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Jill was impressed. “You like to bake?” she asked Jesse.
Jesse nodded but Kelly nudged her.
“She’s being modest. She’s going to be a famous pastry chef one day.”
Jesse mumbled a response, but Roark came in at that moment, rubbing his stomach and saying he couldn’t stand the smells coming out of the kitchen anymore.
“I need food, woman,” he said as Mrs. Poole tried to push him away from the stove.
When it was time to sit down to eat, Jack asked Kelly’s dad to carve the turkey and then heavily laden platters of food were passed around. Wine glasses were filled and finally grace was said before everyone began to eat.
Jill had been a bit sad she wouldn’t be with her own family this Thanksgiving – she and Andrew planned to go see her parents at Christmas this year – but the minute she tasted Mrs. Poole’s cornbread stuffing and turkey, more tender than even her own mother’s, she forgot most of the sting of being away from home. The woman could cook.
Toward the end of the meal, Jack rose and cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. When a hush fell on the group, he began to speak.
“As all of you know, I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I found my beautiful, incredible, sexy wife and somehow convinced her to spend the rest of her life with me.”
The love Jack held in his heart for Kelly shone in his eyes as he looked at her and Jill saw Kelly tear up at his words. They also raised a slight blush on Kelly’s cheeks when Jack hit the word ‘sexy.’
“We were blessed to get Kelly back safe when she was kidnapped. Instead of losing her and any possibility at happiness along with her, I was given a second chance – thanks to her quick thinking, Jesse’s brains, Andrew, Chad and Samantha. I owe you guys everything,” Jack said as he looked at them. Jack’s voice was thick with emotion and Jill found herself tearing up as well.
She hadn’t met Samantha yet and the woman wasn’t at the Thanksgiving gathering, but Andrew had told Jill about her. She sounded like an amazing woman.
“I also have a second chance at a relationship with my Aunt Mabry, who I have missed more than I realized over the years.” Jack squeezed his aunt’s hand while she beamed back at him.
“And I am very happy to tell you all that Kelly and I are now expecting our first baby.” The table exploded with congratulations and cheers from everyone. But Jill’s heart felt a small pang and as she raised her eyes to Andrew’s she saw his were locked on her as well. She knew they were both thinking about the children they lost and perhaps thinking about the children they might have in the future.
It was in that moment that Jill could no longer deny what she had been trying so desperately to push aside: she loved Andrew. With all her heart and all she was, she loved him.
As she sat, a new realization swept over her – all while she tried to keep up appearances, congratulating Kelly and Jack and nodding in agreement when Kelly’s mom said how wonderful the couple’s baby news was... Jill realized she couldn’t marry Andrew.
She looked down at the tablecloth and blinked furiously, pushing back the tears burning in her eyes. She couldn’t be in a marriage like she’d been in before. A one-sided marriage where Jill was in love but her husband was not. He’d told her their marriage wouldn’t be based on love.
But it would be for her. And she’d be right back where she’d been with Jake.
The thought made her heart cleave clean in two.
It didn’t matter that she believed Andrew would never leave her. What mattered was that she would always know why he stayed.
If she married Andrew, she would know he stayed true to her because of the penalty clause, the money. Not because of love. And, that, she realized was something she couldn’t bear to live with.
Andrew watched Jill across the table. He knew she must feel a flash of pain at the news of Jack and Kelly’s baby, but as he watched her, he knew something more was going on. He and Jill went from sharing a small, unspoken moment about their lost children, to something different.
She wouldn’t meet his eye and she was quiet through the rest of the meal, as if she’d withdrawn into herself.
In between dessert and dinner, he found a moment alone with her and pulled her into his arms.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” he whispered into her ear. He tried to let her feel how much he loved her, how much she meant to him through his embrace.
“Mmm hmm. I’m okay. Just tired.” She pressed her head into his chest, laying her cheek on him.
He wanted to believe her but something felt off and he couldn’t shake the feeling the rest of the evening.
They got through dessert, helped with cleanup, visited a bit more with everyone, but Andrew wanted to get Jill home. Get her back to where it was just the two of them in their own little world, a safe cocoon so he could find out what was bothering her.
They drove home with Lydia and Nora maintaining most of the conversation. Andrew dropped the two older women at Nora’s and walked them up to the door, being careful with Nora since her hip had only recently been declared ‘healed.’
Then he drove Jill and himself next door to her grandmother’s house.
