I woke up to an empty bed. Not that I expected him to be there. After two more long sex sessions I finally fell asleep, knowing that there was a good chance Luke would not be there in the morning. I had been right. He must have escaped while I slept hard, where I didn’t know. There was no note on his pillow, though the indention of his head was still outlined there and I could still smell him on my skin, and the bite marks on some tender areas were not an illusion. Nor was the soreness between my thighs.

With a sigh, I threw back the covers and grabbed a loose top and some leggings from my drawers, throwing them on while stretching my jaw. It was still pretty tender from the night before, the only reminder that I had been kidnapped and nearly killed over something I hadn’t even known about until a few hours ago. In the bathroom I winced at the sight of my face, the dark-purple bruise clearly evident on my jaw. Well, I couldn’t go to work like that… no amount of concealer would cover that bad boy. Hell, I looked like I was an underground fighter! With a grumble, I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cell phone, dialing the main number to the office.

Someone picked up on the first ring. “Jupiter Therapy Solutions, this is Marie. Can I help you?”

“Marie,” I answered, glad that it was our office assistant and not Lucia who’d picked up. “This is Cara. I hate to do this, but I won’t be in today. Can you rearrange all of my appointments?”

“Of course,” Marie replied, a hint of worry in her voice. “Are you okay? Is everything all right?”

I sighed, knowing this was the probably the first time ever that I didn’t make it to work in over a year. I was not the type to call in sick, mainly cause I never really got sick. “I, um yeah, I think I have food poisoning.”

“Oh my,” Marie said. “You poor dear! Is there anything I can bring you?

“No, I’m good. Just move my appointments please and pass on my apologies to the clients.”

“Will do. I’ll let Lucia know.” I clicked off, knowing that Lucia would be stopping by later on, demanding to know what was going on. Maybe by then I would be able to explain it.

Moving into the kitchen, I grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and took a sip, reflecting on the past twenty-four hours. I didn’t even know if I believed what had happened with both the incident or with Luke. It was crazy to think that Luke was in the witness protection program, that he was some kind of star baseball player who had been screwed over. No wonder he looked like a different person when he was coaching Little League and had done so well during the charity match.

Still, despite his past, I felt like I was truly beginning to know the real Luke. Thankfully there was no other family, no wife waiting to run me over with her car for sleeping with her husband or anything. It was just Luke and his unfortunate circumstances. I felt strangely satisfied that it was just that, even though I had nearly been killed.

With a glance over at the counter I spied James’ letters still sitting there, the other part of my life that had changed rapidly in the last few weeks or so. After Luke’s story last night, his troubles and frustrations with his parents, I felt an overwhelming need to clear the air with James’ adoptive parents as well. I wanted them to know that I was not there to take him away from them—not that I even could—but I did want to be in his life now that he knew about me, and clearly wanted to know me too.

I picked up the letter and saw that the envelope lay underneath it, the address, though smudged, printed in child’s handwriting in the corner. I could visit when James wasn’t there… could see if his adoptive mom would give me a chance, and see if we couldn’t reach some sort of agreement that suited everyone, but most importantly was the best for James.

Placing the letter back on the counter, I walked to the bathroom for a shower. The least I could do was try.

The house was gorgeous, a three-story brick monstrosity with a large front yard and fenced-in back yard. It was everything I had dreamed about for him. Taking a deep breath, I walked up to the front door and knocked, tamping down my nervousness. I was fully expecting to be cursed out, or the door to be slammed in my face.

The door opened and the woman from the ballfield stood in the doorway, surprise on her face.

“What the hell happened to you?” Her hand immediately clapped over her mouth, her eyes widening. “Oh, I am sorry. Sometimes things just fly out of my mouth.”

I touched my jaw gingerly, knowing that the bruise was still visible even after the layers of makeup I used to conceal it. I’d been right, it was an impossible task even for my expensive concealer. “It’s a long story, but it’s not important. I know you probably are surprised I’m here.”

“Not really,” she said with a shrug. “I figured we would meet again sooner or later. Would you like to come in?”

Concealing my utter surprise, I nodded and she stepped aside, inviting me into the cool interior that smelled faintly of cinnamon and sugar cookies. The interior was warm and inviting, the living room clearly a room that was lived in, with a comfortable light brown couch with large cream cushions scattered on the seats. Tasteful armchairs with more structure than the couch were also seated around a large TV mounted on the wall above a fireplace.

“Have a seat,” she gestured. “Can I get something for you?”

I shook my head no and eased down on the couch as she perched on one of the chairs, folding her arms in her lap. “I’m Jessica, by the way.”

“Cara,” I answered, clearing my throat.

She nodded, blushing. “I know. After that day at the ballfield I googled you. You’re a therapist right?”

“Yeah,” I answered, not surprised. I would have done the same. “I recently moved back here.”

“I don’t know what made James reach out to you,” Jessica sighed, picking at the imaginary lint on her soft, linen pants. “We hadn’t told him yet and honestly we just couldn’t find the right time to do so. You have to understand, that day they laid him in my arms, I loved him immediately. I felt an incredible bond with him. After four attempts at in-vitro, adoption was our only attempt to have a family.”

I nodded, wondering how to respond to another woman’s love for my son. “I was only seventeen,” I blurted out, feeling as if she should know why I did it. “His father, well, he was a typical teenager and he didn’t want anything to do with me after I found out. And my mother told me she wasn’t going to raise another child, so I had no choice.”

“Oh, I’m not blaming you,” Jessica said hastily, giving me a small smile. “Because you gave us James. You’ve given us the best gift in our entire lives.”

I was surprised by her words, my heart warming at the thought of what my actions during probably the darkest day of my life had given this family. It had given them hope, a dream come true. It was an angle I was aware of but hadn’t really thought about too closely… my own pain too much to bear.

“I,” I started, unable to find the words to respond.

“Don’t worry,” she said gently. “I’m not going to ban him from seeing you. I know you have been meeting at his Little League practices… And after that initial shock, I’ve gotten over the fact that he is going to want to know more about you. He should know his birth mother—as long as you aren’t planning to fight for custody, that is.”

I shook my head. “No, I wouldn’t do that.” As much as I would have liked to have James around fulltime, it wasn’t right. He already had a loving home, parents who loved him. I just wanted to have a small corner of his life, that was all. Besides, I had given up my rights long ago. It would be cruel to put James and them through that.

“But you’ll let me see him?” I asked, needing to make sure.

“Of course, we’d have to figure things out and make sure James was okay with it… but I know he will love to have you in his life.”

What she was proposing was something she didn’t have to do and I had to bite my tongue to prevent myself from crying. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“I would hope someone would’ve done the same for me if our roles had been reversed,” Jessica responded with a sigh. “And I’ve checked. You’re a successful woman with no criminal background. It’ll hurt for a bit, but together we can get through this. It’ll be better than having to sneak around on the ballfield, anyway. My son,” she paused and lifted her gaze from her lap to my eyes, “our son, can be quite sneaky when he want to be.”

“I would like that,” I said, giving her a smile knowing how much saying those words could wound a person. “I promise I won’t butt into your lives, I just want to get to know him.”

She returned my smile and it was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Everything was going to work out just fine.

Now I could only hope that my relationship with Luke could have the same type of resolution. I knew he was coming back, I just didn’t know what that meant for us. I worried that every day I was near him, I lost a little piece of my heart to him, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but god I wanted this to be something permanent. I really did.