Blindsided (Indigo Love Spectrum) Read online

  “I’m sorry, am I prying?”

  “You don’t know the answer to that?” Dahlia quipped.

  Reese made a hissing sound. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t sweat it. Lucky for you I like you.” Dahlia shampooed and rinsed and repeated the action for the next several quiet minutes. “Leslie is my younger sister,” she finally confessed as she turned off the water and squeezed the excess from Reese’s hair.

  “You’re not close?”

  “Not anymore.” She saturated the damp hair with conditioner and slapped on a styling cap. “Let’s sit you under the dryer for a few minutes.”

  As Reese deep-conditioned, Dahlia slipped into her office. What in the world did her sister want?

  * * *

  Norris ignored the smiling women he passed on his way into Denburg Memorial Hospital. Never short of female admirers, he knew one look in their direction would send them flocking over, and he wasn’t interested in fighting off advances.

  An attractive blonde at the reception desk pointed him in the direction of Gail’s office. A couple of months ago, that honey would have been his lunch. She clearly had a serious hankering for him. The way she smiled and licked her lips as if she’d just finished a serving of her favorite dessert said it all. He thanked the receptionist for her help and headed down the curving corridor to Office 110. He knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” said a voice that took him spiraling back over seventeen years.

  Norris cracked the door. The soft scent of jasmine erased the pungent smell of hospital antiseptic. Gail loved jasmine. He remembered she always had the scented candles burning at her home. Norris peeked around the door to find the lady behind her desk looking as beautiful as ever. “Dr. Gail.”

  “Norris.” She approached him with open arms.

  He returned her warm embrace. “It’s been a long time.”

  “Too long.” Gail took a step back. “Look at you. Just as handsome as ever.”

  “And you’re just as stunning. More.” Her flawless dark skin was as supple as ever, and her warm brown eyes still sparkled like two bright diamonds. “You never did share directions to the fountain of youth.”

  “No directions, just a fact of nature. Good black don’t crack.” She laughed, returning to her chair.

  Norris chuckled with her. She used to always say that. “My first taste of forbidden fruit.” He took the seat in front of her desk. “That’s what you called yourself.”

  “I was, wasn’t I?”

  “Depends on what you call forbidden. I’m aware and have always appreciated the many beautiful hues of the world, but your race didn’t make you forbidden. The fact that you were thirty-five and I was twenty is a different story.”

  “The old lady and the stud.”

  “You weren’t old, and I wasn’t a stud. At least not until you got finished with me.” He smiled. “I had some great times with you. I was a little hurt when you disappeared.”

  “I thought it was for the best.”

  “Maybe.” He brushed his hands against his thighs. “It’s been nearly seventeen years. What prompted the call?”

  She tucked a wisp of straight black hair behind her ear. “I think that can wait a few minutes. I want to hear about you. I know you’re an accountant.”

  “I have my own firm downtown, but you already know that. How long have you been back in South Carolina?”

  “Just over a year. I missed it here. ”

  “Where did you go?”

  “New York. Long Island. I wanted to spend some time with my parents. They were up in age, and both

  very sick. They died a few months after I moved back.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Gail.”

  “Thank you. It was very tough for a while. I was their miracle baby. They were from big families and wanted a big family, but had a hard time conceiving. There weren’t a lot of options back then, but when all hope was lost, along came me. Mom was forty-three.” She expelled a breath. “How did we get on me? I was asking about you. What’s new in your life?”

  Norris smiled. What was new? Dahlia, Dahlia, and more Dahlia. “You know me,” he said.

  “I do. That’s why I’m wondering. You got tired of it yet?”

  “It?”

  “That playboy lifestyle. Back in the day, I could tell you had a lot of living inside of you dying to be lived. But I also knew that need wouldn’t last forever.” She clasped her hands together and perched them on her desk. “Your blonde, blue-eyed friend. Your shadow, uhm . . .” She snapped her fingers.

