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There had been a brief period of time that Sylvie had considered moving away from Zeke’s Bend once she realized that the babies could be Alan’s or Heath’s. How irresponsible was it that she didn’t know who was the father of her children? Sometimes, she felt like a guest on a daytime talk show. She was sure that’s how everyone would see her if they knew the truth.
Her desire to stick it to Alan in Chicago had literally changed her life. In the end, she decided it was easier to let everyone assume the babies were Alan’s. Unfortunately, the result of that decision was that she had to listen to her family continually pester her about Alan’s deadbeat dad-ness. Sometimes she wondered if it was worth it.
Neesa bustled up behind her and started to coo over the babies. As if on cue, Phae and Meg started to fuss over them as well. Sylvie took a step away from the stroller regretfully and found James watching her with a raised eyebrow.
“What?” she asked raising her chin.
“You can’t blame folks for wanting Alan to take responsibility. They’re his boys too, Sylvie. I know if it were me, I would want to be involved somehow in taking care of them, even if it was just financially.”
“You and Alan are nothing alike,” Sylvie said.
She had been secretly relieved that despite the fact that the timing of her pregnancy meant Alan was the likely father, he’d never reached out to her. She wanted it to stay that way. If he came around demanding a paternity test, she didn’t know what she would do.
“Trust me, James, I’ve got this. The more you insist on Alan getting involved, the more you make me feel like I’m not doing a good job taking care of my children. You’re making me feel bad.”
James raised an eyebrow. “Don’t try the guilt thing. You know what we think about you. You’re a wonderful mother, etcetera, and so on.”
“Gee, thanks for the praise. Now tell me again how I can’t do this alone.”
“I never said you can’t do it alone. I said you shouldn’t have to.”
“That’s right,” Momma Jones chimed in.
Sylvie squared off, hands on hips. “I’m tired of this. I swore I wouldn’t have this argument again and now here we are. Same old, same old. The bottom line is that it’s my decision. Case closed.”
She addressed the rest of the room. “And speaking of things that are my decision, I would like to be able to spend time alone with my boys tonight. Thank you, everyone, for stopping by, but the party is over.”
It took her another ten minutes to finally flush everybody out of the shop. Her mother left grumbling about sports cars and the price of diapers.
Sylvie reminded Meg about covering the early appointments the next morning. Sylvie was looking forward to sleeping in and spending some time with the boys before she had her first appointment at ten.
Sylvie gave Neesa and Phae a kiss on the cheek as they headed out onto the sidewalk.
James gave her a strong hug and whispered in her ear that he hoped that she would reconsider her decision about Alan. She brushed the comment aside and pushed him out the door. He mumbled something about wanting some casserole, which Sylvie also ignored.
She closed the door and locked it. Now, all she had to do was shut off the lights, and they could escape to their cozy apartment that was located behind the shop at the rear of the building.
She walked back over to her sleeping babies and stared at them in the stroller. She wondered again if she truly was doing the right thing by them. She thought so.
Alan had been a lousy boyfriend, and she suspected he would be an even worse father. There was no way that she was going to expose her boys to a man who would probably run off like her father had run off and left her mother.
No, her boys deserved better than that. She would always be there for them, and she would always take care of them, no matter what.
She reached over and stroked both of their cheeks again. Sylvie breathed their baby scent, loving the way they smelled. It had a calming effect on her.
“I know, boys. I wish I knew who your father was, too. If it’s the person I think it is, he might’ve made a great dad. But don’t worry about a thing. We’re in this together, you and me. I love you both to the moon and back. I’ll never let anyone hurt you.”
It was a promise she had every intention of keeping.
HEATH STOOD OUTSIDE THE SHOP called Shear Stylin’ and gazed at the scene on the other side of the window in disbelief. He had been standing outside on the sidewalk for almost an hour trying to decide the best way to make his entrance.
It was a charming shop with a bright blue awning and a painted wooden door with small inset windowpanes. A big window had a display of hair products and stylish wigs perched on old-fashioned head forms.
The shop sat on a busy street in downtown Zeke’s Bend. There was an air of the past about the place. Sandwiched between a highly decorated antique store and a small pharmacy that advertised a soda fountain on their sign, Sheer Stylin’ fit right in.
Heath was surprised when a small crowd had gathered inside after Sylvie’s shop closed. He wondered what was going on.
He stepped back and moved over to the antique shop next door when everyone but Sylvie started filing outside. Pretending to be perusing an item in the shop’s window, he hoped they believed he truly was interested in porcelain figurines of praying, big-headed children. Or maybe he didn’t hope that. It was awkward, to say the least.
Heath wondered if there had been some kind of disturbance at the shop considering one of the people exiting was a policeman. He hoped everything was okay. As soon as the coast was clear, he cautiously made his way back to the beauty shop window.
Sylvie stood in the middle of the room bent over a stroller, and he felt a stab of anxiety in the pit of his gut again.
There had been an instant connection between them from the first moment he saw her in the hotel bar. He even entertained the idea that she was the one.
His search was finally at an end, and he was on her doorstep, determined to find out
if that assessment might have been correct. If he didn’t, he knew he’d regret it the rest of his life.
But then, there were the small bundles in the stroller to consider. They forced him to pause.
He had agonized for days about how he would approach this moment. The final signatures on the acquisition and resulting celebration by his company’s board had gone by in a blur. For something he had worked on for so long, it had paled in comparison to the possibility of what he saw in front of him now.
He had so many things that he wanted to say to Sylvie, but he didn’t want her to think he was some kind of crazy stalker. Of course, she could think that about him anyway, considering he had found her when she had obviously not wanted to be found.
The fear that she might not be so happy to see him had made him nervous. Fear was not an emotion Heath was accustomed to feeling.
He considered turning around and going home for the hundredth time since he’d arrived in Zeke’s Bend. But he needed to see her face again. And he couldn’t come all this way and not, at least, say something to her. Anything.
He had never backed away from a challenge in his life. He simply had to ball up the nerve to knock on the door and speak to her. He had to know if what he’d felt between them in Chicago was real or if he had just built the entire evening up in his mind into something akin to a mythic legend.
He took a deep breath. It was now or never. Heath smoothed his shirt down his chest then stepped over and rapped on the door.
Through the small panes of glass, he saw Sylvie turn toward the noise. She had an irritated expression. She marched over to the door and yanked it open.
He’d never know what she’d meant to say because she never said it.
Her eyes focused on him and her mouth fell open.
She went as still as a statue.
Chapter Eleven
THEY STOOD THERE STARING AT each other. Sylvie didn’t smile or acknowledge him in any way, but she didn’t walk away either. He could almost see her mind working, overwhelmed by him suddenly showing up, and was figuring out what it might mean.
