Page 111 of Peaks and Promises

“Your brother’s best friend? That’s so cute.”

“I had a terrible crush on him. But he’s four years older, so he always seemed so unattainable. And I was too young for him to notice, at least in that way. He was always nice to me, though, which wasn’t the case with all my brother’s friends. Then, when I was a senior in high school, I got my first boyfriend, Graham Dawson.”

“Did Paul notice you then?”

“Maybe, but by that time he was in his early twenties. A girl still in high school would have seemed awfully young. And he and my brother weren’t as close, so I didn’t see Paul very often.

“Graham was in my class. He and his family had moved to town in the middle of our junior year, and he’d caused quite a stir. New kids are a big deal in a small-town school, especially when they’re handsome and charismatic. And he was both of those things.

“I got swept up in his charm. He was a sweet talker, and he talked his way into… Well, you know. About a month before graduation, I found out I was pregnant.”

“Oh, wow. You were a young mom, too.”

“I was. Eighteen when Reese was born.”

“Did you and Graham stay together?”

“We did. After I told him I was pregnant, he said we should get married. I was thrilled. We were young, but I wanted to be a wife and mother more than anything. I figured we were just getting started a little sooner than planned, but everything would be fine.

“So we got married. Had Reese. Not long after, I got pregnant again, and along came Theo. Then, less than two years later, we had Zachary.

“Meanwhile, Paul had been dating a girl named Carolyn. Around the same time I found out about Reese, they found themselves in a similar situation. Paul proposed, but she said no. She didn’t believe in marriage—saw it as a meaningless contract, so why bother? But since she was pregnant, they moved in together. They also had three babies, close in age to my boys. Josiah first, then Garrett, and finally Luke.”

“Did you know them during that time?”

“Not well. My brother would see Paul now and then, but that was it. And I didn’t have much of a social life. Partly because I had three little ones, and partly because Graham didn’t want me to.”

“That’s not good.”

“No, it wasn’t. I was very isolated. Graham worked, and he had his own friends and didn’t spend much time with me or our boys. And when I had the audacity to complain about that, he’d tell me I was being unreasonable.

“Then one Saturday morning, he was out in the driveway working on his car. I went outside to ask him a question—I don’t remember now what it was—and he casually announced that he was leaving. Told me he hadn’t wanted to marry me in the first place. That his parents had pressured him into it. And then accused me of trying to trap him by getting pregnant two more times.”

“As if he wasn’t there when that happened.”

“Oh, I know. It was a ridiculous thing to say. But his mind was made up. He left that very day.”

“Did he see his kids again?”

“Here and there. But he was so unreliable, eventually I had to tell him he couldn’t see them anymore. He threatened to stop paying child support. I called his bluff. Told him that was fine.”

“That must have been so hard for the kids.”

“It was the worst for Reese, I think. He was old enough to remember the good parts. Graham had his moments. And he was always charming. The boys loved him.”

“What about Paul and his boys? What happened there?”

“Carolyn didn’t even give Paul the courtesy of telling him to his face. She dropped the boys off with Paul’s mother one day and disappeared. When he got home from work, her things were gone and so was she. She’d left a note, saying she’d never wanted that life. That he and the boys were stifling her, and she needed to find herself.”

I shook my head slowly. “I can’t fathom how someone could leave their children. I’d take a bullet for my son.”

“Selfishness, plain and simple. She didn’t see the joy in sacrificing for the people you love.”

“And maybe her heart was too small to love anyone but herself.”

“I think there’s a lot of truth to that.”

“So, you and Paul found yourselves single parents. How did you go from that to a blended family?”