An Invincible Summer (Wyndham Beach #1)(78)

Maggie slammed the handful of paper onto the counter and hopped off the stool. “When I get my hands on him . . .”

She grabbed a handful of tissues and paused to wipe off her face before tossing them into the trash, then headed out the front door, her bag over her shoulder, cursing under her breath every step of the way.

“Wait, Mom!” Natalie raced to catch up.

“Not now, Natalie.” Maggie was already out the door and halfway to the sidewalk and showed no sign of slowing down, muttering all the way down Cottage Street. “Brett Crawford, you have a lot to answer for . . .”



Maggie stormed into the municipal building as if she were being chased by a demon, which in a sense she was. She forced some semblance of control as she rounded the hall toward police headquarters and took a deep breath as she opened the glass door and approached the receptionist.

“Hey, Maggie. What’s up?” Coraline Webster asked as she hung up from a call.

“I’d like to see Br . . . the chief. Is he still here?”

“I think he’s still here. Let me check.” Coraline hit a button on her phone and, seconds later, said, “Chief, Maggie Flynn is here to see you. Sure.” She hung up and glanced at Maggie, clearly curious. “He said go on back.” Turning to point to the left, she added, “The chief’s office is—”

“I’ll find it.” Maggie headed toward Brett’s office, her anger boiling over. When she saw Brett standing in his office doorway, leaning against the jamb as if he hadn’t a care in the world, as if this were a social visit he’d been expecting, she almost blew.

“Inside and close the damned door,” she growled as she drew near him.

He took a step backward, his eyes widening, a look of confusion on his face. He stepped aside for her to enter, then did as she’d demanded. He closed the door softly.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.

“Joseph Miller.” She threw the name at him in a fast volley.

Brett stared at her, his face blank.

Maggie moved closer and repeated the name, more slowly this time. “Joseph. Miller.”

Brett continued to stare, obviously caught off guard.

“Do I have to say it again?”

“Ahhh . . . ,” he finally said after clearing his throat.

“How long have you known?”

“Known what? That I had a son?” He sat on the edge of his desk, his expression no longer confused, his eyes no longer defensive. It appeared Brett had gone on the offensive. “That’s something you’ve never let me forget.”

“How long have you known?” She ignored his attempt to put her on the ropes. This was her showdown.

He walked around the desk and sat on the worn brown leather seat. “He contacted me about a month ago. He’s been looking for—”

“A month ago?” She leaned on the back of the guest chair, too amped up to sit. “When were you going to tell me?”

“I’ve been trying to let you know he’s been looking for us for months, but every damned time I tried to talk to you, you blew me off.”

“How did he know . . . how did he find you?” She was embarrassed she couldn’t get her thoughts out in a coherent fashion, but she was angry and confused.

“He’d done that DNA testing thing on one of those genealogical sites, and they showed a match to my sister, Jayne, who’d joined the same site. He contacted her at the end of last summer, since she was identified as an aunt. Jayne and I are the only children in our family, so it wasn’t hard for her to figure out whose son he was. I tried to tell you at the reunion he was making inquiries, but you kept walking away from me. I wanted to give you a heads-up, but I couldn’t make you listen.”

“You could have called me.”

“If you wouldn’t listen to me when I was standing right in front of you, why would I think you’d have picked up my call?”

He paused, no doubt collecting his thoughts, but she wouldn’t have it. She gestured with her hand for him to continue. “Keep going. The rest of it.”

“So Jayne asked me how she should respond, and I told her the truth.” Another pause, this one longer, but Maggie’s emotions were too jumbled for her to press him. He sighed deeply. “She asked me if she could tell him who his father was, and I said yes. Long story short, we met for coffee one morning about a week ago.”

“You met him? You actually met him?”

Brett nodded.

“And . . .” Maggie gestured for him to continue, but it was obvious his emotions were getting the best of him. Tears were in the corners of his eyes, welling up like bubbles, but they didn’t fall.

“And there was no doubt he was who he said he was.” Brett wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. “He’s built like me. He looks like me. But he has your eyes.” Brett closed his hand around a coffee mug that had been sitting on the desktop and held on to it as if it were his lifeline.

“Did he ask about me?” she whispered.

Brett nodded. “Yes, of course he asked about you. He wanted to know all about you. Who you were, what you were like. What you looked like.”

“What did you tell him?” She couldn’t hold back the tears.

“I told him you were the most beautiful girl in the world and that all my life I’d loved you with my whole heart and soul. That you were the smartest woman I’d ever met, and the kindest.”