Page 11 of Forever His (The Donovans: Secret Son #6)

Tia

Tia had a headache. Actually, this was day number two of the headache from hell.

Since the night she’d cried and told Trent about the doctor’s diagnosis, and cried some more, her head had been pounding.

Regardless of how many aspirin she swallowed the pain would not go away.

Of course, it didn’t help that she’d had to break up an almost fist fight between two men big enough to be professional wrestlers either.

Seeing Trent and Devlin in each other’s face yesterday was shocking and scary.

She’d met Devlin Bonner shortly after she and Trent had become lovers, when they discovered that Tia had a stalker.

After introductions Tia deduced that Devlin was a withdrawn soldier who lived a solitary life and wanted to keep it that way.

In the years that followed, as she’d watched him come to stand by Trent’s side when Trevor was born and then again when there was trouble at the family reunion on Sansonique island, she’d learned something different about him.

Devlin had a heart. He cared a great deal about Trent and the Donovan family.

He’d even developed a bond with Trevor and had easily become Trevor’s favorite uncle when, for his third birthday, Devlin bought her little boy his first remote control plane.

A toy that was bigger than Trevor had been at that age.

After Devlin left the house yesterday afternoon, Tia had asked Trent about the argument.

“He’s fucking my cousin!” Trent had yelled.

She’d cringed at not only his word choice, but the tone of his voice. Her throbbing temples were not in the mode for loudness, and banging that pool stick against the wall had probably pushed the pain to a whole new level.

“Hold on,” she’d told him. “Calm down and tell me exactly what was going on.”

Trent had gone over the basics—Devlin had a lead on what may have happened to Bailey.

Tia had been a little surprised that it involved Jaydon and not Roslyn directly.

She remembered Jaydon from one of Beverly and Alma’s charity events.

It had been the first time she’d met the woman who had been married to Parker at the time.

A year after that event Parker and Jaydon had divorced, but Jaydon continued to work as the director of Donovan Network Management.

Until last year when she’d quit just before they discovered that she’d been the one that killed Giovanni Morelli, a director for one of Parker’s television shows.

Savian had originally been accused of the murder, but Jaydon was the last person to see Giovanni alive and she’d left the man’s house in a truck driven and owned by Dane, the newest addition to the Donovan family.

Devlin wanted to follow-up on the lead on his own. Trent wanted to go with him. Devlin resisted, Trent—being Trent—grew suspicious and came to the conclusion that Devlin was sleeping with Bailey.

“You don’t have any proof of that,” she’d told him.

“His actions are all the proof I need,” Trent shot back.

Rubbing her temples Tia nodded. “Okay, so say they are lovers. What does that have to do with finding her? She’s your cousin and you said yourself you wanted to do anything necessary to get her back.”

Trent was still so angry that he’d sat down at his desk and as they were talking had pushed the desk blotter forward knocking over the pictures and desk caddy. Tia made no move to pick any of it up, but looked at him with worry instead.

“Bailey has no idea who he really is. None of you do,” Trent had said.

“He’s the guy that’s come running every time you’ve called him. He’s the one that stood watch outside of your family vacation home in the middle of a hurricane to keep a convicted killer from attacking us. He’s the one who taught our son how to swim,” she’d told him.

Trent had looked up at her then, his gaze piercing as he’d said without hesitation, “He’s a killer, Tia and I don’t mean just the targets we had on our missions.

” After that, he lifted his arms and rubbed his hands down the back of his head.

“Forget I said that,” he continued and knelt down to pick up the picture frames.

That had officially been the end of the conversation. Trent refused to speak about it anymore and Tia had grown weary of asking.

This morning when she’d awakened to get Trevor ready for school, they were already gone.

Trent left her a note in the kitchen telling her that he was taking Trevor to school and picking him up afterward, that he and his son needed some “male time”.

She’d smiled at the note because Trent was such a good father to Trevor, the two of them had “male time” several times a month.

Trevor loved it and Trent adored his little boy.

Her husband had grown so much since Tia had first met him.

He was still a soldier at heart, but Trent had been surprisingly easy to domesticate and for the last six years Tia had believed he was happy with their family set-up.

Watching him with Devlin yesterday made her wonder though.

