Zoey waited for Donna to sit, before settling in an armchair opposite. “You showed up in person, and I still didn’t believe you.”
“Do you now, Zoey?”
“Yes, because I can see the resemblance. What I need to know is why you left me with my father.”
Zoey listened, stunned when Donna revealed she was twenty when she blew a tire and James Allen stopped to help her fix it. She’d thought him handsome and chivalrous, and when he asked her out she said yes. She’d grown up in Wickham Falls but after she graduated her family moved to a suburb of Beckley.
“Meanwhile I was dating someone I was passionately in love with but once I met James I broke up with him. James and I dated off and on and when I didn’t see him I’d go back to my old boyfriend. I knew it was wrong but I couldn’t make up my mind who I wanted.”
With wide eyes, Zoey asked, “You were sleeping both of them?”
Donna nodded. “Yes. I didn’t see James for a couple of months and he finally said we had to stop the merry-go-round and get married. Meanwhile I was unaware that I was pregnant with another man’s baby when James asked me to marry him. I accepted his proposal because I did love him.”
“But not as much as your first boyfriend.”
A sad smile parted Donna’s lips. “I knew when I married James that I would never love him the way I did Zachary. My parents gave us money for the down payment on the house in Wickham Falls as a wedding gift. All hell broke loose when the doctor confirmed I was three months along when I married, and James knew it wasn’t his.”
“What did he say?”
“He said because I was his wife he would claim and raise the baby as his own.”
Zoey ran a hand over her face. She could not imagine being married to one man while carrying another man’s baby. And suddenly it hit her that James Allen wasn’t her father and Kyle and Harper weren’t her biological brothers. While the woman sitting in front her had handed her over to a man as if he’d legally adopted her. She wanted to say things to Donna she knew would prevent them from having anything that would remotely resemble an association.
“What happened after that?”
“James moved out of our bedroom. He was with me in the delivery room and I thought we could become a normal family after I brought you home, but nothing changed. James wasn’t one for displays of affection, but he did fawn over you.”
“Did you actually believe he would become the loving husband when he knew you were sleeping with another man while you were also sleeping with him?”
“I don’t know what I was thinking at the time, Zoey. After a while, I couldn’t take the alienation and asked for a divorce. James agreed, but he told me I couldn’t take you.”
Zoey narrowed her eyes. “And just like that, you gave me up.”
“I was so confused and mixed up that I couldn’t think straight. I’d start crying and couldn’t stop. It was later when I realized I’d been experiencing severe postpartum depression. The dark moods continued and after the divorce I saw a psychiatrist and I was diagnosed as bipolar. I take medication to this day. And when I don’t take it, I have extreme highs and lows.”
“What happened after your divorce? Did you look for your baby’s father and tell him you’d had his child?”
“Zachary never knew I had his baby. I did go to see him and when I asked his mother for his address, she told me he’d enlisted in the army and was stationed overseas. I wrote him and told him I was no longer married, and I’d given my ex full custody of my daughter, because emotionally I was unable to take care of you.” Tears filled Donna’s eyes and flowed down her face. “Leaving you was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
Pushing off her chair, Zoey went to her knees in front of her mother and hugged her, sharing in the pain and grief both had experienced since that fateful day when Donna Allen was forced to give up her daughter.
“What happened after the divorce, Mama?” The single word validating their relationship had slipped out unbidden.
“I married Zachary, but we never had more children. I’d come to believe it was nature’s way of punishing me for abandoning my beautiful baby. It wasn’t until I married Zachary that I felt what it meant to be loved. He became a lifer, while I lost count of the number of times we moved from base to base. He retired three years ago. He died in his sleep from natural causes this past spring. I didn’t want to move from Alaska because it was the first time I did not feel like a nomad. All my family had left West Virginia, so when I got a call from my last remaining cousin, I decided to drive down to see her. I had no intention of stopping in Wickham Falls, yet something kept pulling me back here. I stopped to ask a deputy if James Allen still lived in town and that’s when he told me James and his wife had died from carbon monoxide poisoning ten years ago, but you and your brothers still lived in the house.”
Zoey rose and retook her seat. What Donna had just revealed was a lot for her to process. “What was my biological father like?”
Donna smiled. “He was wonderful. Patient, affectionate and overly generous to a fault. He would give someone the shirt off his back or his last dollar if they needed it. I know if you’d met him you would grow to love him as much as I did.” Her smile vanished. “I know James remarried. How was your stepmother?”
“She was a wonderful mother, and I loved her unconditionally. She and Dad gave me two very special brothers, and there isn’t day when I don’t miss her.”
Donna closed her eyes as she rested her head against the back of the chair. “It’s comforting to know James could give you a better life than I would’ve been able to. I would’ve made you crazy with my mood swings.” She opened her eyes. “I noticed you were wearing an engagement ring. Are you still getting married?”
