“I came back.”
Leah sank onto the floor beside Vick, put her hands over her face, and sobbed.
Vick dropped from the chair to her knees beside Leah and said, “Six months after I gave Cody up, I realized what a terrible mistake I’d made. I gave up custody when Cody was born, but I still have visitation rights. Once each month for the past five years, I’ve spent Friday through Sunday with my son at my cabin in Montana.”
Leah moaned. “I thought you were going to Montana once a month on business. I thought you moved there so you wouldn’t have to travel so much.”
“I moved there so I could spend more time with my son,” Vick said. “This past year, I’ve attended school and church events where Cody was participating. Since March, I’ve been living at the Sullivan ranch taking care of Cody every day. I like and respect my son’s father. I may even love him. We’ve been getting to know each other better, and there’s hope we might end up as a couple.
“But even if we don’t, I would never, ever, ever abandon my son, like our mother did to us. I’ve lived every day of my life wondering what happened to her and blessing whatever God gave you to me as a sister. You’ve taught me what a mother should be, Leah, by filling that role in my life. You’ve shown me what love means. And I’ll always love and respect and be grateful to you for that.”
Leah dropped her hands from her face with a pained cry and opened her arms to Vick, who threw herself against her sister’s body as though she were still a child and was quickly enveloped in her sister’s familiar, comforting embrace.
“Well,” Eve said, sniffling. “I can’t wait to meet your son. And Sullivan, too, of course.”
Vick heard Leah take a shuddering breath and let it out before she eased Vick upright and began to stand. “Oh, God. I can’t do this anymore.”
Vick put one hand on her sister’s shoulder to keep her from rising and said, “What’s wrong, Leah?”
Leah met her gaze, then looked at each of Vick’s sisters and her niece in turn. “I’ve been lying to all of you.”
“About what?”
Leah shoved a nervous hand through her hair. “I’ve been married to Aiden Flynn for a year. And I’m pregnant with his child.”
Vick stumbled to her feet and towered over her sister, her fisted hands on her hips. “And you had the nerve to read me the riot act for keeping Cody a secret? How could you, Leah? Why would you keep your marriage a secret from us?”
“It’s a long story,” Leah said.
“So why are you telling us now?” Vick asked.
“When I considered how hurt I was that you’ve been hiding important parts of your life from me, I realized that keeping my secret isn’t fair to any of you, either.”
“Not to mention the fact that you were going to have a lot of explaining to do when you started to show,” Eve pointed out.
Leah managed to smile. “Not to mention that.”
“Why did Aiden agree to keep your marriage secret?” Taylor asked. “I would think he’d want you to be living together.”
“Aiden and I have been diligently working to end the feud between his father and ours, between his family and ours. The possibility that we might get married was part of that negotiation. Hence the need to keep our status as husband and wife a secret.”
Eve snorted. “I think ‘those awful Flynn boys’ have pretty much shut down the feud between our families by marrying all of us.”
Pippa giggled.
Taylor chuckled.
Leah just shook her head.
Vick exchanged a look with her twin, laughing at the undeniable truth of Eve’s comment.
“Eve is right, of course,” Leah conceded. “I suppose Aiden and I holding out for peace between Angus and King was an exercise in futility. We should have been living together a long time ago. Feel free to tell your respective husbands—or boyfriends,” she added, glancing at Vick, “that we’re husband and wife.”
When the doorbell rang, Vick’s head shot around and she stared at the door. “That must be Rye and Cody.”
“Before you open the door, let me dry my tears,” Leah said.
“That goes for me, too,” Taylor said.
“And me,” Eve parroted.
“And me,” Pippa said.
“What a bunch of crybabies you are,” Vick said, swiping at her own tears again with her sleeve. She found a box of tissues on an end table and ran around the room offering them to her sisters and her niece. When they’d all wiped their eyes and blown their noses she said, “Are we ready?”
“Ready,” Leah said, retaking her seat on the bench near the fire. “Bring ’em on.”
