Page 77 of Her Fantasy Husband

“Well, do. It must have been Evelyn who employed your friend. She’d promised her parents she’d wait until she was eighteen, and then she did it on her birthday.”

He rubbed a hand around the back of his neck, trying to take it all in.

“Josh?”

“Yeah. I’m just…” He shook his head. “She wants to see me? Really?”

“She’s on her way here now.”

“What? Shit.” Christ, he smelled like he’d been on an all-night bender, and he was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. He hadn’t shaved or showered or…Jesus.

“It will be okay, Josh. She’s never forgotten you.”

He stood in the middle of the street, panic and hope and a thousand memories battling inside him. “I’m on my way.”

A yellow Mini was parked in the drive. The sight stopped him in his tracks. She was here. He scrubbed a hand over the rough skin of his jaw as he came to a halt.

He could do this.

Lexi opened the door as he climbed the steps. “She’s here, Josh, and she’s lovely, and she looks exactly like you.” She held the door open for him, but stepped past as he entered.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“I thought I’d let you two have some time together. And…”

“And…?”

“Well, it seems to be a day for sorting out family stuff. I thought I’d go sort out my own.”

“You’re going to see your grandmother?”

“Yes. Wish me luck.”

“You want me to come? I mean, after I talk to my sister?”

“No, it’s something I have to do alone.”

He nodded. He could understand that. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will.” At the last minute she rested a hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. “You’re a good man. She knows that.”

He found her in the kitchen, bending down stroking one of the dogs. He paused in the doorway to watch her. She was recognizable from the thirteen-year-old he had seen five years ago, but all grown up. A beautiful young woman, with long sun-kissed blond hair. She straightened and turned, then stared at him with dark blue eyes so like his own.

For a minute they studied each other. She was tall and slender, but he could make out the lingering remnants of the child she’d been, and something twisted inside him.

“Josh?”

He gave a nod.

She took a step toward him, reached out, and touched his cheek. “I remember you.”

“You do?”

“Of course.” She bit her lip. “Are you okay with me being here? My parents told me I had to be prepared for the fact that maybe you wouldn’t want to see me. Wouldn’t care.”

“I care.”

“I told them you would. I remember how you looked after me, but I worried that you might have forgotten.”