honestly, she’d never expected to see Adam again. It had never even occurred to her when she’d booked this trip that Adam would be here, especially not on staff.

“Did he remember you? Do you think he knew you were coming this weekend? Maybe he saw your name on the reservations list?”

Remembering the look on Adam’s face when he’d said her name, Joanna replied, “Yes, he remembered me. But I think he was as stunned as I was when we ran into each other this morning. I’m pretty sure he didn’t expect to see me here again.”

Especially with his child in tow, she thought, biting her lower lip.

Their brief affair had been unplanned and intense. For the first time in her focused and responsible twenty-seven years, Joanna had felt completely unfettered. Passionate, desirable, spontaneous, adventurous. So unlike her usual self. They’d met on the first night of solitary long weekend vacations for both of them and had been inseparable afterward. They’d spent hours walking on the beach, talking, laughing and holding hands. Flirting. Dining. Dancing. Making love. Just having fun, with no strings or expectations on either side.

She’d thought they’d been careful despite the playfulness of their time together. She’d discovered a few weeks after returning home that they hadn’t been quite careful enough.

“Does he know yet? About Simon, I mean,” Maddie clarified unnecessarily.

“He sort of leaped to conclusions when he found out how old Simon is. Maybe he saw the resemblance. Simon really does look just like him, Maddie. I’ve always known that, but seeing them side by side...well, it’s almost spooky.”

“Oh, my gosh. So, what now?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted in little more than a whisper.

“What did he say? Was he happy? Mad? Skeptical? What?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t give him much of a chance to say anything. I told him I had to make Simon’s breakfast, and I bolted. He said he wants to talk later. I could tell he was shocked, of course, but the only question he asked was whether I’d tried to find him.”

As the only person to whom Joanna had confided all the details of that vacation fling, Maddie was indignant. “This from the guy who ghosted you without even a ‘Hey, babe, I’ll call you sometime’?”

“Which is basically what I told him,” Joanna agreed, grateful her sister understood so well. There’d been a time when she’d never have believed she and Maddie would have this mutually supportive relationship. This closeness was one of the two good things that had come of her brief affair with Adam.

She’d always planned to tell Simon the truth about his parentage at some point. She’d even thought this trip would be a good time to tell him that she’d met his biological father here, if it seemed appropriate. She’d planned to leave it up to him to decide if, when he was older, he wanted to find his father. Not that she’d have been able to assist him much. She and Adam hadn’t exchanged many personal details during their time together.

Maybe she could have located Adam before now, had she put in more effort. She could’ve persisted in her request for resort records. As a professor, she had strong research skills. There should have been ways to track him down, though his name was common enough to have made it difficult without more information. She could have even hired a private investigator, for that matter. She’d found plenty of reasons to rationalize her choice not to pursue the search. For one, Adam had been clear from the start that he’d had no interest in commitments. He hadn’t elaborated, but she’d gotten the impression he’d had important plans for after his vacation.

Having just defended her doctoral thesis and on the verge of beginning a new phase of her chosen career, Joanna hadn’t been looking for a serious relationship, either. She’d simply asked him to assure her he wasn’t married. Though she’d been amenable to a no-strings vacation fling, sleeping with a married man would have crossed a line for her. He’d promised her he was single and unattached, and she’d believed him. Foolish, perhaps, but she’d sensed from the beginning that Adam was trustworthy.