Kismet

While Lissa was busy, Trevor escaped into the bathroom to wash up and regroup while he was at it. He splashed cold water on his face and brushed his teeth, stalling while he pulled himself together. Talk about being in complete denial for the last twenty-four hours. While he’d been losing himself in Lissa, thinking he’d found the missing pieces of his heart, he’d somehow managed to completely block out the thing that had broken them up to begin with.

Her daughter.

Brad’s daughter. He shoved that thought away before he could dwell on it too long.

The fact that she lived in Serendipity, and he lived here.

Hell, if he kept thinking, he was sure he’d come up with a whole lot more things that could keep them apart.

Trevor stepped out of the bathroom in time to hear, “Hey, baby.”

Lissa spoke into the phone, her tone warm, sweet, and filled with pure love. A tone Trevor had never heard from her before and despite himself, he was intrigued.

He grabbed a clean pair of underwear and jeans, dressing while she finished her call. “No, baby, I’m not coming home until tomorrow. You have a cold and grandma’s going to take good care of you, okay?” She grew silent, then said, “I love you, too. Bye.”

Clearly bracing herself, she straightened her shoulders and met his gaze. “Sorry about that.”

Trevor shook his head. “No need to apologize for reality,” he said. “Kids need their mothers.” And their fathers, which brought up another question nagging at him. “If she has a cold, why didn’t Brad just keep her with him?”

She frowned. “My guess? Sunny doesn’t want to catch it. That’s Brad’s fiancée. She’s twenty-two and more of a child than Livvy,” Lissa said with a roll of her eyes.

“Does Livvy look like you? Or her father?”

Lissa blinked, obviously startled at his question. So was he. But he wanted to know, even as he knew the answer might hurt.

“My mom thinks she looks exactly like me.”

The vise squeezing his chest eased. “Then she must be beautiful.”

“She is.” Despite the obvious awkwardness of the subject, her eyes glowed with pride and happiness over her daughter.

Her pleasure was contagious, sparking a flame to life inside him. One he wanted to squelch and fan at the same time. But he’d come this far. He’d made love to her. If he turned back now, he’d never know what could be.

“Do you have a picture?”

She nodded. Reaching for her purse once more, she pulled out her phone and showed him the background photo. A beautiful girl with Lissa’s green eyes, black hair, and olive complexion stared back at him with her mother’s wide smile, squeezing something inside his chest.

“She’s gorgeous,” he said, his voice thick.

“Thanks. I think so, but I’m biased.” She closed her phone and slid it back into her bag.

“Lissa?”

“Hmm?” She looked up, a curious expression on her face.

“Do you remember what we argued about that last time?” he asked, bringing up the subject they’d been avoiding. The breakup that had led to the end.

Lissa’s eyes filled with tears and she turned away. “I remember you being in a foul mood and I was just so tired of it. I knew school was hard for you, what with football practice and games, and you working at the gas station when you had free time. Still, we had a fight and agreed to take a break.”

She wrapped her arms around herself and walked to the window. “Actually, I suggested the break, hoping you’d tell me I was crazy. Instead, you told me it was a good idea.”

Trevor closed his eyes, remembering that argument clearly. As usual, her ex-boyfriend Bradley Banks had gotten under Trevor’s skin. The captain of the football team and supposedly all-around good guy from the right side of the tracks, Banks was really a bastard beneath his moneyed looks. He’d always played on Trevor’s insecurities, doing things like deliberately spilling a drink, then laughing and telling the rest of the team that Trevor’s dad, who was the high school janitor, would clean up his mess.

“I’d bought you a necklace for your birthday.” He vividly recalled the gold-plated heart with rhinestones around the edge.

“I still have it, tucked away in the back of a drawer,” she admitted.

He’d wondered if she’d forgotten all about him over the years. Now he had his answer and his heart pounded harder in his chest.