With a grin, he came out from behind the counter. Violet’s sons were both tall, just over six feet, with brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes exactly like hers.
“Are you getting shorter?” he teased as he patted my head.
“Nope, I’m still a statuesque five feet and two inches. You must be getting taller. Stop growing,” I ordered. “Rose and I will be the shortest members of this family once all the little kids turn into teens,” I called over my shoulder as I passed through the tables to the fluffy, pillow-covered purple sofa at the rear of the store to sit next to my dad.
He stood and gave me a hug, then sat back into the corner of the couch to prop his feet on the dark wooden coffee table. Violet sat in the brown leather chair perpendicular to the couch. After exchanging a look, they both stared at me.
What the heck was going on?My eyes darted between their suspicious looking faces.
“She’s gonna be pissed,” Violet said to my dad. They started to look nervous, and I started to get worried.
“Just tell me.” I sighed as I flopped back against the cushions.
After inhaling a huge breath, Violet finally started talking. “Lily, none of us told you this before you moved back becausewe were worried. The bed rest, the hard pregnancy, Will’s death. We didn’t want to cause you any more stress.”
My husband, Will, had been a police officer. After pulling over to help a stranded motorist, a hit-and-run driver ran Will down, killing him instantly. To date, the driver still hadn’t been caught. A week later I had discovered I was pregnant with Calla. To say I’ve been “stressed” was an understatement. I had spent the last almost year and a half in a state of perpetual confusion laced with grief, just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to think too hard about anything.
It was my father who decided to drop the bomb rather than Violet.“Honey, Luke is back in town and he’s here to stay.”
“What?” I breathed. “Here in Sweetbriar? Luke? Are you sure?” I gasped as my head turned to the door, then to the windows, stupidly looking around for a sign of him.
Lucas Michael McCabe.
I had tried hard over the years to banish that name from my thoughts, and I always failed. Our mothers had been best friends. They had thought it would be fun to be pregnant at the same time. Later, they had been even more thrilled when they went into labor and gave birth on the same day: Diana to Luke, and my mom to me and Rose. After a childhood spent as inseparable best friends, we fell in love. We graduated from high school, and he joined the Army while I went to college in Tacoma, near where he had been stationed. Deployments had been hard, but we’d loved each other, so we’d made it work.
Until one day it stopped working. He went back to Afghanistan, and I never heard from him again. Luke was Dylan’s father. Even me being pregnant hadn’t made him come back. I still couldn’t understand it; it went against everything I had ever known about him.
Dad’s voice shook me out of my thoughts. “He was injured and discharged from the Army. Lily, honey, he never knew you were pregnant. The officer who was supposed to tell himdied before he could give Luke the news. Jed told him about Dylan the second he returned to town. They came to the house and talked to me and your mother.”
Violet smiled softly at me. “We were afraid you wouldn’t come back if you knew, so we didn’t tell you until it was too late for you to change your mind. Don’t be mad, Lily. We all love you and wanted you here with us.” Tears shimmered in her eyes.
I stared at her, too shocked to say anything. Will and I had decided that Dylan should know who his birth father was, but Will had been his father in every other way.
“You should have told me. What if I’d driven past him or something? What if Dylan had seen him out the window? He’s seen pictures, you know,” I hissed. “What were you all thinking?” I threw myself back against the couch and crossed my arms. I glared at Violet, but she didn’t notice. She was busy spoiling my baby. Calla would be totally rotten by the time this day was through.
“You won’t recognize him. He looks a lot different,” Violet answered distractedly, too wrapped up in Calla to pay any attention to me.
Dad reached for Calla, but Violet shook her head and turned in her chair, so he couldn’t get to her. He shrugged and laughed.
“Violet!” I hissed. “Different? You’ve seen him?” I asked after I finally got her attention.
She looked at me for a second and waved her hand around. “I see him all the time. His office is right across the parking lot. He came to Sunday dinner a couple times with Jed. He stops here for coffee most mornings,” she helpfully added, and I glared at her.
“You are not taking this seriously enough, Violet,” I gritted out, still in shock.
My mind reeled through all the possible scenarios of how we would end up seeing each other. I closed my eyes andrested my head back against the sofa. An epic headache was imminently approaching. I needed a cookie, or a brownie, or something sweet so I could eat my feelings. I looked up in gratitude as Finn tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a scone and an iced tea.
“Sweetheart, he was devastated when he found out about Dylan,” Dad said gently, and patted my knee. I spared him a glance out of the corner of my eye.
I took a deep breath, trying to process this information. “How long has he been home? The way you’re talking about this says it’s been a while.”
“Only about three months. His injuries kept him in bed when he first got here.”
“Why hasn’t he contacted me? Doesn’t he want to see Dylan?”Or me?
“Of course he does. He has PTSD. He chose to seek treatment and get his life in order before contacting you and meeting Dylan. I supported him in that decision, Lily. He was a mess when he got home,” Dad explained.
“I can understand that. I’m pretty much the walking, talking definition of a mess.” I let out a small laugh and hoped my nerves and hurt feelings were adequately hidden inside my lies. “It would have been terrible timing for all of us.” I sat up and sat sideways on the couch. I waved at Calla. She waved back and babbled at me.
