Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

glanced at her, surprise in his eyes. Then he shrugged and looked at the road, slick with the new snow that was still falling. ‘No.’
    ‘Will you tell me about her?’
    He blew out a breath that puffed into a cloud. ‘Daphne, I don’t think—’
    ‘I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s cold and it’s snowing and my son is out there. And if I can think of anything else then maybe I won’t lose my mind. But I won’t ask about her again. I don’t mean to hurt you. How about hobbies? Sports? I’m not very good at sports, I’m afraid.’ And now I’m babbling .
    ‘ You don’t hurt me by asking. It’s just I didn’t think women liked to know about the tragic love of a guy’s life.’ He said it dramatically, making fun of himself.
    Daphne didn’t smile. ‘You loved her. She was part of your life, if only for a little while. I don’t need to know the details of her abduction. I guess I want to know what about her made you . . . fall.’
    Another sideways glance her way. ‘You didn’t fall for Ford’s dad.’
    ‘No. I was a fifteen-year-old girl who’d lied on her job app about being eighteen so that I could wait tables to make money for community college. Travis was much older and polished. A lawyer from the big city, which is what I desperately wanted to be.’
    ‘Which, a lawyer or to live in the city?’
    ‘Both. I started talking to him. I just wanted to ask questions about being a lawyer. He thought I was offering myself. You know.’
    His jaw had grown tight. ‘I can guess.’
    ‘Next thing I knew, my shift was over and it was wine and roses in his hotel room at the Greenbrier.’
    His brows shot up. ‘The five star golf resort? You worked there?’
    ‘No, I wasn’t lucky enough to work there, but I still made better tips at a restaurant nearby than I could have made in any other town around. I thought I knew how rich people lived from watching my customers. I had no idea.’
    ‘You must have been swept away,’ he said quietly.
    ‘It was more than this country girl had ever thought to dream. I was goggle-eyed. Then I was drunk. By the time I realized what was happening, it had happened.’
    His jaw had clenched. ‘And then?’
    ‘I woke up, Travis was long gone. His head of security, Hal, was waiting to take me home. I was so hungover. I’d never had champagne before. I’d never had a lot of things before. A month later, I was still praying to the porcelain God, every morning.’
    ‘It was your first time.’
    ‘Joseph, if you clench your jaw any tighter you’re gonna break your teeth,’ she said dryly. ‘It was a long time ago.’
    He made a visible effort to relax. ‘So you had Ford.’
    ‘I did. I thought the Greenbrier was the fanciest place on earth, but I was shocked yet again when I went looking for Travis to give him the glad tidings. I was struck speechless. I’d turned to go without ringing the bell when the front doors opened and Hal came out. I tried to hide, but he saw me and remembered me. I think he took one look at me, pale and scared, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist, as they say.’
    ‘What did he do?’
    ‘Sat me down in the kitchen and gave me milk and cookies. And then he took me to Nadine – that’s Travis’s mother. Talk about scared . . . She was like Cinderella’s stepmother and the Queen of England all rolled into one.’ Daphne frowned, remembering. ‘She took one look at me and turned almost as pale as I was. Hal had told her who I was and how I’d been with Travis at the Greenbrier while I was down in the kitchen. She took my chin and tilted my face to the light. Then said, “What is your name, child?” I told her it was Daphne Elizabeth. “Elizabeth is a suitable name.” I think that made me mad, because I pulled away and said, “Suitable for what?” She said, “For the mother of my grandchild. ” ’
    ‘She wanted the baby, then?’
    ‘Oh, yes. Turned out that Travis’s current wife was infertile.’
    ‘His current wife?’
    ‘I was wife number three. And too young and stupid to know any better. Not that I would have made a different choice at the time. I mean, I was pregnant and fifteen and poorer than a church mouse. The Elkharts could give my baby a life that I never could have. And I didn’t know that he was married at the beginning.’
    ‘Did Travis just divorce the current wife? Just like that?’
    ‘Pretty much. I don’t think Travis cared who he was married to. It took a few months to get his