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Too long, if he was telling the truth. “Do you have any idea who the father is, then? Was she seeing someone else?”
His jaw flexed, and red splotches appeared on his neck. “Nah. And my sister never saw her with anyone.”
Jo decided to play a hunch. “So that’s not why you broke up with her?”
His brows popped and his index finger flew to his chest. “Ibroke up withher? Who told you that?”
“You didn’t?”
The splotches made their way up to his ears. “I loved her.Shebroke up withme.”
“Why?”
“She said she’d fallen out of love with me. But I don’t believe her.”
“Why not?”
“Because of the timing. Right after her mother’s diagnosis was upgraded.”
“But she was already taking care of her mother. Why would that matter?”
“It jacked up the copayments and medications and oxygen. She had to work full-time.”
Pieces shifted around in Jo’s mind. A switch to full-time work explained why Madison wasn’t enrolled at the college. Getting hired full-time also would have provided her far better medical insurance than a student plan, and would have qualified her for maternity leave. And since it would have delayed her education for the foreseeable future, she would have kept the switch to herself, to keep her mother from self-flagellating even more.
But—if she wasn’t taking classes, what had made her late for her evening prenatal sessions?
Kiernan broke into her thoughts. “I told her I’d help. We’d talked about getting married when I was done with school, and the three of us moving in together—I told her we could do that sooner. Then the next thing I knew, she was breaking up with me.”
“Maybe she didn’t want to hamstring your future,” Jo said, then softened her tone. “Do you think she would have run off, or hurt herself?”
He searched the wall again. “She would never have left her mother alone and sick. And sheneverwould have hurt her baby.”
Jo nodded, thanked him for his time, and left.
No, she thought as she strode back to the car, what she’d learned about Madison didn’t fit with self-harm or abandoning her loved ones—but that meant few hopeful possibilities remained.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Welcoming scents of basil and red sauce pulled her into Pizza Palace, and the rumbling of her stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten anything since a handful of kettle corn at the pumpkin patch. She glanced around the exposed-brick interior and spotted Sophie, David and Matt at a round wooden table with three coat-covered empty seats. The food hadn’t come yet and Isabelle and Emily were playing Skee-Ball in the attached arcade, leaving Jo no excuse to put off explaining why she’d left so abruptly. She sighed—best not to keep it from Sophie longer than necessary, regardless.
As she approached the table, David said something to Matt, his smile casual and easy as if he were anything other than a continual purveyor of chaos in their lives. Anger burst through her—his bad choices had put her in this impossible situation, tiptoeing between fracturing her own relationship with her sister or the fledgling reunion of her sister’s marriage. He was the one who should be in the hot seat, not her, and she’d had enough of him tossing around manure and being the only one left smelling of roses.
Matt rose to kiss her and pull out her chair. As she slid into it, she met Sophie’s eyes, then David’s, and started without preamble. “What I have to say isn’t going to be pleasant. Do you want to hear it now, or wait until the kids are asleep?”
Sophie followed Jo’s glance to David and narrowed her eyes at him. “Out with it.”
Jo checked to be sure the girls were still out of earshot, then leaned toward David. “You gave your girlfriend my phone number for her emergency call list?”
Sophie’s eyes blazed. “Youwhat?”
David leaned away from Jo despite the table separating them. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
Jo glared at him. “My apologies. We can go withbaby mamaif you prefer.”
David shook his head with disgust. “Very nice.”
Jo clenched her teeth against her rising anger—she wasn’t going to let him bait her. “No, sorry. You don’t get to be offended when you’re the one who created this situation.”
