by Layla Holt
His heart ached. He was afraid he was going to make an idiot of himself if he stayed in the same space as her for much longer. He needed to get rid of her pronto. Dean pushed his chair back and stood up.
A stricken expression came on her face. “Are you leaving?”
“Yes. I have an appointment with a client,” Dean said.
“I’m a client too,” Ruby said.
“You might want to get a lawyer in New York. We’re very local and concentrate on Lockwood residents,” Dean said.
“I’m a Lockwood resident,” Ruby said.
His heart skipped a beat. Something flickered in his chest. He searched her face, afraid to hope.
“What’s going on Ruby?” Dean said.
“I’m back home to stay. My lease is up in New York. I didn’t renew it.”
He wanted it so bad. Wanted her back so bad. But what is... “What if you change your mind?”
“I can’t,” she said. Her eyes flooded with tears. “My greatest opportunity is here and I don’t want to miss it.”
He closed his eyes momentarily. Was he a fool to want her so bad? To even consider opening his heart to Ruby again?”
“I’m sorry Dean, I’ve been such a fool. All along I was searching for my next great opportunity when all along, it was right here in Lockwood. You were right here. I love you. I love you with everything I’ve got.”
He went around his desk and stood in front of her. “I thought I’d lost you permanently.”
“You can never lose me,” Ruby said. “I’ve always belonged to you Dean, even when I was far away.”
He cupped her face. “I’ve dreamed of us for so long I never really believed it would happen. I never thought you’d love me enough to be satisfied with me.”
She threw herself in his arms. “I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through.”
“It’s fine sweetie. It doesn’t matter. What matters is now and our future. I love you,” Dean said.
EPILOGUE
Six months later
Ruby and her bridesmaids were crowded in a small room off the altar, waiting for their cue. Sweat was running down her back ruining her gorgeous wedding gown.
Ruby turned to Penny who was behind her, fussing with her veil. “What if he doesn’t come?”
“Then now you’ll know for sure that you two were never meant to be,” Penny said in a flippant tone.
“Oh God.” Ruby was going to be sick. What had made her think of something so stupid?
She had wanted the fairy tale white wedding but without putting Dean through the agony of wondering if she would show up. So, she’d thought of switching things around so that she would be the one to wait for Dean. Father Martin had understood why she wanted to do it that way.
Ruby reminded herself that it had been a thousand times worse for Dean. His bride had not shown up. If she could turn back the clock she would. Living through what he had gone through was an eye opener. The worry, the anxiety and for Dean, the heartbreak and the shame.
The door opened and Ruby looked up hopefully when Leah walked in. She smiled. “It’s time to go.”
Ruby could have wept. She gathered her wedding gown into her fists and hauled herself to her feet.
“You’ll ruin the gown,” Penny admonished.
“I don’t care,” Ruby said. She just wanted to get this nerve-wracking part over and done with.
She now wished she had taken up Dean’s offer to elope. But that would have been so unfair to Dean’s family, especially Mrs. Cohan. After the shame that Ruby had brought on them four years earlier, she deserved to be in a wedding that actually happened.
They made their way down the small hallway and entered the church through the side door. A murmur and a cheer went up as Ruby and her bridesmaids entered and arranged themselves at the front of the church.
She was a mess. All her training had flown out of the window. She was hot and nauseous and she was sure that her mascara was running down her face. Then, something in the atmosphere changed and Ruby spun around to face the entrance.
Dean. He and his groomsmen were walking own the aisle. Ruby gave a small cry, hitched up her wedding dress and ran down the aisle.
Dean opened his arms and she flew right into them, almost knocking him down. “You were supposed to wait,” Dean mumbled, laughter in his voice.
“I couldn’t wait a second longer to be in your arms,” Ruby said.
“You never have to,” Dean said. “I will always be by your side.”
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A SNEAK PEAK
His Secret Baby
Chapter One
***
“What a big name for such a small person,” Maisie cooed as she kissed Matt on his cheek and generally fussed over him.
Leah swallowed a lump in her throat. Her parents had never really warmed up to Matt and it felt good to see another person besides herself loving him. She shifted her glance from her best friend and son and took in Maisie’s home. It was identical to the house next door where she had grown up.
“The boys will be so excited to meet Matt,” Maisie said.
Leah raised an eyebrow. “Boys?”
Maisie looked up. “Yes. Didn’t I tell you? I’m going to be a stepmom when Liam and I get married. He has two boys from his second marriage. Oliver and James. They’re the sweetest. I watch them when Liam is at work.”
All that was news to Leah. “Second marriage?”
“Yeah. I’ll be his third,” Maisie said nonchalantly as if a man who’d been divorced twice was no big deal.