Vick blinked her reddened eyes and patted her flushed cheeks to make sure they were dry, but one look at Rye’s face, and she knew she hadn’t fooled him. “Come in,” she said. “Everyone wants to meet you and Cody.”
“Are you sure about that?” he murmured so only she could hear.
She laid a hand on his arm and said, “It’s all right, Rye. The worst is over.”
Cody ran past Rye toward Vick, pulling to a sharp halt an instant before he would have rammed into her. He seemed barely able to contain his excitement as he recounted his day. “I have four uncles! And I rode on a fire engine and saw some really long hoses for putting out fires and really sharp axes for breaking down doors and I got to meet a lot of firefighters. Some of them are girls!”
Vick laughed and said, “Have you decided to become a firefighter?”
“Maybe.” He added uncertainly, “Some of the stuff they have to carry is really heavy.”
“Someday you’ll be so strong those things won’t seem heavy at all,” she said, brushing a stray curl off Cody’s brow.
Vick watched her son stand up a little straighter at the thought of being tough enough to become a firefighter someday.
“Don’t forget the dog,” Rye said.
“Oh, yeah,” Cody said. “They have a dog that’s white with black spots and they call him Spot and he’s really friendly and he licked my hands. But I still like Rusty best, ’cause he can do more than just catch a ball. He can catch squirrels and gophers and snakes and turtles…and rats!”
Vick heard her sisters laugh.
Vick met Rye’s gaze and saw his eyes were also crinkled with laughter. He whispered the word, “Rats!” then scrunched up his mouth to expose “rat” teeth and held his hands up curled like tiny rat paws.
Vick laughed and realized he’d done something so silly because she’d looked so sad. She brushed a hand through Cody’s hair to straighten it, then said, “There are some people here I’d like you to meet.”
Cody looked curiously at the four women in various positions around the room. She led him first to Leah and said, “This is your aunt Leah. She’s my eldest sister.”
Cody ducked his head shyly and said, “Hello.”
She led him to the rocker and said, “This is your aunt Taylor. She’s holding your newborn cousin Annie.”
Cody peered over the top of the blanket shielding the baby’s head and said, “She’s really small.”
“Yes, she is,” Taylor said. “She was only born three days ago. It’s nice to meet you, Cody.”
Vick took Cody’s hand and led him over to Eve. “This is your aunt Eve. She’s holding Annie’s twin sister, Ashley.”
“Twins means they look alike,” Cody announced to Eve.
“Yes, it does,” Eve said. “I’m pleased to meet you, Cody.”
Cody leaned over to inspect the baby and exclaimed, “They both have blue eyes!”
“Yes, they do,” Vick said with a laugh. “Come meet your cousin, Pippa.”
Pippa was rising to her feet as she said, “Hello, Cody. I’m glad to meet you, but I’m afraid I can’t stay. I have to be getting home.”
“Before you
go,” Vick said, “I want you to meet Cody’s father, Ryan Sullivan.”
“I think I can remember your names from the introductions Vick made to Cody,” Rye said as he went around the room shaking hands. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
When he got to Leah, she was on her feet. He took her hand and held it in both of his. “Vick has told me how much you did for her when she was growing up. Now that we’ve met, I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more of each other.”
“Does that mean you’ll be coming to the family picnic on the Fourth of July?” Leah asked.
Rye seemed to be caught off-guard by the invitation, but he quickly recovered. He shot a look at Vick before he said, “I’m sure we can work that out.”
“Good,” Leah said. “I’m sorry to take off so soon after we’ve met, but I’ve got to get back to the ranch.”
“I need to get home to my kids,” Pippa said.
“Me, too,” Eve said, rising and laying Ashley in Vick’s arms.
“Annie’s finally asleep,” Taylor said as she stood, grabbing the blanket that had been on her lap to keep it from dropping to the floor and laying it across the arm of the rocker. “I’m going to put her in her crib and then take myself off to bed for a nap. Stay as long as you like, Vick. Just leave the baby when you go,” she said with a grin.
