Free Breaking Hearts by Melissa Shirley Page A

need to talk.”
    I took a minute to contemplate the wisdom in that. I’d already leaped up to my eyeballs in this drama. What did I have to lose by going all in? “I rented a cabin for tonight. We can talk there while he takes a nap.”
    After ironing out a time to meet, I took Kieran to the car. My heart beat a thousand angry thumps a minute and my mouth dehydrated. I would just tell him the truth and let him be on his way. No harm done. Why I hadn’t corrected him from the first moment he started calculating time in his mind, I couldn’t imagine, but I promised myself to take care of it first thing when he arrived. I’d learned my lesson about keeping secrets, about letting men think they fathered Kieran. I put Kieran down for his nap and went out to pace the front porch while I waited for Sean to arrive. Leaning back against a post, I closed my eyes.
    The night we met, he’d hired a limousine. Now, he pulled up in a shiny black Porsche that purred through gleaming silver pipes as it idled before he shut it down. He climbed out of the car, larger and more handsome than I remembered. His hair glinted golden brown with little shots of blonde, which meant he either worshiped the sun, or paid pretty good money for natural-looking highlights. His eyes stormed gray with little sparks of blue--a combination that reminded me of cool summer nights at the lake…with Simon… Simon who hadn’t called…hadn’t had anyone call on his behalf. I cleared my head and aimed a smile at the man approaching.
    He took a seat next to me on the front steps. “I don’t want my son to grow up in a single parent household.”
    I opened my mouth to spill the truth. “Sean, he’s--”
    “I think we should get married. Tonight.”
    “M-mar-married?” My mouth dropped open and any thought not revolving around white dresses and flower bouquets flew from my mind.
    He grinned. “You know. Two people joining their lives together until death do they part.”
    “I’m familiar with the concept.” I hadn’t meant to snap the words. “What if he isn’t yours?”
    “Are you in the habit of screwing random strangers?”
    “Are you?” I didn’t usually taunt people, but marriage? Really? Our relationship consisted of two five minute conversations, three tequila shooters, and a quickie in a car. Marriage seemed a little over-the-top.
    “Is he mine?” He glanced over, leaned forward, and clasped his hands in front of him.
    I kicked at a rock trying to formulate an answer to explain my behavior away.
    His voice lowered to a desperate whisper. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I think destiny gives us certain chances in life, and you being here, in this place, on the two weekends I have ever been in Arizona in my life is destiny trying to tell me something. I would be a fool to let a family slip away from me when it’s all I have ever wanted.” He shook his head and took my hands in his, turning his body to face me. “I have a nice life, but without a family, none of it means anything. I’m lonely and fate is giving me this chance with you, with him.” He jerked his thumb toward the door of the cabin. “I don’t want to waste an opportunity I might never get again.”
    I should have asked him why he thought he would never get another chance at a family, or about his career, or even what kind of nut-job asks a girl he screwed in the back of a car and never saw again to marry him. But I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell. The next day, off to Vegas we went. Within a few hours of our arrival, we became Mr. and Mrs. Sean Turner.
     

Chapter 10
     
    I thought of Simon every day and no matter how wonderful my life appeared, a part of me was back in Storybook Lake--the part that truly lived and loved. My mother kept me informed of his condition and the remarkable speed with which he continued to recover. For me, that had to be enough.
    Sean and I settled in California, where he owned a night club and a house situated high on a cliff