Her Valentine Family. Renee Andrews

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СКАЧАТЬ kiss. “What about Tuesday afternoon, before my class?”

      “I have classes straight through from noon until seven-thirty.”

      “Oh.” She needed to talk to him, and she was certain that there was a reason she’d run into him on this campus. She was a big believer in God’s plan, and she knew that He wouldn’t have placed her here with Chad again unless she was supposed to do something. Who was she kidding? She knew what she needed to do. What she didn’t know was…how.

      “I promise I won’t keep you long. A half hour,” he said.

      “A half hour would be okay, I suppose.” She smiled, and turned to go again, already pondering how she would tell him the truth.

      But Chad’s next words caused her to stop completely.

      “I have a daughter.”

      Jessica’s breath caught in her throat, and she had to replay the words to process them completely.

      “I have a daughter.” A daughter.

      Gaining her composure, she turned back toward him.

      “Her name is Lainey, and she’s, well, pretty amazing.” He smiled, the obvious pride he felt for his child undeniable in the statement.

      Jessica’s eyes started to tingle, and she prayed he’d believe the tears were from the cold. “I’m very happy for you,” she said. “I’m sure she’s extremely amazing.” Then she swallowed, cleared her throat and said exactly what she hadn’t planned to say to him tonight. “I have a son.”

      The shock on his face matched hers upon learning that he had a little girl.

      “You have a son?”

      Jess nodded and smiled, her cheeks pressing upward and causing that tiny river of tears to spill over. Again, she prayed he thought it was from the cold. “His name is Nathan.” Then she laughed and added, “And he’s pretty amazing, too.”

      “I’m sure he is.”

      They both stood there for a moment, a bounty of words and explanations tumbling through her thoughts but none spoken.

      Then, after several heartbeats of standing there in that cool January air, Chad broke the uncomfortable silence.

      “So coffee, Tuesday after class? And we’ll catch up on everything we’ve missed.”

      “Yes, we will,” she said, her words barely above a whisper as a result of the lump in her throat. Then she moved away from Chad Martin, away from the only man she’d ever loved and away from the man whose eyes were identical to the ones she’d see when she returned home…to his son.

      Chapter Two

      Jessica drove mechanically back to Claremont, her mind processing the magnitude of what she’d learned on campus tonight. Chad was an instructor at Stockville Community College. He’d moved back to Claremont and was teaching. She shook her head at that. He’d wanted that medical degree so much. Why had he given up on that dream?

      She’d kept her pregnancy from him to protect that dream, to make certain that he achieved that goal first before she told him about their son. Then when she’d come back to Claremont three years ago to tell him about Nathan, Chad’s sister Becky had said he was done at UGA, that he’d actually gotten his bachelor’s degree in three years and that he was going to Emory for med school and getting married. That was the last time Jess had spoken to her old friend, since Becky had also married and moved away with her army husband. She’d heard they were stationed in Alaska. And when Becky moved so far away, the two friends had lost touch without Jessica ever telling her friend she was an aunt…or telling Chad he was a daddy.

      And Jess had consequently lost her primary link to Nathan’s father.

      Some time after that trip home, Chad returned to Claremont, had a daughter and got a divorce.

      A divorce. Chad had confided in her repeatedly through their teen years about how much it hurt growing up without two parents and how he’d marry for life, that he’d do whatever it took to make his marriage work and that if he had children, he’d never, ever want them to go through life without parents who cared about them and without love in the home.

      Yet he’d divorced. What had happened? What would have caused him to separate from his wife? Had she left him? Was she still living in Claremont? Becky had told her that Chad met his wife in Atlanta, while he was attending Emory. Maybe she was used to big cities and couldn’t handle small-town life? No, Jess thought. They wouldn’t have moved back to Claremont if that had been the case.

      So many questions and not a single answer to be found. Yet he wanted them to get together for coffee so they could chat about what happened when she left six years ago. Well, Jessica wanted to chat, too, and learn what happened in the six years since—specifically, what happened to the marriage that had kept her from telling Chad about Nathan three years ago.

      Again, Jess shook her head in disbelief. Why would anyone leave Chad? Maybe his wife had hurt him, so much that he simply couldn’t stay with her. And Chad apparently had custody of their daughter.

      A daughter. Chad had a daughter and, according to him, she was “pretty amazing.”

      Tears trickled down her cheeks. The delight he’d expressed when telling Jess about the little girl pierced her heart. It wasn’t that she was upset he had a child with someone else. The thing was, he didn’t realize that he had a pretty amazing son, too. He didn’t know because Jessica still hadn’t told him.

      She wondered if the little girl, Lainey, looked like Nathan. Did she act like him? Did Chad get to watch her blond baby fuzz hair turn sandy and wavy, so much like his own? Or the blue eyes she’d been born with change to that stunning deep forest-green, with the tiny gold flecks and ring of dark brown around the edge. Were her eyes inquisitive, like Nathan’s, always searching for answers, examining every tiny nuance of life around them?

      Jessica suddenly had an immeasurable longing to see his daughter, get to know her and introduce her to Nathan. She wondered how old Lainey was, and she was instantly touched by the fact that Nathan was a big brother. He’d often asked her for a little brother or sister who he could teach things to. At the time, she’d tried to let him down easy, since that was nowhere near a possibility when she’d had no interest in dating; she’d only wanted to raise her son, for the time being. She’d thought maybe, someday, she’d find love again, but it certainly had been a distant dream. And in her heart, she wasn’t sure she could ever truly love anyone but Chad.

      She passed the sign that said Welcome to Claremont at the edge of town and followed the familiar roads leading home. She noticed the new subdivisions, houses on cul-de-sacs where cotton fields had once been. Square beams of light shone from the windows of the homes on the winding streets.

      Chad lived in one of those houses. Chad—and his daughter.

      At some point between Stockville and Claremont, it had started to rain. With the darkness and the water streaming in wet sheets down her windshield, she was taken back to the last time she’d seen Chad Martin. She’d driven to his house to tell him that they were going to have a baby, and she knew it’d be tough, but she’d known that the two of them would find a way to make it work. They’d get married and start their family.

      But СКАЧАТЬ