Was Trent’s real issue with Devlin the fact that Devlin was still working in the field, doing all the things that Trent was used to doing for himself?

She still had no idea what Trent meant by calling Devlin a killer.

She knew that they’d both taken human lives before, but she refused to believe that Devlin may have done so out of malice instead of duty.

Not the guy that adored her son, no, that just wasn’t the Devlin she knew.

Tia had spent the day running errands and was now enjoying a late lunch with Dana, Camille’s business partner and best friend.

Tia and Dana had bonded in the years that Tia had been modeling exclusively for CK Davis Designs.

As friends went, Tia only had Dana and her sisters-in-law which was saying something since from childhood to the moment she met the Donovan family, she had no close friends at all.

“You’re gonna be able to do so much with this lingerie line,” Dana was saying after they’d finished the biggest salads Tia had ever seen.

It had been delicious, one of her favorite salads with grilled chicken pieces, creamy avocado slices, eggs and crispy bacon. She was feeling full but still had that nagging headache. She’d just taken two more aspirin and a big gulp of the water she’d been drinking.

“I hope so,” she replied to Dana as she set her glass down. “Modeling won’t last forever.”

Dana waved away Tia’s comment, the many bangles she wore clinking on her arm with the motion. “Please, you’re still gorgeous. You have plenty of picture-taking years ahead of you.”

“Picture-taking, but not runway walking,” Tia informed her. “Look at this salad I just ate. Even with all the lettuce and avocado, the bacon and the dressing I drowned it in added at least another three hundred calories.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Dana told her. “We have a full figured line, remember?”

Tia nodded because she did remember. CK Davis Designs was a woman’s complete fashion house. There were couture designs from sizes 000 to 38. In addition there were the more casual designs, bathing suits and now, Tia’s pet project, lingerie.

“So in other words, I can gain all the weight I want and you won’t fire me?” she jokingly asked.

Dana finished the glass of wine she’d had with her salad and shrugged her shoulders. “Pretty much.”

Tia laughed.

“I mean, look, the reality is that women do not stay the same size their entire life. Not normal women anyway. Of course, you can spend a couple hours a day in a gym with a trainer, drink water and eat air, to stay thin. But you’re bound to be grumpy as hell on that regimen.

Makes more sense to me to be healthy and happy.

I flip-flop between a size 12 and 14, but I’m wearing this Fitbit like it’s a life alert bracelet and drinking so much water that I could probably float my way to work each day.

And, I’m about to order another glass of wine and drink it happily,” Dana told her.

“Yeah, it’s all about happiness,” Tia said running her fingers over the soft white tablecloth.

“Oh boy, what’s that look about?”

“What look?”

“The one you’re wearing now. Are you and Trent okay?”

Tia stopped moving her fingers, pulling her hands down to sit in her lap. “Why would you immediately ask that question? Just because I have a look.”

“Girl, I’ve been around you and Camille and other married women long enough to know that when you have a look, it generally relates to your husband. So just go ahead and tell me about it,” Dana said as she signaled for the waitress to bring her another glass of wine.

“It’s nothing like that,” Tia stated and then huffed out a breath. “I mean, nothing like marital problems or anything, just a situation that’s causing a little stress.”

Dana nodded. “Okay, well you guys have been together for about six years now, you have an adorable son, great careers. You’re getting close to the seven-year itch.”

“That’s a myth,” Tia countered. “Anyway, like I said it’s not about our relationship. It’s just that…well, I want to have another baby and I’m not sure that Trent agrees.”

The waitress showed up with the wine and Dana took a quick swallow.

“Okay, that’s serious,” she stated. “Why do you think he doesn’t want a baby? Did he stop having sex with you?”

“No,” Tia replied quickly. “I think it would take more than that to tame Trent’s sexual desires.

” Now, really, Tia did not want to talk about her sex life.

She did however, need another opinion on this situation.

She figured she’d gotten two opinions on her medical situation, why not have as many with the baby problem.

So she told Dana about the diagnosis and her decision to have another baby first and then deal with the tumors. Dana finished off her glass of wine and sat back in the chair.

“Wow,” she said and after a few moments again, “Wow.”

“Thanks for the advice. How much do I owe you?” Tia replied glibly.