  “Ryan?”

  “Yes. Ryan. How is he?”

  “Wonderful.” Norris laughed, pulling out his wallet and a snapshot of his best friend with his family. “Expecting twins.”

  Gail gazed wide-eyed at the photo. “His wife’s black.”

  Norris gasped. “She is?” He laughed as Gail rolled her eyes. “Ryan lost his first wife eight years ago, but after three years of mourning, he and Justin found Lara, and she’s fantastic. They’ve been happily married over four years.”

  “What a beautiful little girl they have.”

  “Sweet Angelica.” Norris smiled with thoughts of his precious goddaughter. “She’s incredible. A little heartbreaker.” He returned the photo to his wallet. “I feel like a proud grandparent pulling out this picture. I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

  “It’s endearing, Norris. You’ve changed so much. A good change. Not that you were a bad person before. You’ve just . . .”

  “Grown up?” He shrugged. “It was bound to happen.”

  “I guess so. You have snaps of your own little ones?”

  “Can’t take photos of what you don’t have. No wife or kids.”

  “You don’t want children?”

  “Well . . .” He tilted his head from side to side. “A thought has passed through my mind a time or two. What about you? You ever find the right guy and have kids?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “Sounds like a story.”

  “It is quite a story. And somewhat involved.”

  Norris crossed his legs and settled into the chair. “Let’s hear it. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Gail sighed. “Hmm. I honestly don’t know where to start.”

  “The beginning is always good.”

  She nodded. “All right, the beginning. When you walked into the E.R. with your severely sprained wrist, I was at a crossroads in my life. You were young and flirtatious, and I took advantage of you, and I’m sorry.”

  “You didn’t take advantage. I was a willing participant.”

  “I know, and that’s how I took advantage. I wanted something from you, Norris, and when I got it, I left. No good-bye, and no explanation.”

  “We weren’t in a relationship. Not a real one. You didn’t take anything I didn’t give. It was six great weeks. I would have liked a goodbye, but I don’t have any regrets. Is that why you called me over? To apologize?”

  “No. I’m—I’m not sorry about what we shared. That time with you gave me the biggest thrill of my life.”

  Norris laughed. “I fancy myself a thrill-giver, so I’m glad to have your joy confirmed. But, honestly, Gail, any thrill I gave you was equaled by the one you gave me. That was an incredible time for me.”

  “Me, too. And you did give me joy, Norris, so much joy, and that’s what I need to tell you about.” Gail closed her eyes for a long moment, drawing a deep breath.

  Norris watched her closely, curiously. Though it had been years, he couldn’t recall ever seeing her at a loss for words. It made him nervous. “Gail, what do you need to tell me?”

  She lowered her hands and met his gaze. “I think it might be easier to show you.”

  Gail turned the picture frame on her desk in his direction. A beautiful, smiling young woman with flowing curls of dark hair and the golden skin promised by tanning lotion companies stared back at him. Norris held the picture closer. The girl had light eyes. Gray eyes. His heart leapt to his
throat. “Gail?”

  “I was an only child, Norris. Before I left Denburg, I thought long and hard about how it would feel to be all alone, and I didn’t like it. I had my cousins, but it wasn’t the same. I wanted my own family, and when you walked into my E.R., I saw a way to get it with no ties. You didn’t see my seduction coming, but by the time I was done, I had what I wanted. I had your baby, Norris. You have a sixteen-year-old daughter.”

  Chapter 2

  Dahlia picked up the phone a couple of times, but after five minutes of start and stop, she finally stopped. She hadn’t spoken to her sister in two years, but with that Atlanta area code staring her in the face, calling Leslie would remain impossible. Once inseparable, now more than miles kept the sisters apart.

  Dahlia folded the message in half and placed it in back of her desk drawer. She needed potato chips. Grabbing three quarters from the mug on her desk, she checked in on Reese at the dryer and then high-tailed it to the vending machine.

