Our Finest Hour (The Time #1)(86)

I shake my head. Here goes.

“Not Paul. My real dad.”

I watch her face as I tell her. Her head moves slowly from side to side.

“Paul isn’t your real dad?”

“No. My real dad is a man named Lee Martin.”

“But… your parents. They’ve been married longer than you’ve been alive.” Her eyes grow wide after she says it.

“My mom had an affair. Lee Martin was her college sweetheart. He moved away after they graduated and she met my dad. When Lee came back, he called her. And then”—I take Aubrey’s hand—“they had an affair. Which produced me. My mom told Lee everything, and he said he didn’t want a child.” Even old wounds can still bleed, and this one hurts. Aubrey needs to hear this, so I keep going. “My mom wanted me, and Paul wanted my mom. He forgave her, and Lee gave up all parental rights. Paul adopted me, and he’s never been anything but my dad.”

Aubrey lets out a heavy breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

“That was why I was at the bar the night we met. That was the day my mom told me about Lee Martin.” I tear my gaze from Aubrey and look at the building in front of me. It’s a work of art, a masterpiece of clean lines, cold steel, and glass, all juxtaposed with the earthy warmth of the ivy. It makes me wonder about the person who designed it.

“I always thought it was a girl who hurt you and sent you there that night.” Her smile is ironic. “Can you believe I was even a teensy bit jealous?” She shakes her head, blinking up at the structure.

“You were right, technically.”

“I…I don’t know what to say. Your mom…” Aubrey squeezes her eyes shut. When she opens them, they’re shiny. “I feel so bad for your dad. Paul, I mean. And you, too.” Her fingers drift over my forearm.

“You can still call him my dad. That’s what he is. And don’t worry about me. I’ve gotten over it.”

“How?” She makes a face. “I don’t mean that you shouldn’t have. I just feel silly now, knowing all this. It took me until now to forgive my mom for what she did, and I’ve known about it my whole life. How did you go from shock to forgiveness so quickly?”

“It took some time. That night with you helped. When I heard your story, I realized I wasn’t alone. And it wasn’t anything I did wrong. I watched you leave after our hour—”

“You watched me go?”

I feel a twinge of guilt. I hadn’t wanted her to feel embarrassed about the way we’d used each other, so I pretended to be asleep.

“Our time was up, and when you got out of my bed, I knew you were going to leave. I watched you get dressed. And then you picked up my family picture from a box and looked at it.” I can see it so clearly, her finger tracing the people in the photograph, the light from that night’s full moon illuminating her body. “I realized how lucky I was to have my dad. Someone who wanted me so much he adopted the lovechild of his wife’s affair.”

Aubrey takes a deep breath. Her eyes follow two quail running across the parking lot. When they disappear into a bush, she murmurs, “I don’t know what to say.”

I understand that. How long was it before I could form a sentence after I first found out?

“It’s a lot to take in,” I tell her.

“Where do we go from here, Isaac?” She blinks up at me, shielding her eyes from the sun.

“That depends on you, Sixty.”

“Me?” Her eyes show me the fear she feels, but there’s happiness there too.

I nod once. “I’m all in. Are you?”

Her eyes roam my face, then her hands follow the trails her eyes just made. I close my eyes and lean into her touch.

When she says the word, I hear it, but I can’t believe it, so I ask her to say it again.

“Yes,” she yells, laughing.

I laugh with her, and pull her face to mine. When my lips slide over hers, I know our hours are finished. The clock is wide open, and I’m going to love her every hour of every day until there are no more hours left.





Perfection isn’t attainable, I know that now. It doesn’t even exist. But when I look out at the scene in front of me, I know this is the best it could ever be.

Claire flies up into the air, her knees tucked into her body, and comes back down, sending a wall of water cascading over Isaac. She laughs and swims away. Isaac glides to where I sit on the second pool step, leaning in to kiss me on the lips.

“What do you think about giving Claire a little brother or sister?” he murmurs against my cheek.

“Only if we can spend more than one hour trying,” I whisper.

Our back door opens, and my dad steps out. Isaac straightens but holds his hand up. I smack his offered high-five and wink.

“Dad, where’s Cheryl?” I ask as he comes up behind me.

“In the kitchen. She brought over an appetizer. And a dessert.”

I smile. He tries to hide it, but I can tell he really likes her. I like her too, and I especially like that he goes hunting a lot less than he used to. I consider it a win from all angles.

“Hi, John.” Isaac comes out of the pool, dries off, and shakes hands with my dad.

“Hello, son-in-law.” He claps Isaac on the back, then wipes the pool water off on his shorts. “You two ready for that honeymoon yet?”