Page 14 of Dragon Daddy’s Second Chance (Mysteries of Dragon’s Island #5)
CHAPTER 13
***BLAKE***
B lake stumbled down the ladder and up the path toward his cabin, his head spinning. Theo’s image ran through his head over and over, making his breath catch in his throat. A few steps down the path, he was forced to stop and lean against a tree to keep from passing out, but he stood taking deep breaths, willing his brain to slow down, too. The shock finally began to fade away as the oxygen began to feed his body and the darkness that had been threatening subsided, leaving him standing there, not sure what to think.
Emotions tumbled through him one after another: panic that he was a father, anger that he hadn’t known, pride that he’d created such a handsome young man, and finally, a deep desire to get to know his son. He looked down the path, wondering if he should go back; running away had been the coward’s way out, but the anger surged to life above all the other emotions, and he knew that he wasn’t ready to see Wren. But he didn’t want to be alone. He needed to talk to someone about the dramatic turn his life had just taken, and headed to Max’s cabin, hoping his old friend would help him work through the mess in his mind.
Max opened the door only seconds after he knocked, dressed only in his pajama bottoms, a cup of coffee in his hand, an annoyed look on his face. “It’s awfully early,” he said, then saw the look on Blake’s face. “What’s wrong? You look like the world is about to come to an end.”
“I need to sit down,” he said, feeling his knees begin to buckle. “Did you know that Wren’s parents and her sister were coming to the island?”
“Of course, I arranged it yesterday afternoon. It was supposed to be a surprise,” Max said, swinging the door open. “You’d better come in before you fall down. What the hell is going on, Blake?”
“Did you know they were bringing a little boy with them?” he asked, sinking into a chair at the kitchen table. “He looks like he’s about five years old. His name is Theo.”
“Sure, Wren’s nephew, I guess,” Max said, setting a cup of coffee in front of him. “I still don’t see what the problem is.”
He could only stare at Max, the words he needed to say stuck in his throat, his brain not ready to accept the truth. “He’s not Wren’s nephew,” he finally said. “He’s her son.”
Max looked surprised for a second. “I guess I got that wrong,” he said, then shrugged his shoulders. “So, she’s got a kid. It’s not the end of the world; things happen.”
“He’s five years old, Max,” he said, then took a deep breath. “He looks just like me.”
Max’s eyes widened. “Do you mean…” his words died away.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” he said, then plunged on. “I think he’s mine. I think I’m Theo’s father. Wren has been trying to tell me something for two days, I think that was it. I think she was trying to tell me that I have a son.”
“Oh, that’s well…” Max sat down heavily in the chair ac ross from him. “Are you sure he’s yours? You could be wrong, you know.”
“I’m not wrong,” he said, shaking his head. “He looks just like I did when I was five; he’s mine, Max, and Wren never said a word; all this time, she kept him a secret from me.”
Max held up his hand. “Give me just a second to catch up. I haven’t had my coffee yet,” he said, then took a long sip. “Okay, so you’re the father of a five-year-old, and his mother never told you, but you’re in love with her, so maybe this isn’t so bad. It sounds like instant family to me.”
“You seem to have missed the part where she hid Theo from me and would have continued to if we hadn’t met again,” he said, anger surging through him. “He’s my son, I might have gone my entire life not knowing about him. I might have died alone, never knowing that he existed.”
“Don’t you think that you’re being a bit dramatic?” Max asked, sitting back in his chair. “I know that you’re mad, and I don’t blame you. I would be too, but I just want you to look past that and ask yourself why Wren didn’t tell you. I’m guessing she had a good reason.”
He took a deep breath, realizing that Max was right, pushed the anger away, and tried to look at things from Wren’s perspective, and it didn’t take long to figure out the answer. “My mother,” he said. “She ambushed Wren the day she disappeared. I didn’t know about her little visit until Wren told me the other day, that’s why she left me, my mother scared her off, she said some terrible things to her. I bet she had something to do with Wren not telling me.”
His anger began to build again when he thought about all his mother’s meddling had cost him, it was bad enough when it had just been the loss of the only woman he’d ever loved, but now he’d lost the first five years of his son’s life. He wanted to strike out at her right then, pick up the phone, and tell her exactly how he felt, but shut the anger away and focused on the little boy and woman on the other side of the island.
“I need to talk to Wren,” he finally said. “We have to straighten this out.”
Before he could get to his feet, there was a knock on the door. “I bet that’s her,” Max said, getting to his feet. “I still can’t believe that you’re a father. I feel sorry for that kid.”
