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“All right,” she said, and she went to him to give his hand a gentle squeeze. “Is there anything I can do to make this better?”
“No.” He was quick with that answer, too, and he gave himself one last steeling up when he heard the vehicle approaching the house.
Not wanting to put this off for even a second, Gray went to the door, threw it open and spotted his father stepping from his truck. Judging from the man’s expression and slumped shoulders, he was dreading this as much as Gray was.
“Alana,” his father greeted as he stepped inside. He pulled off his Stetson and held it in front of him like a shield.
“I can go if you want to talk privately,” she immediately offered.
His father shook his head. “If Gray wants you here, then stay.”
Gray took hold of her hand to make sure she did just that. It would save him from having to repeat what was about to be said because Gray wouldn’t have kept her in the dark about this.
Unlike what his parents had done all these years.
That was the real pisser in this. That his mother had lied to him as well. Of course, so had Sadie Jo. She’d lied simply by keeping quiet, but Gray didn’t feel the anger toward her as he did for the man standing in front of him.
“I met Sadie Jo in a church in San Antonio,” his father began.
“A church?” Gray questioned. He’d thought this was going to have a seedier start, such as a drunken encounter in a bar or after one of her shows.
His father nodded. “She was a guest at a wedding I’d attended. Your mom wasn’t with me.” He paused, swallowed hard. “We were going through a rough patch, and she had gone to stay with her sister in Austin.”
Gray didn’t repeat the words,rough patch, but he did lift an eyebrow. “Mom always said you had the perfect marriage. You let me believe it was perfect,” he added in a snarl.
His father gave another nod. “By the time you were old enough to understand things like marriage, your mom and I did have a perfect one. Well, better than most, anyway.”
Oh, that unleashed a whole storm of anger. “You had an affair with another woman. You got that woman pregnant.”
“I did,” his father readily admitted. “Like I said, I met Sadie Jo, and at the reception, we talked. Danced together. Laughed.”
“And had sex with her.” Gray didn’t shout that, but the fury came through loud and clear in his tone.
“I did,” he repeated. “We had sex, and we both agreed it was a mistake. A one-off that we wouldn’t repeat. I went to your mother and told her what I’d done.”
Gray flinched. “I’m betting she didn’t take that well.” And despite all the lies, he hurt for his mother, knowing how much that must have crushed her.
“No, not well at all,” his father muttered in agreement. “But she wanted to work things out with me. She wanted to give our marriage a second chance.” He paused again. “Things were going well enough until Sadie Jo called me and told me she was pregnant.”
Again, Gray felt his mother’s pain and hoped like hell that she’d had someone there to comfort her. Someone like Alana who was giving him that comfort now just by being here.
“It was a hard blow for your mom,” his father went on, “because, you see, she’d been trying to get pregnant for years. That was the reason we were having that rough patch. She kept going through all these fertility treatments, and the doctor wanted her to stop. The meds were causing some serious health problems for her. But she didn’t want to stop because she wanted a baby.”
Oh, hell.
Alana looked up at him, silently questioning if he’d known any of this. He hadn’t, so Gray shook his head.I’m sorry, she mouthed.
Yeah, so was he. Sorry for the crap his mother had gone through, and the hard slap it must have been when she’d learned her husband’s one-off lover was pregnant with his child. A child she hadn’t been able to conceive with him despite the fertility treatments.
“Anyway, Sadie Jo told me she wasn’t ready to be a mom,” his father explained. “Not just because she was so young but because she’d just signed this big record contract. She wanted to focus on that and figured she couldn’t give a baby the attention he or she deserved.”
“So, she offered me to Mom and you,” Gray finished for him.
“She did.” He stopped, shook his head and drew in a long breath before he continued. “Your mom said yes right off the bat, but it took a little longer to convince me. Not because I didn’t already love and want you. I did. But because I wasn’t sure your mom would ever be able to look at you and not see Sadie Jo.”
Gray hadn’t considered that, though it would have been a huge obstacle. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the truth about that, but it was something he should know. It was the only way to get the big picture.
“Was Mom able to do that, to look at me and not see your lover’s face?” Gray asked.
