Page 33 of Christmas at Black Cherry Retreat
‘I felt so deeply for the people I photographed it was slowly killing me and Pierre’s death was the final straw. I still feel guilty for giving up but I wasn’t doing any good.’
‘Sometimes we have to know when to quit,’ Tom said firmly. ‘You’ll find another way to be useful. I couldn’t be a cop any more after Gina died because I felt the system let me down.’
‘How did we get to this from me checking my phone?’
‘Hey, don’t fret. I appreciate your honesty. I’ve never been one to pussyfoot around.’
She planted a kiss on his generous mouth and Tom’s face lit up. She’d never met such an easy-going man before with no agenda or expectations. Fee warned herself not to be reckless. She mustn’t dive in headfirst again no matter how tempted shewas.
‘Phone.’ Tom reminded her and she remembered why they’d come out here in the first place. Fee opened her mother’s email.
Call me, Freebird. I need to talk to you.
She couldn’t hide all this from Tom. ‘There’s another reason I came to America.’ Before she lost her nerve Fee told him about her mother’s recent phone call. ‘Apparently she had a brief thing with this AllainDupre in London while he was on holiday from his American university. After he left she discovered she was pregnant but didn’t tell him.’ Fee shrugged. ‘He returned to London again later that year to find she was pregnant and wanted to marry her.’
‘Why didn’t she?’
‘She claims she lied to him about her due date and insisted it wasn’t his baby.’
Tom frowned. ‘Why? I don’tget it.’
‘According to her, Allain was engaged to a girl called Ellen when they first met and my mum didn’t want to spoil his life.’So she spoiled mine instead.‘She convinced Allain that Will Sawyer was my father.’
‘Are you going to ring her?’
‘I suppose so.’ Reluctantly she found her mother’s number and crossed her fingers that it’d go to voicemail and she could getaway with leaving a message.
‘Freebird?’
Her mother’s distinctive low, gravelly voice hummed down the line.
