His Long-Lost Family

“She looks like you,” he said dismissively.

And though it was undeniably true, there was something about the girl that had—even at a first glance—nagged at him. “If that’s all you saw, maybe that’s all anyone else will see,” she said.

“So you’re just going to walk away?”

“I told you, Jacks—I thought you had a right to know. But I have no desire to force you into a role you don’t want to fill.”

“You can’t blame me for being suspicious,” he said. “It’s my job to ask the tough questions.”

“And you’ve obviously done well enough at your job to get your name on the door,” she noted. “Or was that a wedding present?”

His gaze narrowed. “I don’t remember you having a nasty streak.”

“We spent three days together more than thirteen years ago—there were a lot of things you didn’t know, never mind remember.”

And then she yanked open the door and walked out.

Jack met with Donald Winter, but he cancelled the rest of his afternoon appointments after that. Actually, he told Colleen to cancel his appointments on account of a family emergency—a request that had her jaw falling open. Because Jack Garrett never cancelled appointments for any kind of personal reasons, because nothing had ever mattered more to him than his career. But right now, he couldn’t focus on anyone else’s legal problems. He couldn’t think at all with Kelly’s words still ringing in his ears.

She’s your daughter.

He still had trouble believing it could be true. And yet, as much as he wanted to continue to deny even the possibility, deep in his heart he knew Kelly wouldn’t lie about something so monumental. Nor would she have made the claim unless she was one-hundred-percent convinced that it was true.

Which meant—Lord help him!—that he was the father of Kelly’s daughter. He had a daughter. And not a chubbycheeked infant or even a wide-eyed toddler but a twelve-year-old. For God’s sake, the kid was practically a teenager!

And to Jack’s mind, that was definitely a family emergency.

When he left the office, he did so without any kind of plan. He only knew that he needed some time and space, so he got into his car and drove. Since the death of his parents, family had been himself and his two brothers. Now that Matt was married to Georgia, that family had grown to include his new sister-in-law and her three children. And considering that Luke was a lot like Matt with respect to his ideals about hearth and home, Jack figured his younger brother would also hook up with one woman and have a family of his own someday.

But that wasn’t Jack’s future. When his marriage ended, he figured any chance of someday having a family had ended with it. And truthfully, he hadn’t been too disappointed. The whole wife-and-kids thing had never been his life’s ambition. But now it seemed he had a kid, whether he wanted one or not. And right now, he was leaning in the direction of “not.” He wasn’t proud to admit it, and he knew it wasn’t what Kelly wanted to hear, but it was true. He was thirty-seven years old, content with his life. Adding a child to the mix now would turn everything upside down.

Not that it was his choice to make. The fact of Ava’s paternity wasn’t something that could be debated. A test would either prove that he was her father or—dammit, he knew there wasn’t any “or.” In his gut, he knew that Kelly was telling the truth. The fact that she hadn’t faltered or flinched when he’d demanded proof of paternity convinced him that she had absolutely no doubt that he was the father of her child. Which meant that he had to accept not just the possibility but the probability that her twelve-year-old daughter was also his daughter.

He knew his responsibilities, at least in so far as the law was concerned. Despite Kelly’s claim that she didn’t want financial support, he understood that a father had a legal obligation to contribute toward his child’s maintenance—to ensure that she had food, clothing and shelter. And he would do so.

It was his rights more than his responsibilities that gave him pause. He was more than willing to write checks, but did he want to play any more of a role in the child’s life beyond that?

His practice in the field of family law had demonstrated to him time and time again that some people instinctively knew what it took to be good parents, and some people didn’t. And he’d often wished that those who didn’t would realize it before they made the mistake of procreating.

His brother, Matt, had always wanted to be a father, and when his girlfriend of only a few weeks told him she was pregnant, he hadn’t hesitated to marry her. He’d been a doting husband, catering to Lindsay’s every want and need—and thrilled beyond belief when Liam was born. Three years later, Lindsay admitted that Liam wasn’t really Matt’s son, that she’d already been pregnant when she seduced him. She’d chosen Matt because she knew he would want to be a father to her child, but once Liam’s real father was back in the picture, she wanted to be with him. Considering his brother’s experience, was it any wonder Jack was skeptical of Kelly’s claim?

Not that the experience had sidetracked Matt from his ultimate goal of having a family of his own. Not for too long anyway. Once he got over Lindsay’s betrayal and the loss of his son, he’d jumped with both feet into a relationship with his beautiful neighbor—a widow with three kids. In fact, Jack had stood up for Matt at his wedding to Georgia only a few weeks earlier, and though Shane and Quinn and Pippa weren’t Matt’s biological children, Jack knew his brother couldn’t love those kids any more if they were.

Which only proved to Jack how different he was from his brother. When faced with the news that he was a father, he didn’t feel the least bit paternal, just panicked. After his divorce, he’d accepted that fatherhood wasn’t in the cards for him and moved on. And he’d felt no twinges of loss or regret. In fact, he’d been grateful that he and Sara hadn’t had any children to fight over during the divorce. Not that they’d fought over much of anything. By the time she’d filed for divorce, it was obvious to both of them that whatever passion they’d once shared had long since burned out. Neither of them cared enough to take issue over anything.

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