Prodigal Son (7 page)

I looked around the room, trying to make sense of all of the thoughts and feelings that inundated my mind. I pictured Sable as a tiny, vulnerable teenager, faced with the prospect of being responsible for another person’s life. I imagined her fear, and I wondered how hard it had been for her to give me up. She said that she’d regretted it, but I was curious about whether she would have room in her life today for me. She was the only one who could answer my questions, so I resigned myself to waiting for her to come back downstairs.

In the meantime, I studied the kitchen. It was pretty, but in a way that felt like a designer, rather than an enthusiastic cook, had bought the appliances. It had a very different feel than my mother’s kitchen had. Jeannie had cooked practically every day of her life, and she was always happiest when she had both me and my father to wow with a new recipe. It didn’t look like Sable and Daniel did much in the way of cooking.

I heard Sable coming back down the steps and I watched her carefully to assess her state of mind. She seemed fairly composed, especially for a woman whose adult son had just showed up unannounced on her doorstep.

“Sorry,” she said as she picked up her coffee mug. “This is hard for me.”

“I’m sure it is, and I’m sorry to spring it on you like this. I didn’t really have much in the way of a plan today, but I sure didn’t expect to be drinking coffee with you.”

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“My mom and dad passed away about a week ago.”

Sable put her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you. They were wonderful parents, and they were killed in a car accident.”

“How terrible.”

“It was. I met with their attorney about their estate, and he gave me a file full of information about you and my father. My parents had hired a private investigator to find you both in case I ever wanted to know who my birth parents were.”

“So you came here to find us?” Sable asked.

“Yes. I took a leave of absence from work and decided to learn what I could about my past. I didn’t exactly expect to find you standing at the curb today.”

Sable looked at me with an unexpected warmth in her eyes. “I’m glad you did. So tell me about yourself.”

“Well, I graduated from Arizona State, and I’m a business analyst for GoDaddy in Scottsdale.”

“Wow,” Sable said. “A ‘business analyst’ sounds pretty important. And you went to college?”

“Yeah. My dad was an attorney, and education was really important to him. They were so proud the day I graduated.”

Sable looked like she was going to cry again. “So you were happy? You have had a good life?”

“Absolutely,” I answered. “My parents were wonderful, loving people. I was lucky to have been adopted by such good folks.”

“Did you ever wonder about your father and me?” Sable asked, in a small voice that sounded like she was afraid to hear the truth.

“Always. Not because I was unhappy, but I wondered what my birth parents were like.” I thought for a moment. “Can you tell me more about yourself and Daniel?”

“Well, we got married after your father … Daniel … got out of the service. My parents weren’t very happy, but they came around. We’ve been pretty happy, I guess.”

“Do you have any other children?”

“No. I wanted to, but it never happened. I asked Daniel to go see a doctor, but he refused, so there wasn’t much I could do. I knew that I was healthy and that there didn’t seem to be a problem on my end. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Did the two of you ever think about trying to find me?” I asked.

Sable hesitated, as if there was something she didn’t want to say out loud. “Um,” she hesitated. “I never told your father about you. He still doesn’t know that I was pregnant and that he has a son out there somewhere.” She looked embarrassed.

I didn’t know what to say. I’d been apprehensive about meeting my birth parents, but part of me had been really excited. To discover that my father had no idea I even existed was a bit of a shock.

“I don’t know if I was afraid that he’d be mad at me for having gotten pregnant in the first place, or if he’d be mad that I had given you up, but I just never got up the courage to tell him.”

“Well, are you … are you going to tell him now?”

“Yes,” Sable answered decisively. “He’s going through a really hard time right now, and I’m not sure how he will take it, but I’m going to tell him. He has a right to meet his son, even if he doesn’t know that you exist.”

“I guess you want to tell him on your own?” I asked.

“I need to think it through. I’m afraid the old man will have a heart attack if I just spring you on him. I guess I should try to break it to him gently.”

“What’s he like?” I asked, curious about the man I hoped to meet.