  Halfway through the bag of ripple chips, her comfort food, Dahlia closed the package. Potato chips had always been her weakness, but eating in itself was the true culprit. Unlike her parents, Leslie, and her older brother, Quentin, she had always struggled with her weight. ‘You’re big-boned like your granddaddy,’ Flora, her maternal grandmother, who was of slight build like Dahlia’s mother, used to always say. Her grandfather died before she was born, but Dahlia found comfort in her grandmother’s words. Only after she’d lost the weight during her sabbatical did she realize the fat on the bones and not the bones themselves had made her big.

  That truth didn’t come easily. Grade school through high school had been a nightmare. Fat, smart Dahlia. You’re such a pretty girl, why don’t you lose a few pounds? Dahlia tossed the bag into the trashcan next to the vending machine. She still cringed when she thought of that line from ‘well meaning’ family members and friends. Older people seemed to feel reminding someone of his or her physical imperfections was a God-given right.

  Thanks to the chips, she’d have to spend at least thirty extra minutes on the treadmill tonight. Losing eighty pounds wasn’t easy. In fact, aside from accepting that her lie of a marriage had come to an end, it was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

  Dahlia smiled at her reflection in the glass of the vending machine. Having gone from a round size twenty to a curvy ten, she looked good and felt even better. Norris constantly showered her with compliments. He had a way of making her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. In fact, Norris had a way of making her feel a lot of things, many of which she didn’t want to feel.

  Intelligent, funny, wealthy, gorgeous, and an incredible lover who wanted no ties, Norris personified a dream walking. The fact that the no ties line had become a bit skewed for her didn’t mean she couldn’t clear it up, because a relationship was the last thing she wanted. Relationships were hard and painful. What she had with Norris worked because neither wanted that monkey on their back. They were about making each other feel good, and mixing emotions into that would break the magic and make things tense. And she wanted her life free of tension.

  Dahlia made her way back to Reese. She’d been under the dryer ten minutes, enough to thoroughly condition her thick mane of curls. She gave the girl’s shoulder a pat and lifted the dryer hood. “Time to rinse.”

  “I think you should cut my hair,” Reese said when she was settled at the sink. “Preferably like yours, classy and cute.”

  Dahlia started rinsing. “I’m not cutting your hair.”

  “Aw.”

  “Reese, as grown up as you think you are, you’re only sixteen. I’m not going to cut your hair unless your mother says so.” Dahlia finished rinsing, wrapped a towel around Reese’s damp hair, and ushered her back to the booth. “How is Gail doing? With her wedding two weeks away, I bet she’s excited.”

  “She is. Excited and anxious. Ben’s the same way.”

  “I hope their excitement turns into a lifetime of happiness.” Unlike her dozen years with a lying cheat.

  “They’ll be very happy,” Reese said. “And who knows, maybe you and your guy can keep the trend going.” She smiled in the mirror at Dahlia.

  Dahlia wagged an admonishing finger, a warning she could use on herself. Because try as she might, she couldn’t help thinking about Norris and having a happy future with him.

  * * *

  “I . . . I don’t understand,” Norris stammered, his eyes never leaving the picture. “How did . . .”

  “I think you know.”

  “But we used protection.”

  “No birth control is infallible. Plus, I provided the condoms, making sure some of your swimmers had extra freedom.”

  Norris saw so much of himself in the young woman’s picture. He couldn’t deny she was his if he wanted to. His gaze met Gail’s. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want you to know.”

  “And now?”

  “And now I realize keeping Reese from you was wrong. It was unfair to you and her.”

  “Reese? That’s her name?”

  “Yes. I wanted to name her after you. I decided to use the last half of your first name and came up with Reese.”

  “You should have told me.”

  “No, I shouldn’t have, not then. What I did was wrong, but I did it for the right reasons. You were twenty years old, Norris. I didn’t want nor expect you to have a hand in raising her. I wanted Reese for me, and I didn’t want to share her.”

