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“Liar!” Lindsey bellowed. “She dumped you at the fucking hospital in San Antonio.”
“You owe the swear jar a dollar for that one, Lindsey,” Mom said, ever the cuss-word vigilante. “And you owe me an explanation, young man.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at him. “And don’t you dare tell me it isn’t any of my business.”
So much for his dream greeting of sweeping Lindsey up into his arms and kissing her senseless. “You know Josie didn’t want me to join the military.”
“You’re not in the military any longer.”
“We drifted apart while I was away.” Well, she’d drifted from him. He’d been utterly clueless how far she’d wandered.
“If that’s what you want to call what she did,” Lindsey said, crossing her arms over her chest—a mirror of his mother.
“I guess I’ll call her and ask her what happened myself,” Mom said.
“God, don’t do that, Mom. Let her live in peace. I don’t care that she dumped me, to be honest. I’m interested in building a life with someone else now, and if I was still with Josie, I might not have realized it.”
Mom focused on Lindsey. “So, when were you going to tell me that you’re dating my son?”
Lindsey licked her lips and avoided her gaze. “I didn’t think he wanted you to know.”
He hadn’t, but only because he didn’t want to talk about the Josie situation. He supposed that made him a coward.
“Are you two serious about each other, then?” Mom looked from Chad to Lindsey and back again.
“Heading that way,” Chad said, his gaze locked with Lindsey’s. They never talked much about their future together. They discussed her future a little, and his future even less, but never their future, and he wasn’t sure if she wanted a permanent relationship with him. He hoped she didn’t leave him behind as soon as she got her life back on track, but he wanted her to be happy and for Daisy to grow up in a loving home. He wanted to provide that home for the both of them, but he’d never put that desire into words, because he didn’t have a clear impression of how Lindsey would respond to the idea, and he wasn’t sure he could take another emotional blow at this point in his life. Once she knew how he felt, she might feel obligated to leave before he got too attached, so it just seemed safer to keep his good emotions locked inside alongside the bad.
“Well, get serious faster,” Mom said with a grin. “My grandbaby’s due any minute.”
“I still have a month!” Lindsey protested.
“The time will fly by,” Chad said.
“Easy for you to say. You aren’t lumbering around in this heat from hell.”
“That’s why you stay indoors until the sun starts to go down,” he told her. “Speaking of sunsets, would you like to go for a walk with me this evening?”
“Depends,” she said.
Huh? He was dying to show off his new leg to the entire neighborhood, and the park a few blocks away had great sunset views. He thought she’d be excited to accompany him. “Depends on what?”
“Will you hold my hand?”
He’d be able to hold it for the first time because they could walk side by side and his hands wouldn’t be occupied with chair wheels or crutches, and the cane was still in the trunk where he planned to leave it indefinitely. “Of course I’ll hold your hand.”
“Then, yes, I would love to walk with you.” She beamed at him, and his heart fluttered in his chest.
“This is getting serious,” Mom said. She patted his face. “Are your father and I invited over for dinner tonight?”
“You’re family. You have a standing invitation,” Chad said.
“I’ll need to go to the store to get something to cook,” Lindsey said, pulling off her gardening gloves.
“Don’t worry about that, honey,” Mom said. “James can pick up dinner for us all on his way home from work. We need to celebrate Chad’s new leg.” She turned her attention to Chad. “Where’s your brother? He should see this.”
“He’s not in the house?”
Mom shook her head.
“Caitlyn must be home from her business trip.” Chad was just guessing; Owen hadn’t mentioned anything about her return.
“Then she should join us too,” Mom said. “And I’ll call Kellen and invite him. You know, we should have a bigger family get-together soon. Bring in all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. They haven’t visited Austin for a while, and I’m sure they’d all be happy to see you. We can make it a huge welcome home party—you have no excuse now that you’re walking—and—”
“Mom.” Chad interrupted his mother’s planning. She loved throwing family get-togethers. “I don’t think you should invite Kellen tonight.”
“Why wouldn’t I invite Kellen?”
Lindsey rested a hand on his forearm. “I think he’s still in Prague with his new girlfriend. Or maybe they’re in Venice now.”
“Oh, she’s lovely, isn’t she?” Mom asked. “I met her at the engagement party that ended with my son being arrested.” Mom scowled. “When’s his court date again?”
“Next month, I think,” Chad said.
He took Lindsey’s hand and squeezed it—a silent thanks for getting him off the hook for refusing to invite Kellen to dinner. Finding out that Owen had been hiding a falling-out with Kellen on the same day she learned of Chad’s broken engagement would likely upset his mom. She honestly thought her sons told her everything.
“I know you’re an only child,” Mom said to Lindsey as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the house, “but do you have cousins? Aunts? Uncles? Grandparents? Do they all live in Idaho? Or is planning a family get-together a major chore like it is for our family?”
“Um . . .” Lindsey waved a hand. “I don’t have much family. Just my parents, and one aunt who lives in New Zealand. She doesn’t have any kids.”
“I’d love to visit New Zealand,” Mom said, and then she started in on what Chad had been waiting for, her real questions. “So you honestly have no contact with your folks? I can’t believe they’d be willing to give you up, much
less their first grandchild. Unless they’re on drugs or something. Are they on drugs?”
Lindsey laughed. “Uh, no. They’re so straight, arrows are jealous.”
“Have they been committed to an institution for insanity?”
“Nope.”
“Jail. They’re both in jail. Who did they kill?”
“No one. They’re as normal as they come.”
Mom shook her head. “Normal? What’s normal about abandoning your only daughter?”
“Jeez, Mom,” Chad protested. “Give her a break.”
Mom waved behind her back to shush him.
“So, the whole out-of-wedlock thing truly bothers them?” Mom asked.
“Not exactly,” Lindsey said, twisting her hands in the fabric of her billowy blue maternity dress. “The whole ‘my daughter belongs on Jerry Springer’ is what bothers them.”
“Maybe they’ll change their minds once the baby is born. Who can resist a baby?” Mom scrunched her shoulders and squealed like a teenage groupie.
“I can only hope,” Lindsey said as she grabbed the porch railing to haul herself up the steps.
Chad shook his head at the embarrassment his mother could be and walked after his two favorite women on his own two legs.
Chapter Seventeen
It took Lindsey two weeks to find the courage to call Adam.
She sat at the newly installed kitchen island and tapped into her phone the number Owen had given her. She doubted Adam would even answer, so when he did pick up, saying, “Do I know you?” she dropped her phone on the speckled granite countertop.
She scrambled for the phone. “Umm, hi. Adam?”
“Yeah. Who’s this?”
“It’s Lindsey. The . . . uh . . . pregnant woman from Christmas Eve.”
“I know who Lindsey is. Why are you calling me?”
“I got the results of the paternity test.”
“I didn’t take the test.”
“I know, but Jacob did, and he was negative, so that means it’s yours.”
Dead silence greeted her ear for a long moment, and then he said, “What do you want from me?”
She licked her lips and swallowed. This wasn’t going well, but at least he hadn’t flat-out denied he was the father. “Me?” she said. “I don’t want anything.” Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might faint. “I— Do you want to see Daisy?”
