Yesterday's Scandal (The Wild McBrides 3)

Mac nodded. “I was born and raised in Savannah. I still maintain a home there.”

For some reason, Sharon found herself holding her breath as she watched Caleb’s expression change. The genial, country-lawyer smile he always wore so easily seemed to slide off one side of his face. Her breath left her in one long, shaky sigh.

“I once knew a woman in Savannah whose name was Cordero,” Caleb murmured, his voice not quite steady. “Anita Cordero.”

As still as he was, Mac could have been carved from wood. There was no expression on his face. And Sharon thought she might be the only person in Honoria who could read the emotion in his eyes. “Anita Cordero was my mother.”

Caleb swallowed audibly. “Was?”

“She died three years ago.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that.” Caleb lifted a hand to wipe his mouth. His fingers shook. “Your—er—father. Is he still living?”

“I don’t know. I never met him.”

“Do you mind if I ask how old you are?”

“I’m thirty-three.”

“My God.” Caleb put out a hand to press it against the nearest wall.

Sharon reached out to him quickly. “Caleb?” She glanced worriedly at Mac. “He had a heart attack two years ago.”

“No.” Caleb held up his free hand. “I’m all right. Just…shaken.”

Mac took a small step forward, looking worried. “Do we need to call for medical help?”

Still holding the wall, Caleb ignored the question. “Why did you come to Honoria, Mac?” he asked, his voice husky.

Mac looked at Sharon. She shrugged helplessly. He drew a deep breath. “I came to find some answers. I had no real plan about what to do with them once I found them.”

Caleb couldn’t seem to take his gaze off Mac’s face. “You have your mother’s features. Her eyes.”

“I know.” As if he was becoming overwhelmed by all the emotion in the room, Mac stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I don’t imagine I look at all like my father’s family.”

Seeming to gather his strength, Caleb straightened, his voice steadier now. “Sharon, dear, I wonder if you would excuse us for a little—”

“No.” Mac’s tone was sharp as he took a step closer to her. “Sharon knows my story. She stays.”

Sharon looked uncertainly from one man to the other. “I don’t mind,” she said. “We can talk later, Mac.”

“No.” He reached out to take her hand, and despite his almost arrogant tone, something about the gesture was oddly pleading. As if he needed her with him. There was no way, of course, that she could leave now. She nodded and curled her fingers around his.

Caleb glanced at those locked hands, and at Sharon’s face for a moment. Then he turned to Mac. “I met Anita Cordero almost thirty-five years ago. I was consulting on a very lengthy, complicated legal case in Savannah, and it was necessary for me to stay in a hotel room for weeks at a time. My marriage was going through a difficult period and Anita became very special to me. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her—and then my wife told me she was pregnant.”

With Tara, Sharon thought, her heart in her throat. Dear God, Caleb McBride was Mac’s father.

Caleb continued firmly. “My wife and I had tried for several years to have a baby, but we’d begun to believe it would never happen. Her announcement staggered me. She was carrying my first child—and I was in love with another woman. I told Anita everything. She told me I had to go home to my wife. She wouldn’t break up a family, she said. She told me that we were never meant to be together. That the time we’d shared was never really ours. And then she asked me never to call her again. She made me promise I would never look back. And she became furious when I stupidly offered to send her money. She was a very strong-willed woman. And I was a very weak-willed man.”

He must have been attracted to strong women, Sharon thought. Bobbie was one of the most domineering women she’d ever met. Everyone had always thought Caleb and Bobbie’s marriage worked so well because he very contentedly allowed her to have her own way. Sharon had never dreamed that Caleb had concealed so much behind that fatherly-lawyer image he had perfected.

“She never told me about you,” Caleb finished, looking straight into Mac’s eyes. “I never knew.”

So Mac’s father hadn’t deliberately abandoned him. He had never known he left a son behind when his love affair ended. Did knowing that ease any of the hurt and anger Mac had carried around for so long?

Mac sighed very faintly. “You never looked back.” It wasn’t a question.

“I tried very hard not to,” Caleb corrected him. “It was all Anita asked of me. I’ve made a good life for myself here with my practice and my family, I’ll admit that. But I can’t say that I never looked back.”