A Little Dare - Brenda Jackson [22]
She shook her head. Shelly hated lying to AJ although she knew it was for a good reason. She had to remember that. “Whoa. Don’t include me in this, AJ. It’s strictly your decision not to let Dare know about you, it isn’t mine. I’m already in hot water for not having told him that you exist at all. But I’ll keep my word and not tell him anything if that’s the way you want it.”
“Yes, that’s the way I want it,” AJ said, not hiding the relief on his face.
His lips were quivering, and Shelly knew he was fighting hard to keep his tears at bay. Right now he was feeling torn. A part of him wanted to be elated that his father did exist, but another part refused to accept the man who he’d discovered his father was, all because of that Westmoreland pride and stubbornness.
Shelly shook her head when she felt tears in the back of her own eyes. Dare’s mission to win his son’s love would not be easy.
Later that night, after AJ had gone to bed Shelly received a phone call from Dare.
“Did you tell him?”
She leaned against her kitchen sink. “Yes, I told him.”
There was a pause. “And how did he take it?”
Shelly released a deep sigh. “Just as we expected. He doesn’t want you to know that he’s your son.” When Dare didn’t respond, she said. “Don’t take it personally, Dare. I think he’s more confused than anything right now. Tonight I discovered why he had stopped asking me about you.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t really believe you existed, at least not the way I’d told him. It seems that a friend of his had shared with him the fact that his mother had told him his father had died in a car accident when he was a baby, and then he’d discovered that his father was alive and well and living somewhere with another family. So AJ assumed what I had told him about you wasn’t true and that I really didn’t know how to contact you if he ever asked me to. And since he never wanted to place me in a position that showed me up as a liar, he just never bothered.”
Again she released a sigh as she fought back the tears that threaten to fall. “And to think that he probably did want to know you all this time but refrained from asking to save me embarrassment in being caught in a lie.”
A sob caught in her throat as she blinked back a tear. “Oh, Dare I feel so bad for him, and what he’s going through is all my fault. I thought I was making all the right decisions for all the right reasons and now it seems I caused more harm than good.”
Dare lay in bed, his entire body tense. He could no longer hold back the anger he felt for Shelly, even knowing he had made a couple of mistakes himself in handling things ten years ago. Had he not chosen a career over her then, things would have worked out a whole lot differently. So, in reality, he was just as much to blame as Shelly, but together they had a chance to make things work to save their son.
“Things are going to work out in the end, Shell, you’ll see. You’ve done your part tonight, now let me handle things from here. It might take months, but in the end I believe that AJ will accept me as his father. In my heart I believe that one day he’ll want me to know the truth.”
Shelly nodded, hearing the confidence in Dare’s voice and hoping he was right. “So now we move to the second phase of your plan?”
“Now we move to the second phase of our plan.”
The next morning, after AJ had left for school, a gentle knock on the door alerted Shelly that she had a visitor. Today was her day off and she had spent the last half hour or so on the computer paying her bills on-line, and was just about to walk into the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
Crossing the living room she glanced out of the peephole. Her breath caught. Dare was standing on her porch, and his tall, muscular frame was silhouetted by the mid-morning sunlight that was shining brightly behind him. He looked gorgeous; his uniform, which showcased his solid chest, firm stomach and strong flanks, made him look even more so.
She shivered as everything about her that was woman jolted upward