Linda Warren - One Night in Texas

Angie hugged her parents. “Erin’s going to be fine. You can see her for a minute.”

No one said a word until they came out of the room. Doris dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “My poor baby. Angie, I’ll stay the night so someone is here with you.”

“No, Mama. Everyone needs to go home. I can take care of Erin.”

“I called Dale and Dorothy and told them what happened, and they send their love and prayers.”

“Thank you, Mama.”

A nurse came down the hall with a syringe in her hand. She glared at everyone. “Visiting hours are over. Y’all will have to leave.”

“They’re going,” Angie replied. She followed the nurse into the room.

The family walked off without a backward glance, and Hardy thought that was just as well. Enough had been said today. He stretched his tired shoulders and moved down the hall so the nurse wouldn’t see him. When the nurse came out of Erin’s room, Hardy slipped in.

“Hardy.” Angie sighed. “You have to leave.”

He stared at the girl in the bed. Her skin was as white as the sheet. He wondered if she was really okay. Maybe that was why he couldn’t leave. His shoulders drooped with fatigue.

He glanced at Angie’s worried face. “You have to call her father. He needs to know his child is hurt, no matter what your relationship is with him.”

“I told you, it’s none of your business.” The smile in her voice was gone, replaced by the same fatigue he was feeling.

“Patsy said he left you, but...”

Angie leaned down and kissed her daughter, then walked into the hall, making sure the door was slightly opened. She sat in one of the chairs. “Okay. If you want to have this conversation now, let’s have it.”

He sat beside her, his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together. “I’m not upsetting you on purpose.”

“It feels like it.”

The hall was dimly lit, and the only sounds were the beeps of a machine and murmurs coming from the nurse’s station. He wished he could articulate what he was feeling, but he was having a hard time explaining it to himself.

“I’m really sorry about today, Angie. I’d give my life for it not to have happened. I should have been more careful. I should have—”

“Do you believe that things happen for a reason?”

He was taken aback for a moment. “I suppose. I’ve never really thought about it.”

Angie wore shorts and she rubbed her hands down her bare thighs. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the nervous action, trying not to remember the touch of her silky skin against his.

“What does this have to do with your ex-husband?”

“Nothing. It has everything to do with you.”

“I get I’m being a little pushy, but I injured the man’s child and I’d like to apologize. I’d like to do something.”

“Dennis is not part of our lives and he wouldn’t appreciate your apology or your gesture.”

“I don’t get that. He has a daughter.”

She moved restlessly. “I could say again that it doesn’t concern you, but I’m tired and weary of carrying a load so heavy it has finally brought me to my knees.”

Hardy didn’t know what to say. He’d spent many hours in a courtroom with the right response ready at every moment, but here in the hallway he didn’t have a clue how to respond.

“When I was eighteen, I was very naive and believed in love.” She took a deep breath. “I believed in love so strongly I knew the moment we made love you’d fall deeply in love with me. How stupid was that?”

“I’m sorry I hurt you.” They were the only words he could push through his dry throat. She was sincere and honest, and he hated himself at that moment. Hated what had happened between them. Hated he’d destroyed her belief in love.

“And I’m sorry I believed in a love that didn’t exist, but only in my dreams.”

“Angie...”

She held up a hand. “No. Let me say what I have to say because I know you’re not going to stop until you hear the whole story.”

“What story?” He didn’t understand what she was talking about. “We made a bad decision, and we both realized that afterward.”

“You did. I thought I loved you. Even though it was a teenage crush, my feelings were very real to me.”

He clasped his hands until they were numb. The numbness spread to his wrist, his arms. “It’s been so many years ago I don’t understand why we’re talking about it now.”

“You said our night together was a mistake.”

“You agreed.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t say much of anything. You did all the talking. It wasn’t a mistake to me. It will never be.”

He swallowed hard. “You were so young. You had your whole life ahead of you and—”

“You never asked how I felt. It was all about you and what you’d perceived you’d done.”

He drew a long breath. “What does this have to do with your ex-husband not being here?”

“I made bad choices when I was eighteen, but I thought I had made the right choices at the time. Looking back, I can see I was desperately trying to save my pride because that was all I had left.”

He didn’t say anything because he was completely lost. He had no idea what she was talking about. Yet he could clearly hear in her voice that he’d hurt her. He didn’t know how to make that right. They had both moved on to different lives. He saw no reason to dredge it all up again. He had to say something, though.

“You were very young, and I think your feelings for me were blown out of proportion.”

“You could be right about that, because those feelings soon faded.” She sat up straight and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I felt very foolish.”

“Angie, what are you trying to tell me?”

“Like I said, I believe things happen for a reason. You came around that corner at that precise moment and literally crashed into everything I had been keeping a secret for ten years.”

“What...what are you saying?”

She didn’t answer for a moment, and he sensed she was gauging her next words. “I’m saying Erin’s father doesn’t need to be notified because he’s already here.”

“What?”

“You’re Erin’s father.”

Chapter Four

The hallway went dark. Completely. Like a rabbit hole. And he was tumbling down, down, down. The only sound he heard was his heart slamming against his ribs in panic.

You’re Erin’s father.

He’d known.

Somewhere in his subconscious, he’d known. That was why he couldn’t leave the hospital. Angie had desperately wanted to get rid of him, and that had triggered his lawyer’s antenna. True, he’d just run into her child with his truck, but he’d sensed it was more than that. So he’d kept prodding. Kept insisting. Kept questioning.

Oh, my God! He’d hit his own child.

How could that be?

He rose to his feet like a drunk who’d spent too many hours in a bar. His head hurt. His nerves were shaky, and he couldn’t focus beyond the now.

You’re Erin’s father.

“We used protection. How could she be mine?” He was still holding on to the belief that it wasn’t possible he had a child and didn’t know.

“Condoms are not one hundred percent foolproof. You should know that.”

He shook his head. “No...no...” But from her steady gaze, he knew she wasn’t lying. “How could you do this to me?” burst from his throat.

Her head down, her hands clasped in her lap, she replied in a voice that seemed to echo through the hole in his heart. “How was I supposed to tell you when you weren’t here?”

“My father knew how to get in touch with me. You could have asked him.”

“I did. I made the trip twice, and both times he thought I wanted to speak to Rachel. He called her in Paris so we could talk. The second time Rachel didn’t answer and I asked about you. He told me you were engaged and getting married around Christmas. He added that you’d found the perfect wife for your political career. I couldn’t tell you after that. I could have ruined your life.”