Zoey pondered Donna’s question. Even though she had taken off Sutton’s ring they hadn’t discussed cancelling their wedding plans. She loved him too much not to want to become his wife. “Yes. We’ve planned to have a New Year’s Eve ceremony in the ballroom here at the B and B.”
“I know I have no right to ask to become mother of the bride, but I’ll be here as long as you need me. By the way, I like your fiancé.”
Zoey smiled. “So do I.” He was everything she wanted and needed in a life partner: kind, generous, loyal, supportive and compassionate. “Thank you for the offer, but I have everything under control. I know it’s not going to be easy getting to know each other after so many years of separation but I’m willing to extend the olive branch and see where it takes us.”
Donna returned her smile as the tense lines on her face relaxed. “Thank you, Zoey.”
Zoey drove home, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off her heart. She was a realist and knew her relationship with Donna would always pale in comparison to the one she’d had with Charmaine. But she knew it would take time to forgive her biological mother because when she and Sutton had children Donna Parker would be their grandmother.
She opened the door and walked into the house to find Sutton and Harper in the kitchen. She extended her arms and they came over to hug her.
“All for one and one for all,” she whispered, kissing Harper and then Sutton on the cheek.
“Does this mean I’m still going to be best man at your wedding?” Harper asked.
“Yes!” Sutton and Zoey said in unison.
“Hot damn!”
Zoey smiled when Sutton winked at her.
Harper dropped his arms. “I’m going to make a special dinner tonight, so can you two please leave my kitchen while I decide what I want to make.”
Sutton reached for Zoey’s hand and led her into the living room. “How did it go?”
“Okay.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Just okay?”
“Let’s say it’s a new beginning and leave it at that. I’ve invited her to our wedding.”
Sutton brushed a light kiss over her mouth. “Good. Now we’ll both have a mother-in-law.”
New Year’s Eve
The music changed as the familiar notes to the “Wedding March” echoed throughout the mansion’s great room. Zoey smiled when her brother’s hand covered hers over the sleeve of his dress uniform jacket as they prepared to process over the red, pink and white rose petals littering the white carpet to where Sutton and Harper stood facing the black-robed judge. Kyle had been approved for a three-day leave to attend her wedding. He’d arrived in Wickham Falls the day before and hours before the start of rehearsals and the dinner to follow.
When she’d told Georgina, her wedding was to be small, private and very informal. It had become anything but when the guest list increased exponentially to include many of Sutton’s former teammates and their spouses, mentees, college friends and classmates, and several teachers from the local high school within days after their engagement announcement went viral.
* * *
When Zoey called Viviana Wainwright to update the list of invitees, the innkeeper reassured her that she would handle everything needed to make Zoey’s day special and memorable, from revising the menu, lodging accommodations for out-of-town guests and hiring a popular local DJ. Her original plan to hold the wedding and sit-down dinner reception in the ballroom was changed to her and Sutton exchanging vows in the great room and hosting a buffet reception in the ballroom.
Kyle’s hazel eyes were a startling contrast to his mahogany-brown complexion, further darkened by the California sun. “Are you ready to become Mrs. Sutton Reed?” he whispered, as the assembly came to their feet.
“Yes.”
And Zoey was as she placed one foot in front of the other, coming closer and closer to the man who was to become her husband. She smiled at Harper who looked incredibly handsome and mature in his tuxedo as he stood next to Sutton as his best man.
They’d planned for her to graduate nursing school before starting a family. Sutton had teased her about becoming the perfect mother because of her prior experience raising her brothers.
* * *
All of the awards paled in comparison with marrying the woman with whom Sutton had fallen in love and planned to play the best game of his life for. Sharing his life and future with Zoey would become his winningest season. He turned and looked at his bride for the first time in twenty-four hours, his breath catching in his chest. She was breathtakingly ethereal in a cloud of white from the veil attached to the intricate twist at the back of her head to the satin gown skimming her body.
“Thank you,” he said to Kyle as his future brother-in-law placed Zoey’s hand in his. He increased the pressure on her small hand when he felt her tremble.
The judge waxed eloquently about the significance of marriage and Sutton and Zoey smiled in relief when they exchanged vows, rings and then a kiss seconds before the stroke of midnight, signaling a new day.
The sound of fireworks echoed throughout the valley as the citizens of Wickham Falls celebrated a new year and resilient residents of the Mountain State, while Sutton felt as if he’d come full circle. He’d left at eighteen only to return eighteen years later. And this time it was to stay.
* * *
Don’t miss these other books in the Wickham Falls Weddings series:
Starting Over in Wickham Falls
Second-Chance Sweet Shop
This Time for Keeps
Dealmaker, Heartbreaker
Twins for the Soldier
available now from Harlequin Special Edition!
Keep reading for an excerpt from In Service of Love by Laurel Greer.
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In Service of Love
by Laurel Greer
Chapter One
Is that dog reading?
