Blindsided (Indigo Love Spectrum) (7 page)

“Like your parents did you?”

“They did, but I’ve always known who they were.
I’m a stranger to Reese. Is it fair I disrupt her life to say,
‘Hi, I’m your daddy. Let’s make nice?’ What if she’s not
interested?”

“You don’t know she’s not. What will you do if she is?”

“I’ll buy parenting books, get tips from Ryan and
Lara, and pray I don’t ruin her life. I don’t want her to hate me.”

Dahlia patted the cushion beside her. “Join me.”
Norris moved to the couch, feeling immediate calm
when his hand settled in hers.

“You’re afraid, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Am I really supposed to answer that? A man’s not
supposed to own up to fear, especially about a sixteen
year-old.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

Norris smiled. “Thanks for saying so.”

Her fingers brushed his hair. “What are you
thinking?”

I think I love you.
“I think she’ll resent me,” he said.
“Gail and I didn’t exactly have an ideal relationship. Hell,
I’ve never had a relationship with any woman, it’s just
been—”

“Arrangements?” Dahlia offered.

“That works,” Norris said. “I’ve missed out on so
much with Reese. Her first smile, her first steps, and her
first day of school. Sixteen birthdays, sixteen
Christmases, and sixteen years of sweet goodnight kisses.
And all Reese knows is I wasn’t there for her and her
mother. Not exactly a good beginning for a relationship.”

“Would you be happier if Gail had never said any
thing?”

Norris watched Dahlia closely as he considered her
words. He could extend the same question to her about
t
he change he thought their relationship had taken, but
from the time he’d spent with her, he knew such a question would blow up in his face. Her reaction before he
mentioned Reese said as much.

“I would have been happier knowing about Reese
from the beginning, but I wasn’t given that option. I
know about a teenager, and Gail wants to leave her alone
with me. She couldn’t have made this any harder.”

“Let’s talk about your fear, Norris.”

“I’m afraid of losing Reese before I get the chance to know her. She’s not a baby, Dahlia. I can’t cuddle her and
rock her and bribe her with a stuffed toy. I have to
stumble my way through this, and build a
father/daughter relationship that should have been estab
lished sixteen years ago. Gail should have told me about her. She should have told me.”

“I was thinking the same thing when I learned my
husband was cheating on me. He should have told me.”

Norris’s eyes narrowed. “You think this is the same?”

“No, but I’m trying to make a point. You’re afraid of
the unknown. How you’ll handle being a father and how
your daughter will respond to you. Well, when I was
going through my divorce, I was wondering how I was
going to make it on my own. Jonah had been a part of
my life for sixteen years, the same amount of time you’ve
been without Reese. So I know fear.”

Dahlia hugged a throw pillow to her chest. Her dark
eyes took on a faraway quality. Norris waited for her to
say more. They’d discussed her cheating ex, the less than
amicable divorce that ended twelve years of marriage, and
h
er vow to stay clear of relationships many times before, but tonight felt different. It seemed Dahlia wanted to say a little more. Pushing her would likely cause her to clam
up, so he just waited quietly.

“Fear. I could write a book about fear. Finding my
husband in bed with another woman, in my house . . .” She closed her eyes, blotting glistening tears with long lashes. “Trying to figure out how to go on from there,
that’s fear. Aside from hair and how to run a business,
Jonah was all I knew. We met as freshmen in college and
got married before grad school. He had been a part of my
entire adult life, and I had to find a way to live my life
without him.”

Norris brushed away the tears rolling down her
cheeks. He’d seen her cry before, but not like this. Happy
tears that streamed from laughing until her stomach
cramped from his silly stories, and bittersweet tears that
flowed ever so slowly at the conclusion of a sad movie, but not sorrowful tears from a place deep in her heart
where a stabbing ache still resided.

Dahlia had always put up a tough-girl façade, a
veneer that said, ‘I’m on top of things. I do what I want,
when I want, and how I want,’ but he’d suspected it was
just a disguise, and tonight made it clear. He had enjoyed the game she played. It had enchanted him. But this hurt
was real, personal, and she was sharing it with him. They
were sharing. He liked it.

She moved away from his caressing thumb. “I don’t
know what’s going on with me.” Dahlia wiped away the
remnants of tears. “We were talking about you.”

“
That’s okay. I like hearing more about you. Your
husband was a fool.”

“My husband was a man. A very attractive man with
some coin and a line.” A humorless chuckle erased the
brief silence that followed her words. “A couple of lines.
One to lure me, and another to reel me in. A big, foolish
fish.”

“Dahlia . . .”

“No, it’s okay. Three good things came out of my marriage ending: I lost a loser of husband before I lost
more of myself, I shed eighty pounds that had been
weighing me down for years, and I got in touch with a
Dahlia that had been silent for too long. It wasn’t easy,
but after finding my way through a pile of empty potato
chip bags, I found a good place.”

“Potato chip bags?” Norris said curiously.