Within moments, the living room was empty except for Rye, Vick, Cody, and the baby in Vick’s arms.
“I’m going to lay Ashley down in her bed,” Vick said, “and we can leave.” She hesitated, turned to Rye, and said, “Unless you’d like to hold her first.” Vick had only offered out of courtesy. She was surprised when Rye said, “Why not?”
She carefully lowered Ashley into his waiting hands, where the newborn fit perfectly.
Rye held the baby snug against his chest, touching her fingers and counting her toes. “I forgot how tiny newborns are,” he said, his voice filled with reverence and awe. He smiled at the baby, who watched him intently with wide blue eyes. “You’re a beauty, Miss Flynn,” he said. “Yes, you are.”
“She just looks like a baby,” Cody protested.
Vick wondered if Cody might be a little jealous.
“All babies are beautiful,” Rye said as he sat on the couch, presumably so Cody could see the baby more easily.
Cody edged his rump onto the couch beside Rye, frowning as he surveyed Ashley’s features. “Was I this little when I was born?”
“Not quite,” Rye said. “But pretty close.”
Within a pound or two, Vick thought. But who was counting?
“Why aren’t you and Mommy married, like Ashley and Annie’s mommy and daddy, and Brooke and Sawyer’s mommy and daddy?” Cody asked. “Did you get a divorce?”
The question came out of the blue, but Vick had been anticipating it, dreading it, for some time. Although Cody had been exposed to a lot of different parental combinations at both church and school, he’d never asked about Rye and Vick’s relationship. Likely, he’d presumed they were divorced, since they didn’t live together.
Except, now they did.
Vick exchanged a glance with Rye, unsure how best to answer Cody’s question. She crossed to sit beside Cody, so he was flanked by his parents and said, “Your father and I aren’t divorced because we were never married.”
He looked perplexed by her answer. “Don’t you have to be married to have babies?”
Vick shook her head. “It’s a good idea, but it’s not a requirement.”
“So…” Brow furrowed, Cody looked at her and asked, “Am I a bastard?”
Vick’s face drained of blood so quickly she almost keeled over. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“No,” Rye said, balancing the baby on his lap so his hands would be free to place them on his son’s shoulders. “That’s not a word I’d ever use to describe you.”
“I heard—”
“Your mom and I weren’t married when you were born, but from the moment we saw you, we both loved you very much.”
Vick’s head jerked in Rye’s direction at his rewrite of history. Tears brimmed in her eyes, and her hands came up to cover her mouth.
“Why did you live in two different houses?” Cody asked.
Rye made a face. “It’s complicated. But you should know that your mom and I have always done everything we could to make sure you knew how much you’re loved.” He brushed the same wayward curl away from Cody’s forehead as Vick had, then dropped his hands to cradle the baby in his lap.
Vick waited with bated breath to hear what Cody might say next.
Cody shifted his gaze from one parent’s distraught face to the other’s and said to Rye, “If I’m not a bastard, why is Mommy crying?”
Vick suddenly understood why Darcie might have decided to keep the true details of Rye’s birth secret. Her guilt for having put her own child in the same position was palpable, and her gut was twisted in a hard knot. “Bastard” was an ugly word and ought to be stricken from the dictionary. Certainly, Vick never, ever wanted to hear her son refer to himself using that term again.
Vick pulled Cody into her lap with his back against her chest, then leaned forward so they were cheek to cheek. “I don’t know where you heard that word, but it’s a mean way of saying your parents weren’t married when you were born. You should ignore anyone unkind enough to use it. You’re a wonderful little boy, the apple of my eye, and your father’s favorite son.”
“I’m his only son.”
Vick smiled and met Rye’s gaze. “You’re his most perfect, nobody-can-compare-to-you favorite son.”
Cody looked at Rye to see if she was kidding.
Rye nodded solemnly.