Leah swallowed the myriad of questions she longed to ask her best friend. She had no right to judge Liam based on his past unsuccessful marriages but still. Maisie had changed since she took up with Liam. First of all, she’d lost a good job in an IT firm in the city.
Then she opened her own business, building websites and general IT work but even that she neglected from what Leah had pieced together. Over time, she would get Maisie to open up. For now, she was glad that Maisie had insisted that she and Matt stay with her.
There was one thing though that they needed to talk about. The thing that had brought Leah back home. She ran her damp hands over her thighs.
“He’s such a cutie,” Maisie said, giving Leah the opening she needed.
“I never told you who Matt’s dad is and you never asked,” Leah said.
Maisie shrugged. “I figured you were embarrassed about it. Keith was kind and all but he wasn’t the easiest on the eye.”
“Keith?” Leah said, baffled.
Maisie looked equally puzzled. “Isn’t Keith Matt’s father?”
It came to her then. Keith was a nurse who had never shed his shyness and had liked to follow her around in the hospital where she worked. He had never garnered the courage to express his feelings for her.
She shook her head. “Keith isn’t the father.”
“Then who is?” Maisie said.
Matt wriggled and tried to slide out of Maisie’s lap. He had learnt to crawl the previous month and hated being held for too long.
“You can put him on the rug, he’ll be fine,” Leah told Maisie.
She waited until Matt started crawling before she answered Maisie’s question. Maisie would be the third person who knew the identity of Matt’s dad.
“Adrian,” Leah said softly.
Maisie did not move or respond.
“Cohan,” Leah added.
“I know who Adrian is,” Maisie snapped. “Oh my God, how did that happen? When did you meet?”
“You remember when we went for a Christmas party at their house?” Leah said. Her hands were damp with sweat. She still couldn’t read Maisie’s reaction. She couldn’t tell if she was mad or hurt.
“Yeah, the on
e they hold for employees?” Maisie said with a sneer. She had never liked the Cohan family but Leah always figured it was because she felt the wealth gap more thoroughly with her father working as a chauffeur for the family.
“Yes. We spoke a lot that day and then he invited me to go for a weekend away. He was going out of town for work and he wasn’t looking forward to it but with company, he said it would be lovely. I was flattered and I agreed.” She lowered her gaze.
That weekend had haunted Leah for a year and a half. She had tried to rewrite history countless times by imagining different scenarios that didn’t involve discarding all the values her parents had taught her. Not that she regretted getting Matt. He was worth every bit of pain that had come afterwards.
“You’d always liked him,” Maisie said, shaking her head as if she couldn’t understand why anyone would have a crush on Adrian Cohan. “Then what happened?”
Leah closed her eyes momentarily and pushed away images of that weekend. If it were possible, she’d fallen even more in love with Adrian and believed that he felt the same. He had showered her with love and she’d immersed herself in it. Even afterwards, she had believed he loved her.
Until she told her parents and they laughed at her.
“I went with him and came back pregnant,” Leah’s voice shook as memories of that period washed over her. “When I told my parents, they flipped.” That was putting it mildly.
They had raged and ranted most of the night.
“Did you tell them who the father was?” Maisie said.
“Yes. They said that he would not look at me twice. Their kind did not marry trash like me. They slept with them and ditched them,” Leah said and wiped off a tear that had escaped her right eye.
“They were right on that score,” Maisie said. She shifted her glance to Matt. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier. He’s a Cohan. A carbon copy of his dad.”
“I know. I always worried that if we came back someone would put two and two together,” Leah said.
Maisie held her gaze. “But you are going to tell him.”
“That was the plan,” Leah said. It had been so easy to make that decision when she was living with her parents in the remote Northern California town.
Now that she was back in Lockwood, and so near Adrian, fear was beginning to creep into her bones. What if he wasn’t interested in Matt? That would devastate her. Before Matt, Leah had not believed it possible that someone could love another human as much as she loved her son.
Her eyes followed him as he investigated Maisie’s living room. She would do whatever it took to protect him. The question was, did she need to protect him from his dad?
“And now?” Maisie said.
“I don’t know,” Leah said. She wanted Matt to grow up knowing his dad but what if his dad did not want to know him?
“It’s the stories in the papers that have you changing your mind, isn’t it?” Maisie said.
Distance had not broken their bond or understanding of each other. The papers had been full of colored photographs depicting the Cohan home and the family members. The press coverage had been brought about by their sister’s upcoming wedding.
“Matt and I don’t belong with them,” Leah said.
“We may not belong in their circle, but he does.” Maisie gestured at Matt. “He has their blood running through him and he deserves to have all the advantages that come with being a Cohan.”
