From Neighbors...to Newlyweds?

by Brenda Harlen

  He took a tentative step into the room. “Georgia?”

  She looked up at him, and his heart broke to see the doubts and confusion swirling in her eyes. “Who is he?”

  He blew out a breath. “His name’s Liam.... He was my son.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Georgia could only stare at him, uncomprehending. She thought he’d said “my son” but that wasn’t possible. There was no way he could have a child he’d never mentioned. But the expression on his face—a combination of guilt, regret and remorse—was silent confirmation of his words.

  She sank into the chair behind the desk. “You have...a child?”

  “I did,” he said. “For almost three years.”

  Three years? But that didn’t make any sense either, because the boy in the photo was clearly more than three years old.

  “Maybe you could fill in some more details,” she suggested, still trying to wrap her head around this sudden and unexpected revelation.

  He nodded, but he didn’t say anything right away, and she knew that he was struggling to find the right words to explain the situation.

  “I married Lindsay because she was pregnant,” he finally said. “And because she told me the baby was mine. It turned out that he wasn’t.”

  Though his words were casual, she heard the tension—and the hurt—in his tone, and her heart ached for him. She could only imagine how he’d responded to the disclosure. And because she knew Matt fairly well now, she knew he wouldn’t have just felt hurt and betrayed, he would have been wrecked. “How did you find out?”

  “Liam’s real father finished his tour of duty in Iraq and decided to track down his ex-girlfriend, only to find that she’d married someone else less than two months after he was deployed.”

  “Did he know that she was pregnant?”

  “No. Apparently Lindsay didn’t even know when he left. And even when she knew she was going to have his baby, she didn’t want to tell him because she was convinced he would never make it home. Instead, she decided to find another father for her baby.”

  As a mother, Georgia understood wanting what was best for her children, and she would—without question—do absolutely anything to protect them. But she couldn’t imagine any woman being as coldly calculating as Matt was describing this woman to be.

  “And I was the perfect patsy. She’d known me for years, because of my friendship with Kelsey. We’d even gone out a couple of times in high school, but it had never gone any further than that. Then suddenly she comes back from California after several years away, spinning this tale about how she never stopped thinking about me. She was beautiful and determined, and I let myself be flattered and seduced.”

  “She knew you would do the right thing,” Georgia guessed. And it made her furious to think that this kind, generous, wonderful man had been ruthlessly targeted for those qualities.

  He nodded. “I never even hesitated. I wasn’t in love with her but I already loved the baby we were going to have together, and I believed our affection for one another would grow during the course of our marriage.”

  “I’m so sorry, Matt.” And she was, her heart aching for everything he’d gone through.

  Having witnessed firsthand how effortlessly he’d connected with her children, it was all too easy to imagine the deep and immediate bond he would have formed with a baby he believed was his own. And when the truth came out, he would have been absolutely devastated.

  But he still wouldn’t have turned his back on the child. Blood ties or not, in every way that mattered, he had been the little boy’s father. His next words confirmed it.

  “When Lindsay told me that she wanted a divorce so that she could take Liam back to California to be with his real dad, I was stunned and furious. So much that I thought about suing for custody.

  “Although I wasn’t Liam’s biological parent, Jack assured me that I had a good chance of success, that the courts wouldn’t look kindly on Lindsay’s blatant deception and might believe that maintaining the status quo was in the child’s best interests.”

  “What changed your mind?” she asked, though she suspected she already knew the answer to that question.

  “Seeing the three of them together. It was immediately obvious to me that Lindsay and Jarrod loved one another in a way that she and I never had. And when he first saw Liam, when he realized that he was looking at his son—” Matt cleared his throat. “I just couldn’t deny them the chance to be a family.”

  “Even though it broke your heart,” she said softly.

  He didn’t deny it.

  “Do you see him anymore?”

  “Not since they moved back to California. Lindsay sends a card and a picture every once in a while, but Liam—” his gaze shifted to focus on the watercolor on the wall behind her “—he doesn’t even remember me.”

  Georgia knew that was likely true. Even the twins’ memories of their father were starting to fade. She knew they wouldn’t ever forget Phillip—she would make sure of that—but their recollections would dim. For her, that sad truth had been countered, at least in part, by the pleasure of watching her sons bond with Matt.

  She looked down at the photo again, her heart aching for the little boy who had been a pawn in his mother’s game, thoughtlessly shifted from home to home, from father to father. As a result, Matt had lost his son. And then he’d moved in next door to a woman with three children who had lost their father. But the implications of that were something she wasn’t ready to examine too closely just yet.

  “This was his kindergarten graduation,” she guessed.

  He nodded.

  She had to moisten her lips before she could ask, “How long ago was that?”

  “A few weeks.”

  So much for thinking that the photo had been in the drawer for so long he’d forgotten about it. He’d only received it a few weeks earlier, and she didn’t—couldn’t—understand why he’d never mentioned it to her.

  “I know I should have told you,” Matt began.

