With This Kiss (Windswept Bay Book 3) by Debra Clopton Read Free Book Online

pulled out a yellow folder. She handed it to Gage then placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled at BJ.
    This was getting deeper by the minute BJ decided.
    “Shar told me that your father died when you were young. I’d like you to look at these photos.”
    BJ took the file and flipped it open. He was just ready to get this over with and get back to his life. He stalled though when he saw a picture of his mother and a man who was carrying a toddler on his shoulders as they walked down the beach. They were all smiling. Happy.
    There were more photos of his mother and the older man, some with the toddler.
    “Is that your mother?” Gage asked.
    BJ met Gage’s serious blue gaze and like that first time he’d met Gage something felt familiar. “It is. But I don’t recognize the man.” He looked closer at the toddler and it struck him that it was him as a baby. “And this is me? Right?”
    Gage nodded. “It is. And that’s my father, Milton Lancaster holding you.”
    BJ studied the photos again. His mother looked incredibly happy. But she’d always looked happy. She’d been a loving woman with a big heart.
    “We’ve been looking for you for years, BJ. We’d need to do a DNA test to be certain but I’m convinced you are my brother.”
    BJ’s head whipped up from studying the photos. “Excuse me?”
    “Believe me,” Gage said. “I felt the same shock when the lawyer at the reading of the will told me I had a long lost brother. It is one heck of a revelation.”
    BJ took a step back, his heart was ramming against his ribs and his hands were cold. “My father died when I was a baby.”
    “No, your father died three months ago in Manhattan.”
    “Maybe you need to sit down,” Shar said, speaking for the first time. “It’s a lot to take in.”
    “I’m fine standing.”
    Shar handed Gage another folder and Gage pulled a photo from it and held it out to BJ. “Your name is Brandon. This is my dad when he was your age.”
    BJ reached for the photo and stared at the headshot of Milton Lancaster. He looked at Gage and then he looked at the mirror on the wall over the sink behind Shar. Gage’s eyes had been familiar because they were his eyes. They were Milton’s eyes.
    His gut tightened, he felt ill and the room was suddenly hot. Why? If this was true, why would his mother have lied to him? He asked the same question to Gage.
    “From what my dad’s friend and lawyer revealed to me was that my dad wanted to marry your mother. He loved you and her and he wanted to bring you home where I was and make us a family. But your mother was a free spirit who had no desire to move to New York. I think she grew worried that my dad would try to take you from her if she wouldn’t agree to marry him. And to be honest she might have been right. My father was used to getting what he went after.
    “But then you and she suddenly disappeared from Windswept Bay and despite the investigators he hired to locate you he never could. His PI got a lead on you finally but my dad, our dad, had a massive heart attack before the lead could be followed. I learned about you at the reading of the will. You, of course will have to be tested just for legalities sake, but you are now a partner in Lancaster Industries.”
    BJ just stared at Gage and then Shar. This was crazy talk.
    “What if I tell you that I’m quite happy and satisfied with my life just the way it is?”
    “You’re still my brother and you’re still my partner. Nothing changes that. And I have to tell you, I’m anxious to get to know you. I have no other family except Shar and my future in-laws.”
    “We know this is a lot to take in, Brandon.” Shar looked sympathetically at him.
    “I prefer BJ,” he said and knew it was gruff. Unreasonable. But this was a lot to take in.
    “BJ.” Shar smiled and came to touch his arm. “We know this is all a shock. But, there will be time to work it all out. However, we are going through with our wedding tomorrow and we would