AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Colleen extricated herself. “How old are you?” she asked.
“I’m twenty-six.”
“Holy shit.”
“I know. We could be sisters.” Gail smiled, but her eyes remained cool. Her huge engagement ring flashed.
Dinner was excruciating. Dad was helpful in a way he never was with Mom. Gail waffled between Adorable Ingenue and Experienced Prostitute, biting her lower lip and shooting Dad come-fuck-me looks. Whenever she stood, she arched her back, shoved her nonexistent belly outward and made doe eyes, smitten with the Miracle of Life.
When Colleen got home, she was exhausted. Mom was waiting by the door. “Well? It’s just temporary, isn’t it? This can’t last. He’ll come to his senses. This is just a lapse in judgment.”
And that was maybe the worst part. Far worse than Mom’s occasional and very righteous anger was her hope.
“Mom, why would you even want him back?” Colleen said.
“Why? Because I love him. Because he’s the father of my two beautiful children.”
“And soon he’ll be the father of another beautiful child.” She sat down on the tired couch. “Gail has an engagement ring.”
Her mother’s face went white. “He won’t go through with it. He’s just having a midlife crisis, that’s all. Who even knows if Gail’s really pregnant? Or if she is, if it’s even Pete’s baby?”
The next day, Mom went to House of Hair a brunette with a few streaks of gray...and came back a redhead. Not only that, but her perfectly lovely blue eyes were looking awfully green lately, courtesy of her tinted contacts.
In other words, she looked like a wannabe Gail.
It made Colleen want to cry.
Mom called Dad six or seven times a day on flimsy excuses...“Pete, honey, I’m looking for the screwdriver. Can you come by when you get a second? Pete, do you remember where you put the car insurance papers? Pete, we should talk about the kids. Want to go to Hugo’s and see Connor?”
Colleen could only watch in sorrow and anger and misery.
She missed Lucas. God, she missed him.
But he’dliedto her. Lucas, who was so scrupulously honest and decent beneath his scruffy, South-Side tough-guy persona, had covered for her father. If only he’d told her about it, maybe she could’ve talked some sense into her father, because she and Dad, they were too smart for this.
And then Gail wouldn’t be pregnant right now. Mom wouldn’t be in schizophrenic divorce hell. Connor’s mouth wouldn’t be so tight, and half the town wouldn’t be clucking and gossiping over the O’Rourkes.
And maybe her father would still love her as much as he used to, if he didn’t have a replacement daughter on the way.
Maybe her family would still be intact.
It felt as if Lucas had taken that chance away.
But that didn’t keep her from missing him, his dark, steady eyes, his workingman hands and low, smoky voice. The feeling of his mouth, his slow smile, and yes, that little-boy-lost shadow that he still carried with him. His voice when he called hermía.Mine.
Ofcourseshe wanted to marry him, more than ever now. Her own family was screwed up beyond repair, but they could make a new family. They’d get married and have a relationship that was ten times better than what her parents had had. Lucas would have a home, a real home, and his sister and the girls could come stay for the holidays, and Connor would be in and out, and he and Lucas would be best friends, and they’d be able to handle anything life threw at them. Including her parents’ divorce and her impending sibling.
They were better together than they were apart. He needed her; she made him smile, she made him happy, she made him whole, and he did the same things for her.
It was possible, Colleen thought late at night, that she’d been a little...rash.
But pride kept her from calling him. She wanted that first move to come from him. He was the one who’d lied, and of course she’d forgive him. All he had to do was ask.
And then, one day, he was here. Finally.
It was July, and the town was hosting the Days of Wine and Roses, a garden tour/wine extravaganza. Colleen was helping at the Blue Heron booth; the Hollands had just hired Mom in the tasting room for the season, and thank God for that, since the job was at least a distraction. Faith was home for the summer and had been absolutely stalwart.
The whole town was out, the sun was shining, the green was covered in tents, and mason jars filled with roses adorned every table. Dogs and children ran around in the park across the street, and every business was offering goodies on the sidewalks.