  Norris glanced from the photo to Gail. He’d been a father for sixteen years and never had a clue, because she’d thought it was best. He clutched the armrests, trying to settle the anger threatening to erupt in him. “How could you keep her from me?”

  “You’re upset.”

  “At a bare minimum!” Norris said in a clipped voice. He sucked in a breath. “She’s my daughter.”

  “Yes, she is, and that’s why I called you. It may be sixteen years late, but I want you to know her now.”

  Norris watched her closely. Her words were sincere, he knew that, and it calmed him a degree, but there was something else. Something she wasn’t telling him. “There’s a reason you’re doing this now,” he said. “What is it?”

  Gail’s nervous chuckle broke the tense silence as he waited for her response. “You still read me well,” she said.

  “You taught me how.” It was a gift he’d been able to use with a lot of women, and not just in the bedroom. “Why are you telling me about Reese now?”

  “Like I said, I want you to know her.”

  “I get that. Why now?” he repeated.

  “I’m getting married in a couple of weeks.”

  “And?”

  “I’ve been fortunate to have career and financial success, good health, a beautiful daughter, and now a wonderful man in my life. I have a lot to be thankful for, but there are so many people in this world who don’t have basic human needs. People in Uganda. My fiancé, Ben, is a doctor, and he and I want to help those people. To provide them with things we take for granted.”

  “That’s very admirable, Gail, but I still—”

  “In providing this help, I need your help,” she broke in.

  “You want a donation?”

  “Yes, but of your time. Ben and I want to leave for Uganda right after the wedding, and while I’m away I want you to get to know Reese.”

  “Get to know her?” Norris leaned closer to her desk. “What are you asking?”

  “This is your time, Norris. I want you to be Reese’s dad.”

  “You want me to take over raising an almost-adult child I have yet to even meet,” he rephrased. “You must be kidding.”

  “I think you know the answer to that. I’ve thought a lot about this, Norris, and I think it’s for the best.”

  “Whose best? Mine? Our daughter’s?”

  “Both of you, and for me, too.”

  “Does she even know about me?”

  “Not specifically.”

  No
rris grunted. “I’ll take that to mean no.”

  “I wasn’t ready to talk about you when she asked. She knows you and I had a brief relationship and then parted ways.”

  “How much does your trip to Uganda have to do with your sudden need for me to know Reese?”

  “A little and a lot. Norris, I’m not leaving Reese to go to Uganda; I’m going to Uganda to accept leaving her with you. Not telling you about her wasn’t my best move, but like I said . . .”

  “You wanted a baby for yourself and I was just a means to an end.” Norris groaned and walked to the office window. Two young children traded swipes with each other while a man and woman followed behind mouthing what appeared to be demands they stop fighting. They were probably a family. Parents and children. He’d been a parent for sixteen years and had never known it.

  “What are you thinking?” Gail asked.

  Norris turned to her. “So many things.”

  Gail leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Give me your worst, Norris. I want to know what you’re feeling.”

  “What I’m feeling? Okay. I feel angry to have missed sixteen years of my child’s life. I feel proud and I’m in awe of her. Reese is a beautiful girl, and to see some of myself in her . . . It’s a joy I can’t put into words.”

  “She’s a wonderful young woman, and you can get to know her. I’ll be honest, Norris. The reason I feel the need to leave while you’re getting to know Reese is because I have been selfish when it comes to her. To see her bonding with you, and loving you—I don’t know if I’ll be able to take it, but I understand it needs to happen. The time I’m away will give you both the time you need to form these bonds, and give me time to accept it’s happening and also help those in need.”

  “You make it sound like it will be so easy.”

  Gail shook her head. “Oh, no, I don’t believe for one second it will be easy for any of us, but I have faith we can make it happen. You and Reese need to know each other.”

  “She’s going to be living with me?”

  “If you both agree. If not, I have someone in mind to be her guardian. Regardless, Reese will be available whenever you want. She is your daughter.”