Blindsided (Indigo Love Spectrum) (5 page)

“I know something’s troubling you, Norris,” Lara
said. “I can make myself scarce if you need to talk to Ryan.”

“
No, Lara, you don’t have to do that. There is some
thing, but I’m not ready to talk about it. When I am
ready, I want you to be there.”

“Think you’ll be ready to talk soon? Maybe
tomorrow?”

Norris moved around the table and kissed Lara’s
cheek. “Yes, inquisitive one, I do. Shh,” he said, stopping
Lara’s next question at the moment her mouth opened. “I’m not saying anything else until then. You two enjoy
your dinner.” He gave Ryan’s shoulder a jocular pat. “I’ll
see you tomorrow.”

“You sure?” Ryan asked. “I don’t think my wife can
wait much longer than that for an opportunity to grill you.”

Norris chuckled. “I’m sure.”

The couple’s curious mumblings followed Norris as
he walked toward the exit of the restaurant. Maybe he
should have told them about Reese tonight, but some
thing stronger demanded he tell Dahlia first. The same
force that had him dreaming of having someone to
whisper things to and fall asleep with every night, an
incredible force that had opened his heart to love.

The soft hum of the treadmill grew louder as Dahlia
prepared for her final cardio workout: a five-minute, six
mile-per-hour run. She had already completed the first
half, an hour of three to six-mile intervals that ranged
from an incline of two to fifteen. When she first started this method of training, Dahlia thought it would kill her,
but a year later, she loved the challenge of going a step
further. And after the chips she’d indulged in earlier, she
had all the incentive she needed. Not that she really
needed one.

Thoughts of Norris filled her head, and she needed a
distraction from those smoky gray eyes and devilish
smile. That incredible touch, his laugh, his voice, his
scent . . .

She shook her head.
Stop it, Dahlia! You don’t think
about a bed buddy like that.
She didn’t know how one
should think of a bed buddy, as Norris was her first, but
no ties definitely didn’t mean endless dreams, both awake and asleep, of a man you were just supposed to be having
sex with.

The belt speed picked up and Dahlia hopped back
on. Three minutes into her run, with sweat trailing down
her forehead and her heart pounding in a quick,
rhythmic beat, the doorbell rang.

She grunted. Who was interrupting her workout?

Dahlia grabbed a towel from the handle of her sta
tionary bike and made her way to the door. She looked
through the peephole to see Norris looking a bit out of
sorts.

She pulled the door open. “Hey, this is a surprise.”

“I’m sorry, you were working out. I knew that, but . . .”

“No, it’s okay, I was about done. Besides, you being
here means I can have another kind of workout.”

Norris managed a weak smile, nothing like the all-out
body press she usually received when offering up the
goods. Something troubled him. She stepped aside to let
him in. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” he said, making his way around her
and into the living room. He rested his head against the
back of the couch. His hands covered his eyes. He sighed
deeply.

“What happened to your dinner plans with Ryan and
Lara?”

Norris lowered his hands. “I left early. I thought they
could use some alone time, and I was a little distracted.”

Dahlia said nothing, but she agreed. She had never
seen him so pensive.

“I want to tell you something,” he said, “but it’s quite
a story. And if I’m going to unload on you, I think you
should be comfortable. It could take a while.”

“You saying I’m stinky?” she quipped, getting the
laugh from him she was hoping for.

“Never. I just don’t want you to catch cold in those
sweaty clothes.”

“All right, I’ll only be gone a few minutes.”

Roughly ten minutes later, she returned to the living
room to find Norris eating her box of baked cheese
crackers. The bite-size snacks had become a favorite of
his. She couldn’t believe a man who grew up in
Wisconsin had never had a cheese cracker before she
introduced them to him. Then, again, Norris didn’t strike
her as the conventional Wisconsin guy.

Norris shook the empty box. “I’m sorry, I got a little
hungry. I’ll buy you some more.”

“Don’t sweat it. All you had was crackers?”

“No, I also had an apple and finished up the pasta
salad and your milk. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I hadn’t had a bite since lunch, and I worked that off when
you came by my office this afternoon.”

Dahlia’s whole body flamed under Norris’s intense
perusal. He could sell the look in his eyes as a newfangled
blowtorch. Suddenly her pink tank shirt and matching full-length cotton bottoms felt like a cellophane bikini.
Not since Jonah had a man had such a physical effect on
her. It unsettled her.

Dahlia motioned her thumb in the direction of the
kitchen. “Have you had enough to eat? I can whip up
something if you’re still hungry.”

“No, I’m good.” He gave her a once-over and smiled.
“I’ve never seen you in pajamas before.”

“PJs don’t exactly fit in the arrangement we have.”
He nodded. “Right.”

Dahlia joined him on the couch. “What’s got you so
unsettled tonight?”