Cody grinned and said, “Can I have an ice cream cone every night before bed?”
Vick and Rye exchanged a rueful smile before Vick said, “No, you may not.”
Rye tousled Cody’s hair. “But because you’re my most perfect, nobody-can-compare-to-you favorite son, you can have an ice cream cone at Moo’s this afternoon.”
Seeing how they’d managed this difficult conversation with their son together—leaving Cody not only feeling loved, but also cheeky enough to see what he could get away with—Vick was more certain than ever that she wanted to make a home for her son that included a mother and father.
Now all she needed to do was convince Rye she would make a good wife.
HAVING HER SON called a bastard had been one of Vick’s worst fears. Her teeth were clamped so tight at the thought of someone saying that to Cody’s face, a muscle in her jaw jerked. During the drive back to the hotel in town where they were staying, it dawned on her that she hadn’t asked Cody who’d used the term. She couldn’t imagine anyone in her family saying such a thing. On the other hand, it was easy to imagine Angus Flynn making some snide comment while he was staying at the Rafter S that Cody had overheard.
Angus had always been a villain in her life story, and despite his marriage to Darcie, it was hard to think of him in any other terms. It was also possible that Cody had overheard one of “those awful Flynn boys” using the word “bastard” in conjunction with his name sometime today.
But if Angus’s sons weren’t guilty, that sort of accusation would cause a lot of hard feelings. Besides, she couldn’t imagine the women in their lives, who were her sisters and niece, allowing Cody to be spoken of that way. And since Cody seemed content with her explanation, she didn’t want to bring the subject up again to ask him just who the shameful party was.
Vick unclenched her jaw. She was willing to give the younger Flynns a pass, but she would be damn sure to confront Angus when she got home.
Home.
Although she’d been living at the Rafter S for more than two months, it wasn’t home. She’d occupied Rye’s bedroom once his family moved back in, and he’d been forced to sleep on the couch. As a r
esult, he’d had the temper of a grizzly most mornings, because he wasn’t getting enough rest. She didn’t belong there. She had to leave and let Rye’s life and her own and Cody’s get back to normal.
The one thing she knew for sure was that she could never go back to the way things had been in the past. She’d been with Cody constantly since Mike got home, but she hadn’t forgotten the deadline she’d given Rye. If he didn’t freely offer her more time with Cody when she moved back into her cabin, she would go to court and fight him for it.
Vick dreaded the thought.
Rye had made that awful promise in the lawyer’s office at a time when he’d been angry and hurting. Being Paddy Sullivan’s son, he’d never gone back on it. But just as she’d changed over the years she’d been a mother, Rye had been changing over the years he’d been a father. He was no longer the same man who’d denied her the right to spend any more time with her child than the law allowed.
Tears sprang to her eyes when she remembered how Rye, always honest to a fault, had told a lie to their son to keep Cody’s love for her from suffering a terrible blow.
From the moment we saw you, we both loved you very much.
She looked out the window of the SUV they’d rented as she blinked back tears, so Rye wouldn’t see them. Her stomach churned as she thought back to the achingly lonely day her son had been born.
Vick hadn’t allowed herself to love Cody from the moment she saw him, because she’d known she was giving him up. It would have hurt too much to allow herself to feel the emotions churning inside her. It was only after she’d handed her son to his father to raise that Vick realized she would always love Cody, no matter where he was in the world or who nurtured him.
The ugly truth was it had taken six full months for her to get the courage to show up at Rye’s back door.
Rye could have told a very different story to Cody at Taylor’s house. Vick wondered if he’d merely been protecting Cody from a brutal fact about his mother, or whether he’d lied for her sake.
Probably, it was a little of both.
Vick would always be thankful to him for it. She glanced at Rye and realized he was scowling. What was wrong now? Was he still upset that someone had called Cody a bastard in their son’s hearing? Or was he worrying about Mike and his mother and Amy Beth at home needing him, while he was here with her?
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