“Very funny,” he said. “Are you going to get the door?”
***Wren***
Blake was standing with his back to the door, looking out the window, when Wren walked into the kitchen. She hesitated for just a second, bracing herself for his anger and rejection. When he turned around, there was a different emotion in his eyes, and she was instantly filled with an intense feeling of loss that made tears come to her eyes. The urge to rush over and comfort him was almost too strong to control, but she was painfully aware that she was the cause of his distress and didn’t move.
“I’m sorry, Blake,” she said, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. “I should have told you sooner, I just…”
“You mean like when you found out you were pregnant?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm, anger flashing in his eyes. “Or what about when he was born? Did you think of me then?”
“I’ve thought about you every day since I left,” she said, knowing that she deserved his anger, but feeling the pain of it anyway. “I did what I had to, Blake. You have to understand, I couldn’t lose Theo; he was my baby.”
Blake stared at her for a second, then his anger seemed to drain away. His shoulders relaxed a little, and he let out a long sigh. “Why would you have lost him?” he asked. “What did my mother say to you?”
“She told me that if I even thought about getting pregnant to trap you, she’d take the baby away from me,” she said, unable to stop the tears this time. “She said I’d be sorry if I didn’t leave you alone, that she could ruin my entire family with just a snap of her fingers. When I found out that I was pregnant a few weeks after you went home, I knew that I couldn’t tell you. I knew that she’d follow through with her threats.”
“Dammit, Wren, you should have known I would have never let that happen,” he said, shaking his head in frustration. “We were planning a life together. I was going to ask you to marry me, and a baby would have just made everything that much better.”
“But I didn’t know that back then,” she said. “You hid who you really were from me, Blake. I was just a kid, and I was scared. Your mother sounded so serious. My parents had already kicked me out. I was alone in the world. It wouldn’t have been hard for her to take the baby away from me.”
“So, it all comes back to my mother,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t know how to fix this, Wren, I don’t know where to go from here.”
She took a couple of steps toward him. “How about meeting your son?” she asked. “We can’t do anything to change the past, Blake, and I’m truly sorry that you had to find out the way you did. I should have told you sooner.”
He looked over at her. “Is it really that easy?” he asked. “It can’t be; it has to be more complicated.”
“We’re bonded, Blake. You said so yourself. I think that means you have to forgive me or something,” she said, taking a few steps toward him. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Blake, I promise there will never be any secrets between us again. I know now that I can trust you completely, I know you would never do anything to hurt me, and I believe in the love between us. Now you just have to decide if you do.”
It only took a heartbeat for him to open his arms to her and she slipped into them gratefully, sighing when he pulled her close. “You’re not completely to blame; I should have told you about my family and the money and everything,” he said. “Just promise me one thing. Tell me the next time you have my baby, I’d really like to be there.”
She looked up to find him grinning at her. “Blake, that’s not funny; I still feel so guilty,” she said. “I think it will be a while before I can joke about it.”
“It’s time to put it all behind us, Wren. We were both to blame, but it’s all over now; we’re together, and my son is waiting to meet me on the other side of the village,” he said. “I forgive you, Wren. I understand why you hid Theo from me.”
“Thank you, Blake, I think I needed to hear that,” she said, finally managing a smile. “I was so afraid you’d never be able to get past this, that you’d turn your back on me, and I’d never see you again.”
“I could never do that, sweetheart, you’re the other half of me,” he said. “Without you, I’m not complete, and I never will be. I love you, Wren, and I always will.”
“I love you too,” she said. “I’ve been miserable since we’ve been apart, I don’t ever want to live without you again.”
“That can be arranged,” he said, grinning down at her. “Now I’m going to kiss you to seal the deal and then you’re going to introduce me to my son.”
It was more than a single kiss, but they eventually made their way back to her cabin. “Wren, what have you told Theo about me?” Blake asked, pulling her to a stop at the bottom of the ladder. “He doesn’t think I’m a bad guy or something, does he?”
“When Theo asks about you, I tell him that you love him very much but can’t be with us,” she said. “I tell him stories about the summer we spent together, the fun we had fishing, the way you made me fall in love with you…”
Her voice trailed off all the years of pain and longing back for just an instant, but Blake put his arms around her chasing it away. “It’s over now, Wren,” he said. “We’re together now, and we’re going to stay that way; it will never be like that again, I promise.”
She looked up at him, the truth of his words clear in his eyes. “You’re right,” she said, stretching up to give him a kiss. “That’s the past; this is the future. Let’s go see what Theo is up to.”