Georgia Meets Her Groom. Elizabeth Bevarly

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СКАЧАТЬ ease the tension she felt eating him up. “Looks like you found a decent job,” she said with a chuckle. “Finally got that car you always wanted, I see, though those D.C. plates come as a surprise. I never thought of you as the urban type.” She tried to sound nonchalant as she added, “What else is there? Are you married with children?”

      When he met her gaze again, his eyes were edged with fatigue and sadness. “I’m kind of surprised you’d care about what happened to me after I left Carlisle.”

      She was honestly stumped by his response. “Why wouldn’t I care about you?”

      He shrugged, sighing heavily. “For some reason I thought you’d be angry with me when I saw you again.”

      Again she was puzzled by his assumption. “Why would I be angry with you?”

      “Because I... left you.”

      The way his voice softened on the last part of his statement made Georgia’s heart hammer a little more fiercely behind her rib cage. “You always promised you would. It’s not like I wasn’t prepared.”

      He nodded, straight white teeth catching his lower lip as he thought about something. “Yeah, well, that made one of us,” he told her cryptically.

      She decided not to dwell on his odd assertion and instead continued, “After you left town, I consoled myself by telling myself you’d come back for me. Then, after a while, I knew that would never happen. Once I turned eighteen, I sometimes thought about coming after you. But I was never sure where to look.”

      “Anyone could have found me who wanted to,” he said. “But no one ever wanted to, apparently.”

      “Oh, no, you don’t,” she objected when she realized what he was trying to say. “Don’t make me out to be the bad guy in this. You’re the one who left Carlisle without even saying goodbye.”

      His gaze snapped up to meet hers. “Like you said, I never made a secret of my intentions.”

      “No, but you never extended me an invitation to come along, either.”

      He shook his head at her in disbelief. “I didn’t think you’d need one. Besides, you were only fourteen—you weren’t legal to come. Your father would have had the law on us in no time. Geo, I—”

      “Jack, stop.” She rose abruptly and ran a hand nervously through her hair, wanting to kick herself for ever getting them started on this. “There’s too much we could have—should have—said and didn’t. We were kids. Two totally different people from who we are now. Let’s not even talk about your leaving or my not looking for you. We both could have done things differently, but we didn’t, and there’s nothing we can do to change that, all right?”

      She forced a smile. “Let’s not allow it to wreck our friendship. You were the best buddy I ever had. We just found each other again. I don’t want anything to spoil that.”

      He continued to stare down into his coffee instead of meeting her gaze, but he mumbled softly, “All right. We’ll let it go. For now.”

      For now, Georgia repeated. She supposed it was inevitable that they’d have to address the past eventually. But today they were both more than a little dazed at seeing each other again after the passage of so much time. Jack had a lot on his mind where his family was concerned. The last thing they should be doing was rehashing the old days that had brought them so many hard times, and so much unhappiness. But there was still far too much left unsaid and unsettled, she knew. And somehow, some way, soon, they were going to have to address that.

      The moment stretched taut, until the back door careened open on the winter wind, and a male voice shouted out, “Georgia! I’m home!”

      Georgia and Jack spun abruptly around toward the announcement in time to see a young boy in his middle teens burst into the kitchen and slam the door good-naturedly behind himself. He heaved a stack of school books onto the counter and moved immediately to the refrigerator, yanking open the door to study its contents for a moment before snatching a soda and popping the top with a quick pffft. He was relaxed and unconcerned and clearly quite at home in his surroundings.

      Until he looked up and saw Jack. And that’s when the boy snapped to wary attention.

      Immediately his gaze shifted to Georgia, his expression a silent question mark. She smiled as she rose from the sofa, then made her way around it and into the kitchen, pulling the boy into a fierce bear hug. Then she stood beside him with her hand roped around his waist, and he draped his arm casually over her shoulder.

      But he continued to eye Jack with suspicion, a reaction that Georgia had hoped Evan would be over by now. Still, she supposed he had a reason and a right to be cautious. And maybe someday he wouldn’t be so quick to mistrust.

      She gave him another affectionate squeeze, then turned to Jack to make introductions. “Jack,” she said with a proud smile, “I’d like you to meet my son. Evan.”

      Three

      Her son? Jack echoed to himself, the small word nearly choking off his breath. Georgia had a son? How the hell had that happened? Well, of course, he could pretty well figure out how it had happened, but when? And with whom? And why?

      Why? That was the question that stuck in his head most profoundly. Not so much Why does she have a son? but rather Why cou/dn’t she have waited for me? And then he asked himself further just what the hell he was thinking by asking himself that. Before the incongruity of all those questions had time to jell in his brain, he shook them off—both mentally and physically—with one quick, imperceptible gesture.

      Then he studied the boy more closely, only to find that Evan was just as intent on studying him right back. For one long, silent moment, the two men sized each other up in the way men do when both of them care deeply about the same woman. While Evan considered Jack, Jack considered Evan. Looking at the boy was like seeing himself too many years ago to consider. He towered a good four inches over Georgia, his dark, shoulder-length hair unruly, his casually hooded gaze from piercing blue eyes hiding anything he might be feeling, his menacing stance announcing to the world that he was ready for any and all takers.

      Evan narrowed his eyes even more angrily at Jack and demanded, “Who the hell are you?”

      “Evan!” Georgia cried as she took a step away to glare at the boy. “That was completely uncalled for. You apologize to Mr. McCormick right now.”

      For Jack it was the proverbial déjà vu all over again. A quarter century melted away, and he was standing back in the parking lot of Carlisle High School East, getting to know Georgia’s family for the first time, up close and personal. And he was seeing all over again, too, just how badly he measured up to the standards of the other man in her life. Only this time it wasn’t Georgia’s father who found him so lacking. It was Georgia’s son.

      “Name’s Jack McCormick,” he retorted in much the same way he had to Gregory Lavender that day two decades ago. He would have tacked on another Who the hell are you? as well, but seeing as how Georgia had just introduced the boy as her son, it wasn’t exactly necessary.

      Nevertheless, he felt compelled to add, “Not that it’s any of your business.”

      This time Georgia pivoted to glare at him. “Jack...” she said softly, her voice edged with warning.

      She СКАЧАТЬ