  And she waited, wondering what explanation he could possibly come up with that might make sense of the whole situation for her. He’d told her about his marriage—no, he’d only told her about his divorce, she realized now. When she’d asked him why he wasn’t married, he’d only said that he was divorced. He’d never given her any details and he’d certainly never mentioned that his wife had given birth during the course of their marriage.

  Even if it had turned out that the child wasn’t his, it was a pretty significant omission. And it made her wonder why he’d been so closemouthed about the situation. In the beginning, okay. She hadn’t spilled all the details about her marriage the first time they’d met. But as they’d grown closer, she thought he’d opened up to her. For God’s sake, he’d asked her to marry him, their wedding was only three days away, and he’d never given her the tiniest glimpse into this part of his life.

  Maybe she should have asked. Certainly his ease with her children, especially with Pippa, should have been a major clue that he had experience with kids. But when she’d questioned why he didn’t have half a dozen children of his own, he’d never mentioned that he’d once had a son. He hadn’t said anything at all.

  Just like he didn’t say anything else now, and Georgia finally understood that he wasn’t going to. He wasn’t going to explain why he hadn’t told her about the beautiful little boy who had been his son. She knew it couldn’t be easy for him to talk about Liam, to remember the child he’d loved and who had been ripped from his life. She could understand that experience would leave a huge hole in anyone’s heart. But this wasn’t just anyone, it was Matt—the man who claimed to love her.

  And now she couldn’t help but wonder if his affection for her was real, or if he just missed being a father.

  He’d always been so good with her kids—forging a deep and enduring connection with each of them. At first, it had worried her, how quickly and easily the twins had taken to their neighbor. And Pippa hadn’t been far behind
. The little girl had never known her father, but she lit up like a neon sign whenever Matt walked into the room.

  But Georgia’s wariness had slowly faded and she’d been grateful that she’d fallen in love with a man who so obviously loved her children. I wasn’t in love with her, but I already loved the baby we were going to have together.

  As Matt’s words echoed in her mind, she had to wonder what had been the precipitating event in their relationship: his attraction to her or his affection for her children?

  “Say something, Georgia, please.”

  She searched for words—any words—to describe the chaos of emotions churning inside of her. In the end, she only said, “Yes, you should have told me.”

  And she handed him the utility knife and walked out.

  * * *

  Georgia had introduced Trigger to the twins as Henry, not wanting to explain the origin of his nickname, but as soon as they found out he was married to Gramma, they decided that made him their Grampa. The boys had never had a Grampa before and Trigger had seemed so pleased with the designation that she didn’t bother to nix the boys’ decision.

  And Gramma and Grampa were more than happy to look after the kids while Georgia ran some errands. At least that was the excuse she gave for going out again as soon as she’d returned from next door. And she probably did have errands that she needed to run, but in the moment, she couldn’t remember any of them with all the doubts and insecurities churning in her mind.

  She needed to talk to someone—she needed to vent and cry and try to figure out what Matt’s revelation meant for their future. But she still didn’t know very many people in Pinehurst and the one person she might consider talking to—Kelsey—had been Matt’s friend for a long time.

  She’d known me for years, because of my friendship with Kelsey.

  That part of his explanation hadn’t really registered at the time. In comparison to all of the other details, it had hardly seemed significant. But now Georgia knew that Kelsey might be the one person who had some of the answers she so desperately needed.

  She walked down Main Street, past Emma’s Flower Shop and Beckett’s Sporting Goods until she found herself in front of Postcards from the World—Travel Agents & Vacation

  Planners.

  Kelsey spotted her as soon as she walked through the door and waved her over. “Matt said you guys weren’t going to plan a proper honeymoon until you’d weaned Pippa, but I had some ideas....” Her excited chatter faded away as Georgia got closer. “Obviously you’re not here to inquire about vacation destinations.”

  “No, I’m not,” Georgia agreed. “And I probably shouldn’t have just dropped in, but I was hoping you might have a few minutes.”

  Kelsey looked around the mostly empty room. “Right now I have a lot of minutes. Did you want a cup of tea?”

  Georgia nodded. “That would be great.”

  There was a small kitchen in the back, and Kelsey gestured for her to sit while she filled the kettle and put out a plate of cookies. When the tea was ready, she took a seat across from Georgia and said, “What did he do?”

  Georgia wasn’t surprised that the other woman had so quickly zeroed in on the heart of the problem, and the bluntness of the question encouraged her to respond equally succinctly. “He forgot to mention that he had a son.”

  “Are you saying that he didn’t tell you until today?”

  “He didn’t tell me at all. I found a graduation photo of a little boy in his desk.”

  Kelsey winced. “Sometimes I wonder how that man ever got through medical school with only half of a working brain.” Then she sighed. “Of course, he’s not really an idiot, he just leads with his heart instead of his head sometimes. That’s why it was so easy for Lindsay to manipulate him. She played her cards exactly right to get what she wanted from Matt.”

  “Sounds like you knew her well,” Georgia commented.

  Kelsey paused with her cup halfway to her lips. “What did he tell you about my connection to his ex-wife?”

  “He just said that he knew her because of his friendship with you. I assumed that meant you were a friend of hers, too.”

