Sure Thing by Ashe Barker Read Free Book Online Page B

out.”
    “Well, while we’re on this emotional rollercoaster ride, maybe now’s as good a time as any to hit you with our final present.” Tom stands, steps away to his wax jacket hanging on the back of the kitchen door. He pulls out his phone and taps a few buttons before looking back at me. “You ready for this last gift, love? I hope you like this one too. It’s from me and Nathan. A bit unconventional, but seems appropriate for today. I couldn’t work out a way of gift-wrapping it, though.”
    Bemused, I stare back at him. “What is it? What do you mean?”
    By way of answer he hands me his phone. I glance at the small screen and see it’s an email, dated yesterday, 31st December 2012. Puzzled, I start to scroll down. It’s a message to Nathan, from abroad, which Nathan has forwarded to Tom. The name of the original sender means nothing to me— Abi Karramin, Avukat . I recognize the name of the place he’s apparently sent the message from, Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. But what can it have to do with me? I look back at Tom, completely at a loss.
    “What is it? I don’t understand.”
    He takes the phone back from me, scrolls down a bit further. “This, sweetheart, is the address, email and mobile phone number for one Bajram Balci, hotelier and entrepreneur currently living in Manavgat, a small town in the Antalya region in south-west Turkey. Age forty-four, a widower with two daughters aged nineteen and fifteen. Sound like someone you might like to get to know?”
    Nothing, nothing could have ever prepared me for this. Beyond words, I take the phone back and stare at the tiny writing on the screen. My father. My father—a real, living, breathing man. A man with a phone number, email and an address. And daughters. My sisters. A family. I have a family. Tom’s just handed me a family.
    Speechless, at first I can only stare at the screen, then back at Tom, at Nathan, at all of them as they watch me. At last I find some words. Not especially erudite, but words nonetheless. “But, how did you…? I don’t understand. How did you find him?”
    “Nathan found him. He does a lot of business in Turkey, and Abi Kahraman is his solicitor in Ankara. You gave me a lot of information to go on, I thought we’d track him down easily enough. I asked Nathan to use his local contacts, pull strings if he could, and find out where your father lives now, and good old Abi delivered.”
    My gaze swings to Nathan, seated nonchalantly at the table with Rosie on his lap. She has my gray and white kitten in her arms and she’s watching me curiously, clearly a little bemused by all this. She’s not alone.
    Nathan picks up the story. “Your father’s quite a prominent man in the Antalya region. A successful businessman, well known. It didn’t take Abi long to find out his contact details and email them back to me.”
    “But, it’s been a holiday. Solicitors don’t work holidays…”
    “They do for their best clients. We wanted this information to give you for your birthday. Well, Tom did. So I asked Abi to pull out all the stops.”
    “So, now you can contact him. Let him know about your mother. Let him know where you’re living now. If you like. It’s up to you, love.” Tom’s voice is gentle, not pushing me.
    I look back at the small screen, so full of promise and possibility. Can I? I could, couldn’t I?
    Seized with doubt suddenly, I look around the room, a little desperately perhaps as I start to talk myself out of one of the most momentous opportunities I’ve ever had. “What if he doesn’t want to know? I can’t just phone him out of the blue. What would I say? What if he’s too busy, doesn’t want to talk to me?”
    “You could always text him. Then if he doesn’t want to answer he doesn’t have to.” Rosie’s suggestion is brilliant in its simplicity.
    I could. I really could do that. A text isn’t intrusive, a text isn’t pushy. Yes, I definitely could do that.
    Impulsively, before