Page 31 of Serenity Harbor

“Her name is Gabriela Campos. She’s my daughter.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

BOWIESTAREDATher in shock for a full twenty seconds before he could manage to string together his fragmented thoughts enough to come up with a coherent response.

“Your...daughter. Who lives in Colombia.”

“For now. Only until the adoption is finalized and I can bring her back home with me.”

Adoption. Of course! All the pieces fell into place, leaving him feeling supremely foolish at the direction his thoughts had taken. For a minute there, he thought she actually had given birth to the girl, but that would have made no sense. Not that this explanation was much more rational.

“You, a young single woman, want to adopt this little girl with Down syndrome from Colombia and bring her back here.”

“No. Ihaveto adopt her. She’s mine and I’m hers.”

She spoke with a quiet simplicity that struck straight to his heart, dredging up an ache from somewhere deep inside. Every mother should feel that way, adoptive or not. They didn’t always, as he knew too well.

Had Stella wanted Milo that way? For his brother’s sake, he had to hope so.

“And you’re going to bring her back to Haven Point and return to teaching?”

“I would like to. That’s the plan, anyway. The school system and medical services here would be so much better than what is available to her now, living in a cash-poor orphanage in a small village. She could find somewhat comparable services in one of the larger cities but not where she lives.”

“That makes sense.”

“Gabi is such a smart girl. Yes, she has some problems with her hearing and she will face heart surgery at some point, but she already knows the alphabet and she can count to fifty in Spanish and twelve in English. She’s not even four yet!”

She flipped through the photo album on her tablet and held up another image, this one of the two of them laughing together. The sheer joy on both faces made his chest ache again.

“She loves to hear me read stories to her, and she can pick out a few written words she recognizes, especially her name,” Katrina went on, with clear pride in her voice. “I know I can give her a good life, one filled with laughter and joy and possibilities, if I only have the chance. I have to make it happen, no matter what it takes.”

Bowie gazed at her, entranced not only by her words but by the passion behind them. She had a goal and was doing everything she could to make it come to fruition, trying to provide a loving home to a girl who faced some of the same challenges Milo did.

He admired Katrina’s determination, especially since it sounded as if her family wasn’t totally supportive. That had to make everything much tougher.

“She’s a very lucky girl,” he said gruffly. “You’ll be a great mom.”

At his words, her eyes softened and her lips parted slightly. “Oh,” she said, sounding a little breathless. “Thank you, Bowie. That’s a lovely thing to say.”

“It’s the truth. I’ve seen how patient you are with Milo when he’s in a mood. If you can spend ten hours with him and not end the day wanting to bang your head against the wall, you’ve obviously got the necessary patience to do whatever it takes to help your daughter. She’s a lucky girl,” he repeated.

“You and my sister are the only ones who seem to understand how important this is to me. I... That means a lot.”

When she spoke about this little orphaned girl in Colombia, she glowed with life and light and warmth and was so lovely he couldn’t seem to look away.

Awareness shivered through him, heady and thick. The air in his kitchen buzzed with sudden tension, like fireflies sparkling on a summer evening.

He wanted to kiss her, more than he had wanted anything else in a long, long time. As the tension heightened, he saw the softness in her eyes shift to something else—a reprisal of that heat and hunger he thought he had glimpsed when she awoke and found him watching her.

She wanted him to kiss her, too.

It sounded arrogant as hell to think that and he tried to push the thought away, but it clung on with a surety he couldn’t deny. Somehow he knew that if he kissed her, she wouldn’t push him away.

He couldn’t do it, for a hundred reasons.

He had zero time for a relationship right now, between his new job and new responsibilities, as well as trying to find his way with his needy brother. Besides, whatever she might want in this moment, she had other goals and plans that didn’t include a brief fling with him.

Most important, he needed her. She was working wonders for his brother, and he couldn’t afford to screw that up.

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