Heir to Murder. Elle James

put off the lunch with Ruby, but his curiosity about her won out. He wanted to learn more about the woman who should have raised him and loved him.

      He couldn’t help thinking how his life might have been had he never been stolen away and raised by his aunt. Knowing what happened and where his mother’s life had taken her after she and Reginald Adair had divorced would help him understand who Ruby Mason was.

      After shedding his clothing in the bathroom, he stepped under the cool spray of the shower and washed the creek water out of his hair with a squirt of shampoo. Once he had scrubbed his entire body, he shut off the water and dried himself, dressed in his best jeans and a pullover polo shirt the color of his eyes.

      He felt as though he was going to an interview with an important person and he didn’t want to disappoint her. This was his mother. The woman he hadn’t seen since he was too small to remember.

      Noah keyed the location into his cell phone and brought up the map. Driving through the gates of Adair Acres, he followed the directions to just outside of San Diego. He parked his truck in front of a bistro with little tables and checkered tablecloths. The sun was shining, but the trees overhanging the front patio provided enough shade to make it comfortable outside.

      Ruby sat at a table on the terrace, behind a short wrought iron fence. When she spotted him dropping down out of his truck, she rose, twisting her hands together, her teeth gnawing on her lower lip.

      Noah’s own pulse picked up as he closed the distance, passing through the garden gate into the bistro’s patio area.

      Ruby smiled tremulously. “I wasn’t sure you’d come. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d changed your mind.”

      “I told you I’d be here. I keep my promises.” He held her chair as she took her seat, then settled in the one across the tiny table from her. “I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

      She grimaced. “I came straight here and ordered a cup of tea. It helps to calm me.”

      “I’d ask you why you were so nervous, but I find that I’m possibly as unnerved by what’s happened as you are.”

      She sighed shakily. “It’s just that I’ve searched for so long. I’d hoped...but I didn’t think I’d ever find you. And now...” She glanced across the table at him, her eyes filling again with tears. “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry again, but I can’t help it. I’ve dreamed of this day most of my life, and almost thought it would never happen. And here we are.” She leaned forward, a smile curling her lips through the tears. “I can’t believe how big you’ve grown.”

      “I should hope I’d grown big. I’m thirty-seven.”

      “Thirty-seven.” She swallowed hard. “Thirty-seven years I didn’t get to spend with you, watching you grow into a man.” Ruby sucked in a deep breath and let it go, her shoulders straightening, her lips firm. “That’s thirty-seven years I need to catch up on. I have so many questions I’d like to ask, but I don’t know where to begin.”

      “I have a few of my own. Maybe we can just cover the basics in this meeting. I’m still adjusting to all of this.”

      “Of course, of course.” She touched her hand to her face, her cheeks flushed. “Where to begin?” She pulled her wallet out of her purse and extracted a small photograph from it and held it out to him. “This is a picture of you taken a couple weeks before—well, before it happened.” She handed him a photograph of a baby boy with blue eyes and a tuft of bright blond hair.

      Noah stared down at the photo. “It looks a lot like the ones my mother, er, aunt had in an album. I can’t understand how she could steal a child and live with herself.”

      “From what I was told, Emmaline didn’t steal you. Your grandparents did the stealing and gave you to her.”

      “I know. But she knew I didn’t belong to her. She should have returned me as soon as my grandparents handed me over.”

      Ruby took the photo from him and stared at it, her gaze far away. “She’d just lost her own baby. I know how awful that feels. I can understand her wanting to keep you. You were probably like a gift that she couldn’t bear to give back. Not after her baby died. Postpartum depression can be bad, but giving birth only to lose your baby afterward had to have intensified her grief.”

      Noah shook his head. “You of all people shouldn’t be so forgiving. There’s no excuse for taking and keeping another family’s child.”

      “I’d have done anything to have my baby back,” Ruby said, her voice breaking on the last word. “There’s nothing worse than losing your child. God, I left you outside to go answer the stupid telephone.”

      Noah reached across the table and took Ruby’s hands. “You can’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known someone would take your baby.” Though he was talking about himself, it felt as if the child that had been stolen was someone else. And though the woman whose hands he held was his mother, he hadn’t had the benefit of growing up with her. She was a stranger. And that saddened him.

      He couldn’t change the past. All he could do was accept the present and build a future with the knowledge and the people he now knew were his family.

      Gently squeezing her hands, he urged, “Tell me about you.”

      She sniffed and glanced up at him. “What do you want to know?”

      “Everything.” He smiled. “From the time I disappeared until now.”

      She laughed and pushed the fine hair out of her face. “There’s not a whole lot to say. After you disappeared, your father couldn’t forgive me for leaving you unattended. For that matter, I blamed myself. I don’t know if you are aware, but Reginald and I married because I was pregnant with you.”

      Noah nodded. “I’d heard as much.”

      She shrugged. “Since you were gone, there wasn’t any reason for us to stay married. We divorced, I moved away from North Carolina to Florida and he moved to California. In Florida, I met a wonderful man I fell in love with and married.” Her smile was wistful and happy.

      “What about other children?” he asked. “Do I have any half brothers or sisters?”

      Ruby shook her head. “My husband had a daughter he brought into our marriage.” Her smile widened. “She accepted me as her mother from the moment I came to live with them. Georgia isn’t like a stepdaughter—she’s more than that. I think you’ll like her.”

      Noah was still awed by his newfound family. Going from a man with only a mother who kept him secluded from the rest of his relatives to having an entire family and extended family, he was blessed. “Georgia is your daughter? Is she Carson’s fiancée?”

      “She is.” Ruby grinned. “Such an unlikely pair. But so in love.”

      Noah chuckled. “She’ll give Carson a run for his money. They seem happy together.”

      Ruby’s face brightened. “I think so. Carson needed her and she needed him. And now that I’ve found you, I have my entire family in one place. I couldn’t be happier, myself.”

      “Will you be going back to Florida anytime soon?”

      Ruby nodded. “Yes.”

      Disappointment knifed through Noah. “I’m really sorry to hear that. I’d hoped to get to spend more time with you.”

      She laughed. “I’m only going back to sell my house. I have nothing to keep me in Florida. Since my husband passed away, it’s just me. Georgia isn’t leaving California and now that I’ve found you...”

      Noah found himself leaning forward. He didn’t want distance to keep him from knowing this woman. “Does that mean you’ll be moving?”

      “It does. I want to be close to my children.” Her voice caught. “You don’t know how happy that makes me to say that—children.”