The Billionaire's Secret Love Child(111)

Suddenly, I felt him closer now, his warmth emanating toward me. His hand on my cheek, and our faces so close, I could almost…

“Life really threw us for a loop, didn’t it?”

I felt the warmth of his breath, and his touch made me want to curl in and never leave.

“If things were different…” I began to say, and as he slowly pulled himself away, I felt the sudden coldness of being without.

“If things were different,” he echoed, his cloudy-blue eyes more cloudy now than ever.



“You’re hopeless, Erin McGarity.” Maggie met with me at the hospital. Two weeks had passed with my father’s condition wavering unsteadily for the first full week. With such an intense attack, and a surgery in tow, he was worn out, but finally ready to return home.

In the meanwhile, Matty continued to help with things down on the farm, though things had remained tense between us since his confession. The more time we spent, the more I feared that leaving for New York again was going to be more difficult, both for Philip who had grown attached to the place, and people, and for me...who had come to realize where Matty and I stood: it was simply not meant to be.

Pete had stayed behind at the farm with Philip, and so Maggie insisted on providing me with support. Not only was it the day my father returned, but it was also the day that Matty and Allison got married.

He’s finally getting his happy ending, I thought. He deserves it.

That’s when Maggie hit me in the gut with her words.

“Please,” I said. “I don’t need this today. Of all days, just let me be.”

Maggie sighed. “I can’t believe you came all this way for nothing.”

“For nothing?” I sat up in the chair. “I came here to help my dad, and at a good time too. Now the house has gotten some much needed repair, and all thanks to Matty. He kept the deed of the house and some of the surrounding acreage to the McGaritys even. It was a win-win. We kept the heart of the farm, and he got passage to the river.”

“A win-win?” Maggie let out a laugh. “That sounds to me like a lose-lose.”

I folded my arms.

“It was a compromise,” I said.

“Right,” she said. “A compromise. You keep that in mind the next time you run across the love of your life, find out he’s been in love with you the entire time, never tell him you’re in love with him, continue to raise his child right under his nose, and take the more-than-generous labour and the gift of keeping your family’s generations-old land to yourself. Yeah, a compromise? Sounds like he kept trying to meet you halfway, but you kept standing in the wrong direction.”



“Thank you for picking me up,” my father sat in the passenger seat of the truck.

“Of course, Dad,” I said. “I’m just glad you’re alright. You really scared me. You have to start watching over yourself from now on.”

We drove on in silence for a few moments, passing by mainstreet, which was full of tourists in the fresh, spring weather.

“Is something on your mind, Erin?”

My father’s gruff, but soothing, voice broke through my thoughts. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out at first.

Then, “How did you and mom know?”

“Hmm?”

“That you were...in love?”

A bellowing laugh sounded throughout the car, and I wasn’t quite expecting that reaction.

“We weren’t always in love, you know. I was quite an ornery young man. Your mother almost couldn’t stand me some days. I was always getting into trouble, and she was always getting me out of it.”

I smiled.

“One of the reasons I left,” I said. “Was because I didn’t want to not know. I was just afraid that if I stayed, I’d always be here, and I’d grow old and die without ever having any adventures of my own. I was afraid that I was settling for what I’d always known and…”

He nodded and sighed.

“You know, that’s exactly what your mother said to me once.”

“What?” I was surprised.

“I may have been the one to get in trouble a lot, but your mother was a free spirit! She would have sailed a thousand seas if I’d let her. I would’ve let her, too! But, we never were very well off and she left sooner than I could give it to her…”

I felt a pang of sadness in my chest at the tenderness of my father’s words as he spoke of her.

“But you know what she told me? You might not have remembered much. You were sleeping out in the hallway, and I was with your mother before she left.”

I braced myself for what he was about to say.

“She looked at me, in all my scruff and tears, and grabbed my dirt covered hand and said, ‘Richard, you and Erin are the greatest adventure I could have ever asked for’ She always said she loved my soil-filled pockets more than any stylish dress or purse I could give her.”

He sighed. “Not that I could have given her much. But she loved me, and I loved her. And we loved you all the more.”

“Dad,” I said, through a choked voice. “I hope you don’t mind...we’re not going home quite yet.”

I took a sharp left and my father pumped his fist out the window.

“That’s my girl!”