Page 41 of Reluctant to Love

“How do you feel about what the mean lady said,” Roderick asks. It’s a risky move on his part.

“Good,” she replies. She finishes eating, wipes her hands with a napkin and looks at him. “You look like me.”

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m your dad,” he tells her.

She points to her heart. “I know you are, in here.”

I can’t stop the tears that begin streaming down my cheeks. I worried about telling her and she knew all along. She trusted her heart, which I need to do more often.

Roderick stands abruptly. “There’s something I need to show you,” he says to me.

He disappears and returns a few seconds later with a large manila envelope. “After Famke’s first threat, I had a long talk with my lawyer and my publisher. We’re going to recover the Tristan series.”

I frown. “But those are such beautiful covers.”

He slides the envelope across the table to me. “Just open that up.”

I lift it up the flap and reach inside, grasping the sheets firmly between my fingers. I tug them out and a single white sheet flutters out. Roderick scrambles out of his seat to pick it up off the floor. When I turn the pages, I gasp.

“Roderick,” I breathe out. “What did you do?”

“Giving credit where credit is due. You wrote the Tristan series with me and you deserve to have your names on the covers.”

“But I signed the NDA.”

He holds up the single sheet of paper that fell out and rips it in half. “Consider it null and void. I thought putting your name on the covers would get rid of Famke but then I realized it should have been there all along.”

The covers for the Tristan series are exactly the same with one exception. My name is now underneath Roderick’s. He reaches for my hand and when I look at him, the last of my walls begins to crumble.

He pushes up and when his lips brush against mine, I swear to God literal sparks fly. A surge of electricity courses through my body, illuminating all of my senses and obliterating the last of my defenses. I lean into him, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting my fingers thread through his hair. God, it feels so good to have everything out in the open, to be completely free to love him and to have him love me in return and to know he loves the daughter we created.

Our kiss ends when we’re interrupted by the sound of Izzy gagging.

“Is something wrong,” Roderick asks.

Her tongue is wagging, and her face is all scrunched up. “Gross,” she croaks.

“Get used to it kid.”