“Some people fall into hard times and lose themselves
in a bottle of booze. I lose myself in ripple chips. ‘My name is Dahlia, and I’m a chipoholic.’ It’s my cross to
bear, but admitting a problem is the first step to getting
help, right?”

Norris laughed. “It’s good you can find humor in
this.”

“After a while, you can always find a way to laugh
about things that once brought you pain.”

“Thanks for sharing this with me.”

“I wanted you to see that as difficult as this situation
seems, you can get through it and find a good place with
your daughter.”

“
Maybe we can,” he said. “I can’t deny I’m still a bit
mortified about this fatherhood thing, but there’s a good
anxiousness in the mix, too.”

Dahlia eyes sparkled as she smiled. “That’s good to hear. ”

Norris wanted her to say more, to talk about that
Dahlia she’d mentioned who’d been quiet for too long,
but he knew he’d have to keep wondering because
Dahlia’s time for sharing had come to an end. From what
he’d come to know of the inner workings of Ms. Sinclair,
sparkly eyes meant she had an idea, and it had nothing to
do with sharing secrets or unspoken pains.

“As many movies as we’ve watched together, we
always get sidetracked before finishing.” Dahlia giggled.
“Let’s cook up a little something and see if we can get to
the end credits for a change.”

Norris smiled. He was definitely learning to read her well. And the more he learned, the more he liked. “I’m
willing to give it a shot,” he said, following her to the
kitchen.

Memories of this evening replayed in Norris’s head.
He’d never talked to any woman about his parents, but
tonight he’d not only told Dahlia about his folks, he told
her about the daughter he hadn’t even told his best friend
about. And when all was said and done, he felt calm
about it. Happy even.

His smile grew wider as he watched Dahlia rifle the
fridge for this and that. All doubts evaporated. Hell had
frozen over, pigs had taken flight, and the first of
Neverary had arrived. The utterly impossible had finally
come to pass. Norris Converse had fallen in love.

Dahlia sighed softly and smiled. The unmistakable
scent of Norris, a woodsy sweetness with a hint of spice,
made the best alarm clock in the world.

Waking to his scent all around her wasn’t unusual.
The hours they spent together twined in her sheets kept his presence lingering long after he was gone. But this
morning brought a difference. It didn’t find her nestled
in the downy softness of her king-size rice bed, her body
satiated and humming with memories of Norris’s mas
terful touch. Instead, she woke with a dull ache in her
neck and an amazing feeling throughout her being.
Happiness and contentment overwhelmed her from
something as simple and innocent as spending an entire
night in Norris’s arms, on her couch.

She pressed her nose to his chest, breathing him in.
She liked Norris being here. She liked that he had chosen
to tell her something he hadn’t told another soul. But she
didn’t like that she liked it. She shouldn’t like it. They had
an arrangement. Sex. Simple and uncomplicated. Just
primal urges being met. Feelings weren’t supposed to
exist in that, outside the orgasmic pleasure realm, but
damn if feelings hadn’t developed.

Feelings?
Maybe she was just confused. She had an
intense physical attraction to Norris, and he was upset
last night after learning about Reese, so her heart went
out to him. Her attraction to him coupled with his emo
tions made her more susceptible to empathy. Yeah, that’s
what it was. Empathy.

Dahlia lifted her head to find Norris awake and
smiling down at her. “How’d you sleep?” he asked.

“Not as well as I do when I’m in my bed, but okay.
You?”

“Best sleep I’ve had in years.”

“How long have you been up?”

“Well, I’ve been awake for a while, but I’ve been
up
even longer,” he said with a lusty smile, straddling her on
his lap.

Dahlia curled her arms around his neck and rolled
her hips, smiling. “I can tell.” She loosened the buttons
of his shirt, exposing the fine dusting of dark hairs cov
ering his chest. Norris had the perfect body. Not bulky
and over-stuffed like most of the guys that defined ‘fit’ on
the cover of fitness magazines, but solid and well-defined,
beautiful. “I’ve been
up
for a while myself.”

His lips brushed hers. “Thank you for last night.”

“I didn’t do anything special.”

“Letting me be here was special. You listened and you
talked. You made me know as uncertain as things look,
everything with Reese could be okay.”

“I’m glad I could be of help.” She kissed him softly
and swiveled her hips, eliciting a deep groan from Norris.
“I think you have another problem I can help you with
right now.”

“
Uh-hmm.” His lips claimed hers, hungrily, passion
ately. She opened herself to him, welcoming the warmth
of his exploring tongue as his hands explored beneath her
top. A short gasp fell from her lips when his caressing
thumb brushed against the tip of her breast, bringing the
tiny nub to immediate attention and shooting every
nerve ending in her body to high alert.

The next moments found her top on the floor and Norris’s mouth fastened to her breast. His deep moans
grew with her sighs of pleasure. He turned his attention
to her other breast. Tasting, teasing, and deliciously tor
menting her, Norris’s hot mouth and skillful touch had her heart racing and body crying for more of him.