Asher Matsuda did a double take before polishing the lenses of his glasses. Ignoring the mess of returned books in the library’s intake bin, he mentally scribbled “literate canine” on his overflowing never-thought-I’d-see-that list.
A Great Dane, its short coat almost cadet blue in color, stared intently at the shelf of books in front of him. The dog had to outweigh his handler by half. The petite blonde woman wore scrubs. One of her pale hands rested on the service vest between the dog’s shoulder blades. She dragged a finger of the other along the spines of the true crime section.
Huh. Her no-nonsense, curly bob and the serious tilt to her rosy mouth gave off the impression of a memoir reader, probably of political science or history-focused books.
But if anyone knew not to put people in boxes, it was a bisexual, male librarian with a penchant for reading romance novels and blowing out electric guitar amps. And if Asher had a dollar for every time he’d been told he’d look more at home on a football field than behind a circulation desk, he’d have enough money to fund his ten-year-old daughter’s dream of being a Supreme Court Justice. When Asher and his late husband had named her after one of their modern-day heroes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, they hadn’t anticipated Ruth would follow her namesake’s example so damn literally.
He sneaked another peek at the towering, lanky dog and its handler, who had moved one row over into the nonfiction section. The Great Dane was now perusing the selection of WWII books as the woman played eeny meeny miney moe on the shelf above. Right around the Dewey decimal range for nineteenth-century Europe. Ha! His earlier prediction hadn’t been totally off base.
She glanced his way, catching his gaze and fixing him with a look.
Something along the lines of: stop staring, weirdo.
He sent her an apologetic smile and ducked behind the desk to pull out the wheeled book return bin. The last thing he could afford was to be known as the creepy new guy. He and Ruth had moved to town a little under a month ago, not long enough for people to have gotten to know them yet. Sutter Creek seemed inviting, and his older brother, who’d moved here himself a year ago, would never have suggested Asher follow suit had he not believed it to be safe. But Asher had been out long enough that he knew the moment people realized he was bi, not gay, it often meant an even harder road to acceptance.
He busied himself dealing with the minutiae of library work: checking books back in, processing patron requests, processing new arrivals. Shifting from a larger branch in Brooklyn to Sutter Creek, Montana’s tiny outpost, with its two-person staff, was no minor change, and he was still getting accustomed to the slower speed of small-town life. But his new position was an opportunity to essentially run a branch, a promotion that would have taken him another decade to move into in New York. He’d needed the challenge, and the raise, after being widowed.
The front doors opened and his daughter bounced in, wiping her feet on the mat. A gust of early October wind ruffled the posters pinned to the tackboard lining the wall across from the circulation desk. He’d had plenty of time to read the advertisements for community trivia night and Wing Wednesday at one of the local pubs, but hadn’t managed to explore any social options yet. Maybe now that Ruth was a month into the school year, he could look for a group of people interested in a regular jam session or a book club. He and Ruth had been welcomed warmly at the synagogue they’d started attending in Bozeman, but services were only held every second Saturday, and it was a bit of a drive. Better to make friends locally as quickly as he could, and ensure Ruth did the same.
She waved, rushing forward. “Dad, guess what!”
A canine yelp sounded from the other side of the library, between the shelves. Asher jerked his gaze from his approaching daughter to the dog, who was cowering at his person’s side. The corners of the woman’s mouth turned down and her should
ers slumped momentarily, before she straightened and motioned to the dog with an upturned hand.
“Library voice, love,” he reminded Ruth. They had a good routine going. The elementary school was only a few blocks from the library, so she came to the branch after the last bell and did homework or read until closing time. Saved a hell of a lot on after-school care costs and let him keep an eye on her, too.
She dropped her backpack on the floor and draped herself across the waist-high counter. Her feet swung, and the toes of her sneakers thunked dully on the front of the desk.
The dog whined again, and Asher winced. But he couldn’t bring himself to go full taskmaster-librarian on her. When was the last time Ruth had bounded toward him like she had just now? Before Alex’s terminal diagnosis almost two years ago? He smiled encouragingly. “Remember, quiet body, too.”
“Sorry, Dad.”
He shuffled his armful of paperbacks onto the counter and tugged on his daughter’s windblown, dark brown ponytail. People got confused as to how Ruth had Asher’s Japanese grandfather’s stick-straight hair and Alex’s bright smile. One of the easier questions he got about his family. Science, and the generosity of Alex’s cousin, who’d been their egg donor and surrogate.
He couldn’t be more thankful that Ruth had ended up with that particular dimpled grin. And it was dialed up to full wattage this afternoon.
“That looks like the face of a girl who’s happy with the topic of her science inquiry project.”
Her grin widened, future expensive orthodontic bills written all over her adorably crooked front teeth. “I am! It’s going to be epic.”
Oh man. She was solidly in tween mode, and her moments of sounding older than she was never failed to amuse him. “Black holes?”
A Winning Season Page 21
