Against All Odds

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Authors: Irene Hannon
Tags: thriller, Suspense, Romance, Contemporary, Mystery
were always awkward. My father may be a great diplomat, but he had no idea how to relate to his own child. Or his wife. He’s a very emotionally enclosed guy. The kind of person who never lets anyone get close.”
    That description fit his own father to a T, Coop reflected. But there’d been a valid reason for his dad’s withdrawal. Not that it was any consolation to a child suddenly bereft of a mother and in desperate need of love and nurturing. All Coop had understood was that joy and warmth had disappeared overnight from his life.
    “What are you thinking?”
    At the prompt from Monica, Coop wiped all expression from his face. He had a feeling she was again seeing more than he intended to reveal. “Why do you ask?”
    “You were far away for a minute. In a place that wasn’t very happy.”
    He shifted in his chair, beginning to regret he’d opened this whole can of worms. Her intuitive ability was unsettling. “I suppose we all have some memories from our childhood that wouldn’t be suitable material for a Norman Rockwell painting. My dad wasn’t the most demonstrative guy, either.”
    “But he didn’t walk out on you.”
    “No.”
    The conversation lagged. Coop took another sip of his cooling coffee, listening as Mark shut off the shower. He’d gotten the information he wanted. And he better understood Monica’s bitterness. Though years had passed, the hurt and betrayal she’d felt when her father chose career over family remained. And it was possible she nursed a sense of guilt, believing the marriage had been sacrificed to give her a more stable childhood. That was a boatload of emotion to haul around for twenty-plus years.
    But if the exchange had given him insights into Monica, it had also opened his eyes to a few things about himself. Monica’s description of David Callahan as emotionally enclosed and unwilling to let anyone get close not only fit his own father, it fit him too. And he wasn’t sure he liked being put in the same category as those two men.
    “You know, I was lucky in a way.”
    Monica’s unexpected comment deflected the disturbing direction of Coop’s thoughts, and he latched on to it. “How so?”
    “My mom countered my dad’s rejection as best she could. She gave me absolute love and did everything she could to bolster my self-esteem. Plus, she helped me establish a firm foundation of faith. No matter what happens, or how other people treat us, I came to believe we’re always loved by God unconditionally. And that we’re called to follow his example.”
    Unconditional love. An appealing—if unrealistic—concept, Coop reflected.
    “What about forgiveness? Isn’t that part of love? Doesn’t your faith call you to that too?” It was time to bring the conversation full circle, he decided.
    “Yes.” She rested her chin in her hand and shook her head. “But I struggle with it. My father has never even tried to apologize.”
    “Is that a condition for forgiveness?”
    “No.” She stared into the dark depths of her half-empty mug. “But I got burned once by forgiving someone I cared about. It was a hard lesson—and not easy to forget.”
    “A man?”
    The question hung for a moment between them.
    “Sorry.” Coop felt heat surge on his neck. It was one thing to ask about her relationship with her father. That was personal but relevant to the job he’d been sent to do. This wasn’t. “None of my business.”
    She regarded him for a few moments, her expression unreadable. “As a matter of fact, no. It was a childhood friend.”
    He didn’t try to figure out why he was relieved by her response.
    “You know, I feel at a distinct disadvantage here.” Monica sat back in her chair, watching him. “You read all about me in that dossier they gave you. And I’ve spent the past fifteen minutes spilling my guts about my past. It seems only fair that the man I’m entrusting my life to would share a little of his own background.”
    While the comment had been made

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