“Well, he ain’t exactly complicated,” Sable laughed. “He’s in a motorcycle club. Actually, he founded the MC with his brother, your uncle.”

“An uncle?”

I must have looked excited, because Sable put her hand on my arm as if she was trying to calm me down.

“He passed away a long time ago. They were best friends, and it broke your father’s heart when his brother died.”

“I wish I could have met him.”

“So your father loves his bikes, his booze, and the Savage Sons — that’s the name of the MC — more than anything, including me, some days,” Sable said with a laugh.

I realized that I didn’t want to cause problems in Sable’s life, even if it meant that I wouldn’t get to meet my biological father face-to-face. “I’m going to leave this up to you, Sable. I don’t want to come between you and Daniel, so I’m going to let you decide how to handle this. If you want to tell him about me, and if he wants to meet me, then I’ll be there in a heartbeat. But if you want to keep your secret, I’ll understand. You gave me to wonderful parents, and I’ll respect your privacy.”

Sable looked at me and nodded. “I’m gonna tell him. He may be mad at me, but he has a right to know. For that matter, he probably had a right to know thirty years ago.”

I smiled at her. “Thirty-one, actually.”

“You don’t look thirty-one. You have the baby face your dad used to have before he spent so many late nights in the bar.”

I stood up. “You have my card. I’ll let you figure things out, and I’ll wait for your call. If you change your mind, I’ll understand, and I won’t bother you again.”

“Bother me?” Sable asked. “Oh, Luke, you have no idea how happy you’ve made me. To know that my son lived with good people, got an education, has a good job … you’ve made me believe that I did the right thing. I may have suffered, wondering all these years, but you haven’t, and I’m so thankful for that.” Sable started crying, reaching for a tissue. “Luke, I’m sorry I left you, and I hope that you’ll be able to forgive me someday.”

“Sable, there’s nothing to forgive.” I put my hand over hers. “I’ll be in town for at least another week. I hope to hear from you.”

I wondered for a second if I should hug her, but I felt a little awkward, and I needed some fresh air. Even in the big house, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I walked out the front door, closed it quietly behind me, and headed for my Jeep. I felt like I was moving on autopilot as I climbed in, started my car, and backed down the driveway.

T
he lunch rush had been fantastic, especially for a weekend. Even though Falling Rock was in the perfect area to pull in both tourists and business people, the tips on the weekend usually weren’t as good, especially for a pretty girl. It doesn’t matter how hot you are if a husband’s sitting at the bar with his wife looking over his shoulder while he signs the credit card receipt.

I’d done well over the course of the afternoon, though. I’d hustled and really worked on selling some of the obscure, higher priced beers. It still blew my mind that there were people willing to pay twenty dollars for a single bottle of beer, but I was glad those folks were in Denver today!

I checked my watch and realized that I only had about forty-five minutes to get the bar back into shape for the dinner shift, and I still had a bar that was about half full.
Time to shift into higher gear
, I thought, as I started wiping down the liquor bottles I’d used to make what had felt like about a thousand bloody marys. I’d just finished a quick cleanup of the back bar, when I turned to scan the bar and see if anyone needed another drink.

And in walked Luke.

I’d wondered if he’d be miserably hung over from the night before, but he didn’t appear to be. He waved as he crossed the room.

“I promise I’m not stalking you,” he said as he pulled out a bar stool and took a seat.

“But here you are,” I said, narrowing my eyes and trying to look suspicious.

“Seriously,” he said, as he started to stand up. “If you want me to go, I will. It’s just that I don’t know anyone else … and I …”

“Jesus, Luke. I was kidding.”

“Oh,” he laughed. “I feel like an idiot.”

“Actually, I’m glad to see you, to be honest.” I wasn’t sure why I told him how I felt, but I realized that it felt good to be able to say what I thought, rather than having to worry about how he’d react — I didn’t have to measure my words and try to anticipate what would make him explode … like I did with Bug.

“If you’re busy, I can leave, but I thought I could drink a beer and tell you about my day if you’re not too slammed.”