  The other woman shook her head. “Lindsay is my sister.”

  Now Georgia felt like the idiot. “I should have realized... I know Brittney calls him ‘Uncle Matt,’ but I thought that was just because you and he were such close friends.”

  “She refers to Jack and Luke as ‘uncle’ for that reason,” Kelsey acknowledged. “But there’s a real family connection to Matt through his marriage to my sister.”

  Georgia sipped her tea and tried to assimilate all of this new information.

  “What are you thinking?” Kelsey asked gently.

  “I don’t know what to think. My head is spinning with so many questions and doubts that I don’t know if I can articulate any of them.”

  “I can understand the questions, but what are you doubting?”

  “Matt’s reasons for wanting to marry me.”

  “The fact that he’s head over heels in love with you isn’t enough?”

  “Is he?” Georgia asked, finally speaking her greatest fear aloud.

  Kelsey looked startled by the question. “Do you really doubt it?”

  “He married Lindsay to be a father to her baby,” she reminded the other woman. “How do I know he isn’t marrying me to be a father to my kids?” It was a possibility that tore at Georgia’s heart.

  “Ask him,” Kelsey said. “That’s the only way you can be sure.”

  * * *

  It was good advice. Georgia certainly agreed that she and Matt needed to do a lot more talking, but first she went home to nurse her baby and hug her boys. Being with her children always helped her put things in perspective, through all of the best and worst times in her life. Since Matt had come into their lives, they’d enjoyed some of the best, and losing him, if that were to happen, would be one of the worst.

  A short while later, Charlotte tracked her down in the laundry room where she was folding clothes.

  “Did you pick up your wedding dress while you were out?”

  Georgia shook her head. “No, I forgot.”

  “Forgot?” Her mother laughed. “How could you forget when you’re gettin’ married in three days?”

  “I don’t know if there’s going to be a wedding,” she admitted.

  “Don’t be silly,” Charlotte chided. “Of course, there’s goin’ to be a weddin’. The church is booked, the flowers and cake have been ordered, and I know two very handsome boys who are lookin’ forward to walkin’ their mama down the aisle.”

  Georgia’s eyes filled with tears. “This is all happening too fast. I knew Phillip three years before we got married—I’ve barely known Matt three months.” She swallowed around the tightness in her throat. “And as it turns out, I’m not sure I really know him at all.”

  Charlotte waved a perfectly manicured hand. “You’re just havin’ some pre-weddin’ jitters. Not to worry—every bride does.”

  “Mom, I’m not a virgin bride fretting about my wedding night,” Georgia said, frustration evident in her tone. For once she wished her mother could be her mother, not the cliché-spouting Southern Belle that she played so well.

  “Then tell me what it is about.”

  So, with no small amount of reservation, she did.

  Charlotte was silent for several minutes after Georgia had finished talking, and when she finally spoke, it was only to ask, “Do you love him?”

  “It’s not that simple,” she protested.

  “Do you love him?” her mother asked again.

  “You know I would never have let him put a ring on my finger if I didn’t.”

  Charlotte nodded. “But do you know that marriage is a leap of faith as much as a testament to love?”

  “How am I supposed to trust a man who hasn’t been honest with me?”

  “He should have been more forthcomin’,” Charlotte agreed. “But I don’t think you can say he was dishonest. I me
an, he never actually told you he didn’t have a son, did he?”

  “That doesn’t make it okay.”

  “I’m not sayin’ it’s okay.” Her mother’s tone was placating. “I’m just sayin’ that you need to cut him some slack. No one’s perfect, baby girl, and if you expect him to be, you’re just goin’ to be disappointed.”

  “You’re right,” Georgia finally said, because it was easier to agree with her mother than to expect that she might ever see things from her daughter’s perspective.

  “I understand why you might question his motivations,” Charlotte said now. “But you might also consider that he’s been so focused on his future with you that he wasn’t thinkin’ about the past. His ex-wife and her little boy are his past, you and your children are his future.

  “You can postpone the weddin’—cancel it even, if that’s what you feel you have to do,” her mother continued. “But before you make that decision, make sure you think about all of the consequences.”

  “The boys would be so disappointed,” Georgia admitted.

  Charlotte shook her head. “Though you’re right that puttin’ off the weddin’ would likely break their hearts, this isn’t about my grandbabies. It’s about you and about why you said yes when he proposed to you in the first place.”

  “Because I love him,” she admitted.

  Her mother looked her in the eye. “And are you willin’ to spend the rest of your life without the man you love?”

  * * *

  After her conversation with her mother, Georgia had gone next door to talk to Matt, only to find out—from his brother Jack, who was cursing as he attempted to assemble bunk beds—that he’d been called in to the hospital. So she went back to her mother’s house, but she kept peeking out the window to watch for his return.

  It was late when she saw his headlights turn in the driveway, but their conversation couldn’t wait any longer. Knowing his routine, she slipped on a pair of sandals and went out the back door. Sure enough, Matt was out on the back deck, watching the puppies run around on the grass. The sky was black, but the moon and the stars gave off enough light that she was able to navigate her way across the yard.