“Well, Matt wanted to keep it just between us for a while but…I’m pregnant.”
Matt held Abby’s bright-eyed gaze, pressed their joined hands to his lips, and Stephen knew that in those seconds, everyone else in the room disappeared. It was the same for him when he looked at Hannah.
Lizzy clapped and squealed. “You’re having a baby!”
“Babies,” Matt corrected and followed it with a proud smile. “Twins.”
The squeals and kisses doubled, people stood, and Stephen fought to keep his face neutral. Even smiled when Abby looked up at him, though his brother’s happy news brought a certain hollow feeling to his chest.
Lizzy’s husband, Paul, transferred his chubby, spaghetti-covered baby to his other side and shook Matt’s hand. “Better you than me.”
“I heard that,” Lizzy said.
“Just kidding, honey. I could have a hundred more.” As if in answer, that same baby laughed, spewing spaghetti-laden spittle in Paul’s face.
“This calls for a toast,” his dad said. “I’ll get the champagne.”
After the toasting and the hazing about how Matt always went the extra mile, Stephen helped clear the table and found himself alone in the kitchen with Lizzy. Yep. No good deed went unpunished.
“So. How are things with Hannah?”
“Good.”
“You went out of town with her?”
Stephen tried to edge around his sister. “Yes.”
“How’d it go?”
“Good, and move. I’m trying to work.”
“Yes, I know how single-mindedly you like to clean kitchens.”
He thought of doing dishes with Hannah. “Be nice if you helped.”
“I did more dishes than all of you guys put together. So.” She leaned her hip against the counter. “How good is good?”
He didn’t want to talk about Vegas. His feelings before or after. “Good grief. You’re a child psychologist. Remember?”
“And your point?”
“Ha-ha.” He put in the last dish and closed the dishwasher. “Leave it alone, Liz. Please.”
She looked at him a beat, sighed like he’d totally exasperated her instead of the other way around. “Okay. If you promise me you’ll give yourself a chance.”
He thought about that a second, but before he was forced to agree, the other women descended on the kitchen in a buzz of baby names and guessing sexes.
Lizzy gave him a look, annoyed he was getting off without answering.
Things quickly morphed into rearranging and redecorating every child’s bedroom, and he escaped outside to the deck. The men’s safety zone.
They talked sports a bit as the sun sank behind the tall pines, throwing his parents’ yard into shadow.
“Do you think she’s going to lose the property?” his dad asked.
“Not if I can help it. This awareness thing actually has a chance of working, more than I’d first thought.” Stephen laid it out for them, or as much as he had at this point. “All I’ve gotten is a damn runaround. I can’t even get the names of anyone looking to buy it so I can head them off. It’s like I’m being blocked.”
“Bureaucratic red tape,” his dad said.
“Maybe.” But it felt like more than that.
“So,” Matt said, looking over. “You’re going to take on the entire state of Virginia?”
“If that’s what it takes. She’s not trying to make any money at it, not looking for riches or power or even acknowledgment.” Wouldn’t matter if she was. He’d take on the world for her.
“Abby sure thinks Hannah’s something special. And I’m pretty sure Gracie would trade a brother for her.”
The back door opened and a piercing wail poured out. Matt straightened. “Sounds like my cue.”
“Me too,” Paul said.
Matt slapped Stephen on the back as he passed. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
“You mean besides your list?”
“Yeah, besides that.”
“Will do. Thanks, man.” The door closed and Stephen rested his arms on the railing next to his dad.
He wasted no time. “Sounds like you like her.”
So much for safety zone, and he more than liked her.
“I didn’t spend much time with her at Gracie’s party, but I got the sense she was very sweet. And very innocent.”
“Too innocent for me, you mean.”
“I mean you’ve been playing the field quite a while, exorcising your demons, I imagine.”
It never failed to amaze him how much his father knew without ever asking. Been that way since they were kids. The great observer, they called him.
“Do you love her?”
“I don’t know.”
His dad made a sound under his breath. “I think you do.”
Maybe he did. But he’d loved once, with every ounce of his soul, holding nothing back, and it had cost him. Not just the loss, but what he’d learned about himself. That part of himself he’d discovered and feared and hated. And more, it had cost everyone around him.
“You might want to figure it out before she falls in love with you.”
Yeah. Stephen inhaled deeply and let it out as his father’s words sank in. Because the only thing worse than his falling in love with her would be for her to fall in love with him.
Chapter 34