Page 39 of The Summer We Made Promises (The Destin Diaries #3)

O f course she ran away. Of course .

When the going gets tough, Tessa takes off.

She could hear her father’s voice in her head, louder than the engine, louder than the truth, louder than the heartbeat she couldn’t calm down.

Well, what was she supposed to do? Throw her arms around the guy? Act like it was no big deal? Stand there and giggle like a fool?

She was a fool, all right. A blind, dumb, clueless fool.

With a noisy groan of agony, she kicked up the throttle and let the waves slap at the boat. Out of the harbor now, the Gulf stretched out before her, glittering and vast, a wide open body of nothingness where she could run, hide, and figure out what to do next.

Good Time Girl sliced through the water like she had something to prove, leaving a rooster trail of white foam for a wake. The wind tangled in Tessa’s hair, salty and hot on her tear-streaked cheeks. Her hands trembled against the wheel.

She wasn’t sure if she was shaking from adrenaline or hurt or shock or…what.

Roman was her son. Her son . How could she have missed that?

Because she never in a million years imagined Lacey would betray her trust and find him . Not to mention cooking up some scam about being boyfriend and girlfriend so he could spy on Tessa and decide if he liked her sufficiently to acknowledge their blood relationship.

Well, geez. It took him long enough to make the decision.

But what was another month after twenty-five years?

For two and a half decades, she had carried the weight of her decision—the one she finalized and stuck with in a hospital room, surrounded by people with gentle voices and kind, professional smiles who assured her this was the best thing.

She barely got to hold him. Only kissed his forehead a few times and never gave him a name.

With Dad at her side, she’d signed papers with shaky hands and cried afterward. Then he’d taken her home and promised he’d keep her secret until the day he died. And she’d never told another living soul until…Lacey.

Then, bam. Smacked in the face with betrayal. He was not only her son—he was an accomplice in that betrayal. He’d lied to her. They both had.

Was it no wonder that Tessa Wylie trusted no one on this planet? She was lied to by her own flesh and blood.

She swiped her cheeks with the back of her wrist and tried to pull herself together. But it was no use.

A sob broke loose from her chest, raw and unrelenting. The wind caught it, and still she kept going, kept sobbing, heading nowhere at all, slicing through the open sea on a beautiful boat as she suddenly felt like she’d lost all control.

Tessa slowed the boat, finally cutting the engine. The silence was louder than the motor ever had been. She was far enough out now that Destin’s coast was a shadow, far out to nothing but water and sky and pain.

She dropped to the seat behind the console, buried her face in her hands, and let herself fall apart. She surrendered to the kind of crying she hadn’t done in years—big, guttural, soul-twisting tears that made her chest ache and her heart feel like it had been crushed in a vise.

She wasn’t just crying over the betrayal. She was crying for the baby she gave up. For the mother she never got to be. For all the birthdays she missed and the scraped knees she never kissed. For the lullabies she never sang. And, apparently, the football she’d never watched him play.

Surrounded by nothing but water, sun, and air, she finally dried her eyes and let the wild fury subside as the sun worked its way across the sky.

She’d be okay. It would all be okay…at some point.

Right now, she just had to be completely alone. Closing her eyes, she slowed her breaths, feeling her body settle into the rocking of the boat. It took her away, far away, to fishing days with Dad and even further back to laying in a hammock with Kate.

Kate . How would she take this news?

She moaned at the thought and started to sit up just as she heard the distant hum of a boat engine. Blinking against the light, she looked around, spying a small boat speeding toward her—familiar, blue-trimmed, one of the marina’s older fishing vessels. Was that Seamus’s boat?

It was, but Seamus wasn’t at the wheel.

Roman was flying along, standing behind the center console, all muscle and brawn and wind-whipped golden hair like a god skimming the seas to make a mythical rescue.

Tessa froze.

Her breath caught as he slowed down and coasted up beside her, calm and careful. He tossed an anchor, then grabbed the bow railing and pulled himself aboard with practiced ease. Tall, sure-footed, he moved with the quiet confidence of someone who had her father’s blood in his veins.

“I did not give you permission to come aboard,” she said.

“Or break your heart.” He took a step closer and she shot her hand in the air.

“Don’t,” she said, standing from the seat. “Don’t come near me.”

“Tessa, please. You have to give me a chance to say my piece.”

“You had a chance. Weeks of a chance. Why didn’t you tell me?”

