Love in the Vineyard (Tavonesi #7)(64)

When sleep finally came, it brought fitful dreams.

Always the dream of her mother’s voice, calling her to bet on the number seventeen. She never refused her mother’s summons. She always made the bet. But the dream had changed. Instead of just a voice, she saw her mother surrounded by a white ethereal light and smiling at her. Natasha reached out to touch her, and she disappeared. The dream morphed, and a man whose face she couldn’t see rained stacks of papers down onto her. Adrian appeared beside her, and soon he too was covered by the endless float of papers until he disappeared completely. She called out his name.

A pounding knock answered her. It shook the bed she saw herself in, shook the apartment. She called out, but the sound continued so loudly that it had her bolting up in her bed.

She glanced at the clock. Squinted and then focused. Nine fifteen! She’d overslept. The first day of her new job, and she’d overslept.

The knocking continued. It wasn’t her dream.

She grabbed her robe and ran to Tyler’s room. His bed was empty. She ran down the hall, pulled the scribbled note from the dining room table and headed for the front door. She glanced at the note. A smiley face and the word school was scrawled in his confident handwriting. When had he grown up so much that he could make breakfast on his own and catch the bus to school? With a lighter heart, she opened the door.

And came face-to-face with Tyler’s father.

If she hadn’t been holding tight to the door frame, she might’ve fainted.





“I would’ve called first, but your phone number’s unlisted,” Eddie said with a palms-up shrug.

He didn’t move toward her. But he loomed over her as tall and broad as he had in her memories and nightmares.

“Why are you here?” Natasha hated the waver in her voice. Hated the fear that shot adrenaline through her, making it hard to think.

To her surprise, Eddie stepped back. Still, the distance between them didn’t make her feel any safer.

“Look, I’m sorry to show up like this. But I didn’t want to wait for you outside Tyler’s school. I thought that would be creepy.”

His words slammed into her. Tyler. He knew about Tyler.

“Why are you here?” she repeated, as if feigning ignorance about Tyler would make any difference.

Eddie glanced around at the street. “Could I come in? What I have to say is going to take more than a few minutes.”

He must’ve seen the fear flash in her eyes, because he waved his palms the way men did in old westerns to show that they were unarmed. “I mean no harm, Natasha. But I understand if you don’t trust me. Maybe we could go somewhere and talk.”

“I’m late for work.” But then she considered that a villain you knew was better than one you didn’t. She didn’t want him inside her home. She didn’t want him in her life. But now that he’d discovered Tyler, she had to know what he wanted. Had to be armed to counter any plan he had cooked up.

“Okay. But fifteen minutes.” She nodded toward a bench at the edge of the field. “We can talk over there. I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”

After throwing on a pair of jeans and a work shirt, Natasha glanced in the mirror in the small bathroom she shared with Tyler. Fear smiled back. She had to squelch the rising anxiety, had to keep her head about her if she was going to keep negative forces at bay. To keep Eddie at bay. She stuck out her tongue. “Not this time,” she said, squaring her shoulders.

But fear jabbed under her ribs as she locked her door and headed to where Eddie sat on the bench. Waiting for her and God knew what else.

He stood as she approached.

“Thank you, Natasha.”

He looked as nervous as she felt. She’d forgotten how handsome he was. And now, face to face with him after all the years, she did recognize aspects of him in Tyler. Something she wished she’d never seen.

She didn’t sit. He looked down at his feet, then met her gaze.

“I can’t expect you to forgive me,” he said. “Not for what I did to you that night. I lost it. I got help. Three years of help, to be precise. I’m still in a program. Sort of a twelve-step for vets with PTSD and drug issues. I’m clean, Natasha. Eight years sober. And the program requires that I make amends to anyone I wronged.” He gestured open-palmed toward her. “I’m here to make amends. To move forward. To make up for what I didn’t do right.” He looked away quickly, but then turned back. He took a deep breath and added, “For what I did wrong.”

He was laying open his secrets, his darkness. Telling the truth, from what she could see. But something in his eyes shouted a warning.

“That’s quite an accomplishment. Congratulations.” In her heart she regretted the terseness of her tone. But it set her boundary. She had more than herself to protect now. She had to protect Tyler.

“I’ve changed, Natasha. When I saw you—when I saw our boy at the ballpark—I had to find you. I didn’t even have to do the math; the sight of him was enough. He looks like me.” He gestured toward her again. “I want in. I want us to be a family.”

Her heart thudded. She crossed her arms, wishing they were a steel shield. She wasn’t going to admit that Tyler was his son.

“He’s not your boy.”

“Natasha, don’t make this hard. It can go well if you work with me rather than against me. And besides, you probably know that a cheek swab is all it’ll take to prove to the courts that he’s my boy. That I’m his father. Besides, he obviously inherited my love of baseball. If I hadn’t gone to the game, used the season tickets I inherited from my father, I’d never have found you. It’s destiny, Natasha. You can’t fight destiny.”