“
I honestly don’t know how or where to start. Not a
lot surprises me, but this is something I never expected.”
He blew out a long breath. “Not in a million years.”

Norris’s hedging put Dahlia on edge. Whatever he
wanted to tell her was something emotional, and if his
emotions were anything like hers . . . She couldn’t hear it.
Feeling what she felt for Norris and keeping it to herself
was one thing, but to hear he was feeling the same was a
validation she didn’t want to contend with. Such a con
fession from him would cross them into the relationship
world, and she didn’t want to have another relationship. She didn’t want that battering ram called love slamming
into her heart again. She couldn’t handle it.

“Norris, maybe you should talk to Ryan about this.”

“I will, but I wanted to talk to you first.”

“But Ryan’s your best friend.”

“We’re not friends?”

“We’re lovers.”

“Is that all?”

Dahlia pulled her top lip into her mouth, a nervous
habit she acquired from a desire to lie but an inability to do so. She didn’t know what to say. Why was he doing
this?

“I found out something today,” Norris said, rescuing
her from her struggle, but making her guts clench in
anticipation and dread of what he might say. “Dahlia, I have a daughter.”

Dahlia blinked. Norris had started his sentence the way she thought he would, but the finish . . . “You have
a daughter?”

N
orris nodded. “I didn’t want to blurt it out like that,
but it felt necessary.” He closed his hands around hers.
“You’re the first person I’ve told. Saying the words out
loud makes it seem more real, but it’s still so unbeliev
able. I’ve only seen a picture of her, but she’s a beautiful
girl.” He smiled. “She kinda looks like me.”

“Wow. You’re a daddy.” Dahlia gave his hand a little
shake. “How are you feeling?”

“Stunned, proud, angry. Reese is sixteen years old,
and I just learned about her today.”

Dahlia blinked. “Reese?” she said.

“That’s my daughter’s name,” Norris explained.
“She’s named after me. Sorta.”

“It’s a lovely name.”
Maybe this was just a coincidence.
The name Reese wasn’t very common, but . . .
“You say she’s
sixteen?”

“Yeah. Her mother, Gail, and I met the summer of
my senior year at college. I was on the baseball team and
I took a nasty shot to the wrist from a wild pitch. The
next morning it hurt like hell, so Ryan drove me to the
E.R., and that’s where I met Gail. She was my doctor,
and a beautiful older woman I was immediately attracted
to. We had some good times together.”

Dahlia couldn’t believe it. Norris’s daughter and her
mother were people she knew. And he was right. Reese
did look like him. She’d never noticed before.
Norris and
Gail?
That blew her mind. “You and an older woman?”

“Older, yes, but not
old
. Gail was thirty-five, and I
was a twenty-year-old punk kid who thought he was Mr.
Smooth. We had six weeks together. As quickly as she
came into my life, she was gone. And now I learn we had a daughter.”

“Why didn’t she tell you?”

“She didn’t want me to know. She told me she wanted
to have a baby, and I was her way of getting it. For six
teen years I’ve had a daughter, and for the last year and a
half she’s been right here in Denburg. I could have passed
her on the street a million times.”

Dahlia nodded. Reese was the best friend of Lara’s
young cousin, Diana Monroe. Norris and Diana’s parents
were friends. There were all these connections at work,
and no one was the wiser. No one but her.

“If finding out I have a daughter wasn’t enough of a
surprise, Gail informs me she’s getting married in two
weeks and then leaving the country to do relief work in
Uganda for six months.”

Uganda!
Gail hadn’t mentioned that to her, either.
“Uganda?” Dahlia said.

“Yes. She has a need to help,” he said. “While she’s away, she wants me to get to know Reese. Have her live
with me.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“Worried. I’m her father and we’re strangers. What if
Reese doesn’t agree to this?” He sighed. “What if she does?”

“Either way the answer is the same. You get to know
her. She’s your daughter, and that matters.”

“She’s biracial. Did I tell you that?”

I already knew.
“No, you didn’t,” Dahlia said.

“Gail is African-American.” Norris dragged his hands
over his face, sighing heavily. “When I think of my par
ents’ reaction to meeting Lara, I shudder. They treated
her like she wasn’t there, and said some of the most
ridiculous things after she and Ryan left. And the
thoughts they put in poor Justin’s head. Oh, man.”

“Justin?”

“He heard them talking about Ryan and Lara
burning in hell for being together. Justin was five and
took it literally. Scared the poor guy to death.”

Dahlia shook her head. She hadn’t heard about that.

“This happened years ago, and it was the last time I saw them, but it’s a memory I will never forget. How am
I going to subject my daughter to that kind of treatment?”

“You can’t be responsible for your parents, but you
can be responsible for yourself. Do you want to get to
know Reese?”

“I do, but with what she has to look forward to, I
wonder why she’d ever want to get to know me.”