Her Soldier's Baby by Tara Taylor Quinn

Author:Tara Taylor Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ELIZA’S TRIP TO the adoption agency was quick. Mrs. Carpenter was out, and as always, the place was quiet that late on a Friday afternoon.

The receptionist was polite as she took Eliza’s signed and dated written permission to release her information to her biological son in the event that he asked for it. It had even been notarized right there on the spot.

The middle-aged woman didn’t ask about Pierce. Only Mrs. Carpenter knew that the boy’s father was in the picture.

At least, Eliza hoped he still was. Though he’d held her close the entire night, he’d been more distant that morning than she’d ever known him to be. To the point of politeness when she’d called to let him know she’d made it to the hotel.

“Silence is the way Pierce handles his emotions,” she reminded herself aloud as she turned her rental car back toward Palm Desert. She’d originally thought she’d be no-good company for a cocktail gathering with her fellow contestants that evening, but was starting to think she’d go.

She needed to be out among people. Needed space to clear her perspective.

She needed to know that her husband would still be in residence when she returned to Rose Harbor on Sunday.

And she needed to stay busy so she didn’t stare at her phone.

She’d give her right arm to hear from her son.

How could that be, knowing that if she did, she’d likely lose her husband?

The thought panicked her to the point that she slowed down, thinking she’d take the next exit, turn back to the agency and withdraw her permission. Her stomach fluttered as she worried that she wouldn’t be in time. That the boy would already have her information.

And then she sped up past the exit. No matter what it cost her, she couldn’t turn her back on the person who was alive because of choices she’d made. Period.

Her decision was made.

And it was final.

* * *

PIERCE HAD NO idea whether or not Eliza would call him when she got to her room Friday night. He wasn’t sure about anything his wife might or might not do anymore. The hours that she’d been gone had been unkind to him.

He could see Eliza moving out to California. Getting into the television chef business. And becoming family to their son.

The Eliza he’d thought he’d known would never have left Rose Harbor. Or him. But that Eliza didn’t exist, and he had to face that fact. The woman he’d married had gone through far more heartache at sixteen than he’d ever imagined. She’d made tough decisions.

Endured pain he’d never fully comprehend.

And then gone on to graduate from Harvard.

She’d made good decisions. Healthy, sound decisions. She’d made decisions that were best for others, and still managed to carve out a happy life for herself.

In all of that, he couldn’t find the woman who needed him.

He waited for her call. Just in case.

And almost didn’t answer when it came.

“Did you go?” He compromised with himself and picked up because he had to know whether or not the boy could possibly try to contact her at home while she was gone.

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