He huffed out a sigh. “I’m not even sure anymore, but I’d love a do-over.”

Tessa wrapped her arms around herself. “Because you’ve been caught? No do-overs in life, Roman. Consider that your first—and last—lesson from…your mother.”

He looked hard at her, with genuine hurt in his eyes.

He was hurt? That was rich.

Still, she couldn’t look away. Couldn’t stop seeing what had been in front of her for a month. He was clearly, obviously, unquestionably hers . How could she have been so blind?

Because a person didn’t see what they weren’t expecting—and she hadn’t expected Lacey to break her promise with such ease and alacrity.

“I never wanted to lie to you,” he said. “I just…I just wanted to get to know you. And once I did, I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t want to show up out of nowhere and say, ‘Hey, I’m the baby you gave away.’ Even more than that, I felt strongly that I needed to talk to my parents first.”

Tessa’s throat ached. “Did you?”

“Yes. Yesterday, when I went back home. And the first thing—the very first thing I wanted to do was tell you next. That’s why Lacey and I rushed over here. Seamus just…beat us to it.”

She grunted in disbelief. Was he telling the truth? Was anyone?

“I don’t know what to say,” she rasped. “Except get off my boat and leave me alone.”

“Not until you listen to me.” At her withering look, he sighed. “Please. Please, Tessa.”

When she didn’t answer, he moved slowly toward her, then stopped on the other side of the helm, a foot or so away.

“First, don’t be mad at Lacey.”

“I’ll be mad at who I want to be mad at,” she fired back. “And I’m furious at both of you. I told her in confidence.”

“And she found me out of love.”

She snorted. “Funny way of showing it.”

“When she reached out to me,” he continued, apparently choosing to ignore her sarcasm, “I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t meet you.

I had to. I was curious, yes, but it was more than that and you can ask Lacey.

I’ve always felt a connection to you. I wondered about you, and knew …

you’d made a difficult decision. I wanted to know you and I wanted you to know what a great choice you made. ”

She just stared at him, the tremors finally fading and leaving behind…a cocktail of emotions that was making her dizzy.

“I had no idea what I’d find, even after Lacey told me I was… What did she say? A carbon copy of you, only the twenty-five-year-old male version.”

She looked away, blinking back more tears, not quite ready to unpack all that. “How did she find you? I couldn’t.”

“You looked?” he asked.

“One time…” She shook her head. “I didn’t try that hard, to be honest.”

“Lacey called the hospital where I was born and had just enough information to get a name.”

Tessa closed her eyes, remembering the litany of facts she’d spewed that afternoon in a bistro in Miramar Beach. Date, time, weight, length, and the name of the hospital. “That was enough to find you?”

“Not if I’d been just a normal guy, but she got a last name and I had my picture in the paper and she…”

“She figured it out.” Well, fair enough. He did look a lot like Tessa even though that thought had never even crossed her mind these past few weeks.

“But the rest is on me, Tessa. I cooked up the idea to meet you as her boyfriend. I talked her into that. Don’t be mad at her, please. She loves you so much.”

His concern for Lacey softened her a bit, and his willingness to take the blame was noble.

Not forgivable, but noble.

“Lacey sent me a message on Instagram and I agreed to meet her instantly because I’ve always wondered about you.”

“Did you ask your parents? I think they would have known my name.”

“No,” he said. “I had a great childhood and didn’t want them to feel I had a burning need to know my biological parents.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the word—it was her turn to tell the truth. Ugly and shameful as it might be, it had to be told.

“Parent,” she said softly, the admission churning her stomach.

“Don’t ask about the other half of your gene pool because…

it wasn’t a relationship as much as a…” She wanted to say “mistake” but how could she?

Nothing about this specimen of humanity standing in front of her was a mistake .

“Fling,” she finished, knowing it sounded lame.

She braced for the inevitable look of judgment or disappointment or even disgust. But there was nothing. He just regarded her with some hope in his eyes, and an obviously open heart.

And in that instant, something inside her shifted. The pain eased slightly, and the shame lifted.

Not completely—she would always cringe at what she’d done with a virtual stranger one night on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. It would always be hard for her to admit—so much so that she’d chosen not to tell anyone, especially Kate and her mother.

“I don’t care about that, Tessa,” he said gently. “I’m not judging you. I’m just really grateful that you gave me to my parents.”