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“She’s beautiful. And those eyes. Just like yours Lucas. But she would’ve been just as beautiful with your green eyes, Maggie. They’re the most unique color.
“Well…Maggie isn’t the mother, but she is my girlfriend,” Lucas said, and my heart swelled. I’d hit girlfriend status. But Charlotte had turned a deep shade of red.
“Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry to assume.” Her hands fluttered around in the air.
“It’s fine, Charlotte. I just found out I’m a father. I’m getting over the shock too.”
“Well, congratulations,” Charlotte said, the color on her cheeks returning to normal. “Even if I’m confused as can be.”
“Believe me, that’s been my constant state lately,” Lucas said.
“Are you all staying overnight?” Charlotte asked, sounding hopeful we’d say yes.
Lucas held up our overnight bags. “We planned on it. I want to introduce Mother to Maggie and Esmé.”
Charlotte and I followed Lucas inside the house, though calling it a house was an understatement.
Charlotte leaned over and whispered in my ear as we walked, “You must be someone really special. I’ve worked here for twenty years. You’re the first woman Lucas has brought here to meet his mother.”
I bit back the smile trying to blow up my face. I wanted nothing more than to believe what we had was special, but it was such early days for us. I still didn’t feel like I knew him as well as he knew me. Maybe tonight I’d get a closer peek at the real him.
Charlotte carried our things upstairs, and Lucas showed me around the downstairs of the house. I’d need a map to find my way back to the front door. I held Esmé close to my chest. This house was filled with vases, paintings, and sculptures that had probably cost more than a year’s tuition at my state school. When Esmé got older, this was going to be one big no-no house.
We stopped at the entrance of a glass sunroom with plants growing everywhere. It looked like a hidden garden with its English style of iron and glass.
Still holding Esmé, I walked behind Lucas. He stopped in front of me and moved to the side, placing his hand on the small of my back. A beautiful woman with blond hair and ice-blue eyes looked up at us.
“Oh, Lucas, you came to visit! I didn’t think you were coming back.” His mother clapped her hands like a child, and tears started flowing down my cheeks. I understood what he tried to explain to me in the car. But seeing her in person, acting this way, broke my heart in two. “And you brought a friend. Wait. Two!”
“This is Maggie, and the baby’s name is Esmé,” Lucas said, moving me closer with his hand. My legs had frozen in place.
His mother rose off her cushioned chair and walked toward Esmé and me. It was like seeing an older version of Chloe with her identical blue eyes and sharp features. His mother stopped and stared at Esmé, who was sucking the life out of her thumb as usual. I worried we were overdue for a bottle.
“Do I know this baby?” his mother asked, glancing up at Lucas. “She looks so familiar.”
“She looks like my sister, Chloe. You know her. She comes to visit you too.”
“Oh yes, Chloe. You’re right, the baby looks like her, and you too. It’s those eyes. Whose baby is it? Yours, Maggie?” His mother looked at me, and I glanced up at Lucas in a panic.
“No, she’s not Maggie’s, Lilly. The baby’s mine,” Lucas’s voice broke as he spoke. I tried not to sob out loud, but it was becoming impossible. I didn’t know if there’d be anything left of my heart after today.
“I had no idea. Congratulations, Lucas. You have a beautiful daughter.” His mother touched the side of Esmé’s cheek. “Her skin is so soft.”
“Would you like to hold her?” I asked side-eyeing Lucas, wondering if that was okay to ask.
“May I?” Lilly said with a hand over her heart. “I used to have a baby doll that looked like her.”
Lucas guided his mother back to her chair, helping her sit down. He was so gentle with her, loving and tender. I placed Esmé in Lilly’s arms, and she cuddled her to her chest, just like she’d probably done with her own children.
We stayed the afternoon with his mother in her sunroom. She fed Esmé a bottle and held her while she slept, falling head over heels in love with her grandchild, even though she didn’t know it.
I understood everything about Lucas’s torment now. The guilt he had for the accident and the years he’d carried the shame and self-hatred around inside him. No wonder it had slowly eaten away at his soul.
After dinner, I followed Lucas upstairs to his bedroom where we would sleep. I was carrying Esmé in my arms. She’d been dozing for a few minutes and was ready to be laid down.
