“Dear God,” she whispered, her throat raw, the insides of her nose and throat burning with sudden, grief-riddled tears. “I—I . . . I didn’t know.” She cleared her throat and looked away, blinking rapidly against the wash of tears. Her throat was so thick she couldn’t swallow, her eyes ached. For years she’d considered trying to find Dave Sorenson and telling him the painful but glorious truth that they had a son—a wonderful, lighthearted boy she’d named Joshua Lee—but she never had. She’d always thought—assumed—that there would be time; that the perfect moment would somehow appear for confiding to Josh the fact that his father was a man whose circumstances had forced him to move to Texas; a man who, at the time of Josh’s conception, had been little more than a boy himself; a man, who at that tender age, couldn’t have been expected to settle down. Then she’d thought, in this silly fantasy, that she’d eventually track down Dave and give him the news. She’d told herself he would be mature and would understand, and that Josh would somehow connect with his father. But ... if Luke was telling the truth, it was too late. Josh would never know his father.

“Katie?” Luke’s voice startled her.

“It . . . it can’t be.” She glanced at him and saw a storm of emotions she didn’t understand in his expression. “He was so young—not much older than me.” She drew in a long, disbelieving breath.

“I know.” His face showed genuine concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yes . . . fine . . .” But it was a lie.

“You’re sure?” Obviously he wasn’t convinced.

“No. I mean, yes.” She blinked rapidly, refusing to break down altogether. Inside, she was numb. Shaking. Grieving painfully. But she couldn’t let Luke Gates or anyone else know how devastated she felt. This was too deep. Too personal. Dabbing at an escaping tear with the tip of her finger, she stared out the window. “I, uh, knew Dave. . . . He was in the twins’—my half-brothers’—class in high school and he hung around the house sometimes. I liked him and I didn’t know that ... that he’d . . .” She swallowed hard, then let out a sigh that started somewhere deep in her heart. “You shocked me, I guess,” she admitted, trying desperately to recover a bit when her entire world seemed shaken, rocked to its very core. Forcing an empty, faltering smile, she asked, “What . . . what happened?” Then, as she looked through the windshield, she said, “Oh, no.”