“But—”
“No, Jesse is right. Let Blake have some time to settle in. Jesse can start sorting things out legally.”Livy swiveled her gaze between her and Jesse.“And then you two need to talk.”
She turned to Blake, uncertain what to say. She dropped to her knees in front of him and looked into his eyes.“I’m so glad to see you again. After all these years. I’ve…missed you.”
“You have?”Blake’s widened in surprise.
“Every single minute of every single day.”She touched his hand gently, and the force of emotion almost knocked her across the deck. Finally, touching his hand again after all these years.
“Heather.”Jesse’s cold single word cut through her memories.
She smiled encouragingly at Blake and nodded, then rose to her feet. She followed Livy and Austin down the stairs to the beach, looking back over her shoulder and watching as Jesse and Blake disappeared inside the cottage.
Blake. Her son.
Chapter 17
Olivia walked beside her cousin as they left Jesse’s. Heather trudged without speaking, without looking at her. Livy wanted to say something but had no idea what to say. She was still in shock that Heather had a son and had never told her. They told each othereverything.
Or maybe they didn’t.
They headed down the beach until Heather stopped under a group of palm trees and sank onto the sand, burying her face in her hands.
Livy stopped and stared at her cousin. She’d never, ever in her whole life seen her cousin cry. But sobs were coming from her now. Deep, heartfelt sobs.
Austin leaned close and whispered,“I’ll let you two talk. Call me if you need me.”He touched her face gently, then turned and headed down the beach toward his cottage.
She sank onto the sand beside Heather and wrapped her arm around her cousin’s shoulders, letting her cry. Huge sobs escaped Heather and her shoulders heaved. She finally got her crying semi under control and dashed her hand across her tear-streaked face.“I’ve really messed it up this time, haven’t I?”
“I…Yes, I think you have.”She hugged her.“I love you. You know that. But…to keep this from Jesse?”
“And you.”
“And me. I admit it. That hurts. I thought we knew everything about each other.”
“I know, but—”
“I didn’t even know you’d ever slept with Jesse.”
“It was only one time. Right after Emily was born. Remember I came to town to see her?”
She nodded, then frowned.“But then you left in a hurry.”
“Right. Because of Jesse. The next morning—after we slept together—he said it had been a mistake. So I agreed with him. What else could I say? Then after I left, I found out I was pregnant.”A sob escaped Heather again.“And what did I know about being a mom? And I was nineteen. I didn’t have a mother like yours who would step in and help.”
“You don’t know that.”Though her cousin was probably right. Heather’s mother had never been very maternal, even though Aunt Evelyn and Heather had started to improve their relationship in the last few months.
Heather swiped at her tears again.“Jesse was struggling to get through college and save up money for his dream of owning his own business. How could I drop more responsibility on him? I know what he would have done. He would have dropped out of college and taken on another job.”Heather closed her eyes.“And I didn’t want him to be with me because of the baby. I wanted him to…wantto be with me.”
“I’m sure it was a hard decision to make. And you can’t change it now. But it seems like the boy is in kind of a rough spot now.”
“I wanted to give him a good life. In a normal family. My family was never normal. And Father would never have accepted the baby into the family. Or accepted Jesse for that matter.”
“Probably not.”She agreed.“But I would have helped you. Mom would have.”
Heather looked directly at her.“I honestly thought I was doing the best thing for everyone. For…Blake. For Jesse. Just not for me…I’ve missed him every day of my life. It’s like there’s a huge hole in my heart that I’ve never been able to fill.”
“So, what are you going to do about that?”
