Pure Seduction by Frank, Ella (first ebook reader .txt) 📕

and once I had it in my GPS, I thanked her and ended the call.

Willow Lane… That sounded familiar, but, not quite able to pinpoint it, I followed the directions. I arrived around fifteen minutes later, and as I made my way down the street, it finally hit me.

The old craftsman. The house at the end of the street. The one that Laurel had always said she’d one day own. I pulled up outside the front of it, and memories of our afternoons down here under the oak trees flooded back in.

Sweet kisses and study time, and days spent in the warm summer sun, as the two of us dreamed of a future that was never meant to be…

Jesus, she lived here?

My chest tightened, and that familiar ache over what could’ve been returned, as I scanned the familiar surroundings and shoved open my car door. The place looked much the same with its wraparound porch and two stories. It’d had had a paint job and several repairs since I’d last seen it, but other than that, it bore a striking resemblance to the picture in my mind.

Not about to get sidetracked, though, I headed for the front door, determined to get to the bottom of the questions plaguing me. I walked up the couple steps to the porch and noticed a pair of men’s boots and sneakers by the mat, along with what I assumed were Laurel’s Converse. It was weird to see, and I was once again hit with the cold, hard fact that Laurel was a mother.

I raised my hand, just about to knock, when the front door was pulled open and I found myself face to face with the boy—or man—who owned that set of boots.

Seemingly as shocked by my appearance as I was by his, the guy blinked a couple of times and just stood there. He was as tall as I was, with hair the color of Laurel’s, and as he looked me over, the blood began to rush around my head, because the eyes that finally locked with mine were identical to the ones that I’d looked at in the mirror this morning.

“Hi,” he said, and I knew I needed to pull my shit together, and fast, or risk looking like a total fucking weirdo.

“Hi. I’m looking for—”

“My mom?”

Something about the way he said that was both judgmental and protective.

“Uh, yeah. I know it’s early, but I thought I’d catch her before work.”

He eyed me closely, then crossed his arms over his chest. Protective was the exact right word. With that one simple move, he was telling me loud and clear that to get to her, I had to go through him.

“She’s not here.”

“Oh.” Well, shit. Where the hell had she gone? It was too early for her to have gone to work, and—

“Do you want to come in? I can text her.”

And warn her I was there? I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea.

“She left to try to find you this morning. She’ll want to talk to you.”

Before I could even register that he knew who I was, the kid turned and walked off into the house, leaving me to make the decision on my own.

Stay or go…

I looked over my shoulder at my car and knew that was the easy way out of all of this. Just get in my car and leave. Hell, if I really wanted to, I could drive straight to the airport and be on a plane by noon. But when I looked to the open door in front of me, I knew I’d forever wonder what would’ve happened if I’d decided to walk through it.

With my decision made, I stepped inside the house and quietly closed the door behind me. As I moved out of the foyer and into the living room, I spotted the couches with pillows and throws facing a fireplace and TV, and had to hand it to Laurel. She’d created a home that felt like a warm embrace the second you stepped inside.

“I was making breakfast. Are you hungry?”

I quickly turned, feeling as though I was doing something I shouldn’t, and then I realized I hadn’t actually introduced myself yet.

Yeah, the guy knew who I was, that much was clear. But we were still circling each other with no names or formal introduction.

Trying to act like the adult in the house, I stepped forward and held my hand out. “I’m Noah, by the way.”

He looked at my hand and then reached out and took it. “I know who you are. I’m Jake.”

When we let go, we slipped our hands into our pockets at the same time and froze, and that rush of blood and ringing in my ears started up again.

Shit. Holy fucking shit. Ryan’s right. But that means—

“So you want some breakfast?”

I blinked several times and could feel my heart pounding a million miles an hour. Fuck, at this rate I might just have a heart attack.

How could this be happening? How could it be…real?

“The kitchen’s this way,” Jake said, and then walked off down the hall, and as I watched him go, I could barely wrap my head around what I was finally realizing.

Laurel had a son, and so, apparently, did I.

33

Laurel

I DRUMMED MY fingers against the steering wheel as I stared at the front door of Wilhelmina’s, and for the first time ever I was nervous to go inside. I’d been thinking about this all night, ever since Jake and I returned home. But as I sat here now running through all of the things I wanted to say, I wondered if any of them were enough.

How did you tell a man that seventeen years ago you had his son but then made a deal where you couldn’t tell him about it? It was an impossible conversation. There were no words. None that would soften the blow, anyway.

I closed my eyes and thought of the conversation I’d had yesterday with Jake. He’d been pretty quiet when we