When they split up, she’d moved to Fresno, where Tanner was living and working when he finally got their mother to admit he had a sister. Tanner was twenty-one at the time and the court allowed him custody, once Kelly stood up before a judge and declared that she wanted to live with her brother.
She gulped in air and made herself explain. “My mom got sick again, a year after Tanner came for me. She needed us. And I wanted to go to Sac State anyway….”
He smiled again. He had the most beautiful smile. But then, so had Michael, though his smiles were rare. “Let me guess. You got a full scholarship?”
“That’s right.”
“I knew you would. And you’ve been here in Sacramento ever since?”
“Yes, I…have a house. A job I love. An old black dog.” And a daughter. Your daughter…
“Mitch. Ready?” said a voice from behind her. A glance over her shoulder showed her that the gray-haired professor waited in the wings.
Mitch gave him the high sign. “Be right there, Robert.”
She faced Mitch again. “I guess you have to go, but…” What to say next? It seemed all wrong to just dump the news on him without preamble, right there on that darkened stage.
“Listen.” He looked at her so intently, scanning her face in a way that seemed both eager and hungry at once. A funny thrill skittered through her. And the warmth in her stomach seemed to expand outward, to radiate all through her.
My God. I’m attracted to him—and he feels it, too….
After all these years. Who knew? He’d changed so much. And then there was DeDe. God. What would he do when she told him about DeDe?
He said, “I believe in keeping it simple and direct.”
“Oh. Yes. I prefer that, too.” But obviously not that direct. Or she would have told him already that he was a dad.
No. Really. Bad idea, to just blurt it out, out of nowhere, with that professor lurking behind them, waiting to lead Mitch off to who knew where.
Mitch asked, “Are you married? Engaged? With someone special?”
A short burst of surprised laughter escaped her. “Well, that was simple and direct. And the answers are no, no. And no.”
“Perfect.”
She actually found herself teasing him. “Which no do you mean?”
“All of them.” The air seemed to crackle around them. With energy. With…heat. He said, “I’ve got this faculty party I have to be at right now, but I’m in town ’til Thursday morning. How about dinner tomorrow night?”
Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day. How weird was that? To go out with her child’s father, whose name was now Valentine…on Valentine’s Day?
Weirdness aside, though, dinner would work. Just the two of them, sharing a table in a quiet restaurant. It would be a good opportunity—if there was such a thing—to break the news.
He said, “You’re taking too long to answer. I’m getting worried you’ll say no again—this time to me.”
Her cheeks felt too warm. She couldn’t resist. “No.” She paused just long enough for him to look disappointed. Then she added, “I’m not saying no.”
He laughed, then. “Seven?”
“Fine.” She hurried right on, before he could suggest that he would pick her up. “I’ll meet you at the restaurant, if that’s all right?”
“However you want it.”
She’d put a business card in her pocket, ready for this moment. “Here’s my work number and my cell, just in case…” Their fingers touched in the space between them. So strange. After all these years, the two of them, standing here. Breathing the same air, his hand brushing hers…
His skin was warm. Dry. And only slightly rougher than her own.
He produced a card and handed it over. It was thick vellum, green with black lettering, a personal card, just his name and a couple of phone numbers.
“If you need to call, use the first number,” he said. “It’s my cell.”
“All right.”
“Shall I ask around, get some recommendations for the right restaurant, or do you know where you’d like to eat?”
She named a place in midtown, on 28th Street. “It’s quiet there,” she said. “And the food’s good.”
“I remember it,” he said. “A Sacramento landmark. Though we never could afford to eat there, back when…” The place wasn’t terribly expensive, but for two kids with no money, it had seemed so—And Dr. Benson must be getting impatient, because Mitch was glancing over her shoulder and nodding. “Right there…”
She stepped back. “I’ll let you go then.”
“Until tomorrow…”
“Seven. I’ll be there.”
Tanner was stretched out on the couch in the family room at the back of the house, channel-surfing, when Kelly got home. He turned off the TV and reached over to set the remote on the coffee table when she came in through the dining room.
He didn’t get up right away, but braced his right arm behind his head and regarded her through lazy, dark brown eyes. “You’re late. I was practically asleep.”
“At twenty after ten? You know you never went to sleep this early in your life.”
He sat up then, kind of stiffly. He’d been in a car accident six weeks before and had only gotten the casts off his left arm and leg a few days ago. A week or two more, his doctors said, and even the residual stiffness should disappear. He yawned. “Good speech?”
“Excellent.”
“What was that name again?”
“Mitch Valentine.”
He shrugged. “Never heard of him.”
She only smiled. She’d made up her mind on the drive home not to tell Tanner that she’d found Michael at last until after she’d managed to tell Mitch about DeDe. It seemed right that she should come clean with Mitch, first and foremost.
But she and her brother were very close. Guilt nagged her, to hold out on him this way.
He was frowning. “Okay, what’s going on?”
And she couldn’t go through with it, couldn’t hold the truth back. Not from Tanner, who was her beloved big brother, her rock, the first one to show her what it could be to have a real family. She came and sat beside him and took his hand. “Is DeDe asleep?” She pitched her voice barely above a whisper.
His brow crinkled with concern. “She went to bed at nine. I checked on her about fifteen minutes ago. Dead to the world.”
“Good. I…”
“God, Kell. What?”
“Mitch Valentine? The guy who was speaking tonight?”
“Yeah?”
“He’s Michael.”
He looked every bit as stunned as she felt. “What the hell?”
“It’s true. Oh, Tanner. I’ve found Michael. At last…”
He let go of her hand. “Are you sure?”
Kelly bobbed her head up and down. “Oh, yeah. He’s Michael, though he’s changed a lot. You know how thin he was? Not anymore. He’s…buffed up. And he’s wealthy. Owns a couple of companies and he’s written a book about how he turned his life around.”