Leah turned to her friend sharply. “That’s not why I’m doing this. I just want Matt to know his dad. I don’t want him to grow up comparing himself with other children and wondering why he doesn’t have a dad.”
Maisie waved a hand away. “I’ll be danged. You really do know how to keep secrets.”
Leah had no excuses. Her parents had frightened her with what could happen if anyone found out. Looking back, she knew she could and should have trusted Maisie. Maybe her parents would not have been able to coerce her into leaving town. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I kind of understand why you couldn’t say anything. I know what your parents are like.”
Their houses had been next door to each other before Leah’s parents sold theirs. Maple Street had been and still was one of the poorer areas of their town. Even now driving up from the bus station with Maisie, Leah had been shocked at how dilapidated some of the houses were.
Maisie giggled. “Remember when your mom came to school?”
Leah rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me.” They both laughed. “I can’t believe I can laugh about that now,” Leah continued. “I was mortified. I wanted to die. I begged dad to let me change schools.”
Her mom had come to school after a summons from Miss Simmons, the sixth-grade teacher. Instead of behaving like a normal mom, Leah’s mom had entered the school holding up her crucifix to ward off evil spirits.
For the rest of her years at school, kids had teased her about it, holding up imaginary crucifixes over her head as she walked past. Maisie was the only one who had stood by her.
“So, you’re going to tell him?” Maisie pressed.
“I don’t have his number,” Leah said.
Maisie wore an incredulous stare. “That’s not the sort of thing you tell someone on the phone. Even I know that.”
Leah shrugged. “I thought I could text him.”
“Leah Ryan, have you lost your marbles?” Maisie sounded like her mother. Which was a good thing. Her mother had been a wonderful person.
“Hey, I’m sorry about your mom,” Leah said softly.
The year and a half had been difficult for Maisie as well. Her mom had died suddenly from a brain aneurism and her father had moved into the staff quarters at the Cohan residence, leaving the house to Maisie.
Tears sprung to Maisie’s eyes. Leah quickly left her position and went to kneel besides her friend. She took her hands and held them. “Sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“You had no choice,” Maisie said. “I miss her so much.”
“I know you do. She was a lovely woman.” Maisie’s parents had taught Leah a little of what a normal family looked like. Her own parents had been described by people who knew them as religious fanatics.
Laughing too loud was frowned upon in their house. Apparently, the Lord did not like loud noises or people who were too cheerful. It had taken changing churches for Leah to decide that her parents’ version of religion was not hers. She believed in a God who wanted his children to be happy.
Maisie let out a sharp laugh and wiped her face. “This is the first time I’ve talked about her since it happened.”
“Why?” Leah asked. “Talking is good. Didn’t you have someone to talk to? Liam?”
“Liam doesn’t like talk of death or any other unpleasant topics. I don’t blame him. He says the world has enough troubles without us going on about the past.”
Leah bit her mouth to keep from speaking her mind. She hadn’t met Liam but what she had heard so far had not impressed her. What kind of childish thinking was that? Bad and good things happened. Talking about them healed people’s hearts.
She was glad she was back in town. At least, Maisie would have someone to talk to when she needed to. So would she, Leah mused. She’d been so lonely with no close friends and warnings from her parents not to tell anyone about ‘the child’s’ dad.
They had never come to terms with Matt and always referred to him as ‘the child.’ For the first time in a year and a half, Leah felt at peace.
They continued with their conversation about Adrian moments later when Maisie was composed.
“So, do you have Adrian’s number?” Leah said.
“Of course,” Maisie said and sat up straighter. “I have an idea. You’ll tell him when we go for Megan’s wedding. You remember their spoilt little sister, don’t you? She’s getting married to this Italian guy and they’re going to live on his family vineyard in Italy.” She crinkled her nose.
Leah laughed. “What’s wrong with living on a farm?”
“Listen, if my family was that wealthy, nothing and I mean nothing would convince me to leave the country and go elsewhere,” Maisie said with feeling.
Leah cocked her head to the side and contemplated her friend. “Not even love?”
“Not even love,” Maisie said.
“Could that be because you’ve never truly fallen in love?”
“I have. I’m in love with Liam,” Maisie said emphatically. “Anyway, we’ll go to the wedding and after the ceremony, you can talk to him.”
GET HIS SECRET BABY HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LAYLA HOLT IS A MOM and a wife by day, to two even tempered sweet kids, she sometimes wonders if they are really hers☺.
By night, she’s a romance writer and reader. Nothing beats an evening spent with a book leading to a happy ever after. Romance books brighten and color the world, and HEA’s make everything right in her world. Happy sigh.
