The Sheriff's Daughter

“Can I help you?” she finally prompted, mystified. She was the one getting the bad news—wasn’t she?

“I…uh…I’ve been planning this moment for a long time and I thought I was completely prepared. But now I have no idea what to say.”

Planning this moment? One didn’t usually plan to deliver bad news.

He looked so lost, so young, Sara’s heart caught. “You’re sure it’s me you want to see? I’m Sara Calhoun, formerly Sara Lindsay. I’m married to Brent Calhoun. He’s an attorney….”

Relief made her talkative.

“Antitrust. Yes, I know,” the tall, well-built officer said with a rueful grin. And a nervous twitch at the left corner of his mouth.

He ran his hand through his short sandy-colored hair, his raised arm drawing her attention to the belt at his waist—and all the defensive paraphernalia strapped there. That gun looked heavy.

“And, yes, you’re the one I’m looking for.”

The kid was young, his green eyes switching back and forth between innocent and knowing as he stood there, shifting his weight. He couldn’t be much more than twenty-one, which made her thirty-seven seem ancient.

“What’d I do? Forget to signal a turn? I have a habit of doing that, though I’m working on it,” she said, brushing a strand of hair back over her shoulder. This had to be his first house call.

He frowned and then, glancing down, his face cleared. “Oh, the uniform,” he said. “I’m not here on official business. I work the night shift in Westerville—just got off duty and finished my paperwork.”

Westerville, a north Columbus suburb a bit west of the New Albany home she and Brent had purchased six years before. There was a park within walking distance of every home in their area. Barely thirty when they bought it, she’d still believed that her workaholic husband was going to agree to have the children they’d always said they were going to have.

“Speaking of work, I’m late,” Sara said now, suddenly anxious to be on her way.

“I can come back another time.”

“No.” She shook her head. What could a young cop possibly have to do with her that would justify a second trip out? Or any trip? “I’m listening.”

“And I’m finding that there’s just no way to say this except outright.”

She waited.

“I’m your son.”

She blinked.

The young man stood still, as if frozen in stone, while his words replayed themselves in her mind.

He’d just said he was her son.

Her son.

He couldn’t be.

Twenty-one years of fighting for dignity and grace served her well enough to keep her standing. Sara clutched the door with both hands, leaned against it, her gaze never wavering from the young man standing just outside it.

He shifted, his hands folded together as if in military or pallbearer stance. Had he ever been in the military, this boy who was standing there claiming to be the child she’d given away so long ago? The child she’d worried for, grieved over and daydreamed about ever since.

Had he, too, suffered the pain of losing one he loved?

“Should I go?”

“No!”

“You’re shocked. How could you not be?”

His voice was deep, not at all that of the little boy she’d imagined so often that he seemed completely real to her.

This voice was filled with strength. Compassion. And a tremble of fear.

Or was she only losing her mind? After all these years, all the determination and trying, the counseling, all the self-flagellation, was the past finally going to undo her, anyway?

“I’m… I’m sorry,” she finally managed, straightening. “I just…”

“I know,” he interrupted, his hands still folded together. “I tried to come up with some easier way to do this, but I guess there isn’t one.”

No. Not easy. Nothing about Sara’s life had been easy since the morning after this boy—if he was her son—had been conceived. Nothing had been quite real. She’d lost things then that she’d been too young to even know she’d prized.

“I… What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t. It’s Ryan—Ryan Mercedes.”

Ah. Yes. Officer Mercedes. Seemed like years ago that she’d read that name tag.

He was staring at her openly now. Counting the lines on her face? Finding her wanting? Wondering what kind of woman she was who would give away her newborn son?

Years of training drove her to respond. She held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Ryan.”

Was she insane? Nice to meet you? With a handshake?

He glanced at her hand, looked up to her face. She thought he was going to refuse her offering. And then he reached out, took her hand and held on.

Sara started to cry.

AFTER A QUICK GLANCE behind him, Ryan reached with his free hand to wipe the tears from his mother’s face—and his own. He’d imagined this moment, of course. Many times.

He’d just never thought she’d be such a beautiful woman. Or that she’d look so young. He’d known she was thirty-seven, but he’d pictured someone more like his mom. Harriet Mercedes. Fifty-one. Graying. Twenty pounds heavier than she’d been when he was little.

Brent Calhoun was a first-class fool.

Shoulders tensing as a car passed behind him, Ryan said, “May I come in?”

He didn’t want her neighbors talking, asking her awkward questions. Didn’t want to make life harder for her than he already knew it was going to be.

“Um, of course.”

She turned and backed up, breaking eye contact with him. He was shocked at the loss he immediately felt. Of course, he’d expected to have some feelings for this woman—she’d given him life—but he’d imagined his reaction would be protective, rather than deeply emotional.