“As long as you don’t mind if I work while you talk, that’s perfectly all right,” I answered, getting out the lemons, oranges, and limes I needed to slice to get things set for the closing bartender.

“Go ahead,” Luke said as he looked over the beer menu. “I’ll enjoy every second of watching you work.”

I poured his beer — not one of the twenty-dollar bottles, but a draft from California, and I slowly bent over to place it on the bar in front of him. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, and I ran my finger around the edge of the glass, catching the foam from the beer’s head. I brought my finger to my mouth and slowly licked the foam from my finger, maintaining eye contact with Luke the entire time, finally finishing by inserting my finger into my mouth and sucking it clean.

“You can watch all you like,” I said, as I headed to the other end of the bar to check on a couple who — after a couple of drinks — had started to kiss and whisper in one another’s ears. I laughed as I saw Luke close his mouth and adjust himself inside his jeans. I wondered if I could push him — get him so hot and turned on that he would be unable to control himself and would let his self control slip, just enough to let himself take what he wanted. I realized that I wanted him, wanted him to want me enough to take me. Luke wasn’t the only one turned on.

“So what’s got you so excited?” I asked when I got back to Luke.

“Besides you?”

“Me?” I asked, as if I couldn’t believe him. “I have you excited?”

“You know exactly the effect you have on me, Krystal.”

“Besides me, then.”

“You know how I said I was here to find my birth parents?”

I nodded as I sliced the fruit on the bar.

“I found them.”

“And?”

“I talked to my mother. Sat down and had a cup of coffee in her kitchen, as crazy as that sounds.”

“How did it go?” I looked him over to see if I could tell what kind of emotional state he was in. He seemed to be fine. Excited, but fine.

“It went really well. She’s happy that she gave me up to good parents, and she has regretted leaving me. She seemed like she was happy to see me.”

“Does she have any other kids?” I asked.

“No, and she’s married to my father. My father’s the only possible complication. He doesn’t know about me.”

“What? He doesn’t know he has a son somewhere in the world? How did she hide it from him?”

“She was young, and he was overseas in the military. She went and stayed with a friend and gave me up for adoption. He never knew.”

“Wow,” I said, trying to think about what it would be like to discover that you had an adult child that you had never known about.

“She’s going to tell him, though, and see if he wants to meet me. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but I really want to meet my birth father.”

Luke seemed so wholesome, so sweet, that it nearly broke my heart. “I hope you do,” I said, not sure what else to say.

Luke reached out and picked up my hand, not caring about the lemon juice that covered my fingers. “Thank you, Krystal. I just had to tell someone, and you’re the only person I know in town. I feel like celebrating.”

“I bet you do,” I told him, taking my hand back to wash it.

“Come have dinner with me,” he said, barely able to contain his excitement. “We’ll go someplace outrageously expensive, and we’ll drink champagne until sunrise.”

For a second, I let myself think about what it would be like to spend the evening with Luke. Dinner, expensive drinks, conversation with a man who actually listened to me and didn’t think I was a whore. It sounded like heaven to me.

But it couldn’t happen.

“You have no idea how much I’d love to have dinner with you tonight, but I can’t.” I decided not to explain any further. He didn’t need to know that my evening was likely to consist of me ignoring Bug’s insults and end with an unsatisfying sixty seconds of Bug pumping away inside me while I pretended to enjoy it.

“C’mon,” Luke pleaded. “Cancel your plans, just for tonight. Come celebrate with me. I’ll make it worth your while,” he said, with a sexy gleam in his eye.

He had no idea how gorgeous he was and how much I wanted to take him back to his hotel room and not come up for air for days. But I couldn’t. If I didn’t meet Bug at the clubhouse that evening, any chance I had at moving up to be his old lady would be gone. I was gonna have to work my ass off to afford my apartment on my own, but if I could move in with Bug, even if it was for a couple of years, I could afford to finish college and maybe even make a respectable living on my own. I couldn’t throw that away for the first sexy blond guy who walked into the bar.

“I can’t, Luke. You have no idea how much I wish I could, but I have something I have to take care of tonight.”