The Secret Heir

She hoped the uncomfortable feelings she’d gotten during her first meeting with Bridget and Sam would be assuaged when she spoke to them at length.

Tyler woke in a good mood. He and Laurel built a castle with plastic interlocking blocks, and then she watched indulgently as he noisily knocked the castle down. Leaving him to entertain himself for a while, she went down to the kitchen to prepare a chicken casserole for dinner. It should be ready by the time Jackson arrived home, she thought, especially if he kept his word about coming home at a normal hour.

The front doorbell rang, summoning her from the kitchen. Wiping her hands on a paper towel, she went to answer it, half expecting to find a neighbor or a delivery driver on the doorstep. Instead, she found her in-laws—both of them this time.

Laurel had always thought Donna Reiss looked young for her fifty-two years. Now she looked a good ten years older. She had obviously been crying; her eyes were red and swollen. She wore little makeup, and the fine lines around her eyes and mouth were more pronounced than usual. Laurel would be surprised if Donna had slept since Jackson had left her house Saturday afternoon.

With her hand to her throat, Donna said in a wavering voice, “I know you probab

ly don’t want to see me, but please let me see Tyler. Just for a little while.”

Laurel bit back a sigh in response to her mother-in-law’s melodrama. “Donna, you will always be welcome in this house,” she said firmly, moving out of the doorway to motion them inside. “You’re Tyler’s grandmother and he adores you. I would never deprive him or you of that relationship.”

“See, Donna?” Carl nodded in satisfaction. “I told you Laurel wasn’t going to try to keep you from Tyler. She’s worked herself into a state,” he added to Laurel. “I thought the best way to ease her mind was just to bring her over and let you reassure her. Guess we should have called, but I didn’t give her a chance to dial. I told her to just get in the car and we were coming over.”

“Tyler’s playing in his room. Can I get either of you anything before I call him down?”

“No. Thank you,” Donna added as an afterthought. “I just want to see him.”

“I’ll go get him.” Laurel hesitated a moment, then added, “He doesn’t know there have been any problems within the family, of course. I would rather not upset him.”

“I wouldn’t dream of upsetting him,” Donna replied, lifting her chin and making a visible effort to restore her usual equanimity. “Surely you know that.”

“I know you love him.” Laurel spoke a bit more gently this time, touched despite herself by the pain in Donna’s eyes. “He’s lucky to have a close relationship with his grandparents. I never knew mine, and I regret that to this day.”

Donna bit her lip. “Thank you, Laurel.”

From behind his wife’s back, Carl gave Laurel an unusually sweet smile of gratitude.

Telling them to have a seat in the den, Laurel headed for the stairs. Had Donna really believed she would try to keep her away from Tyler? Perhaps Donna had thought Laurel would take pleasure in Jackson’s temporary estrangement from his mother—and she was sure it would be temporary. But if Donna thought Laurel would take advantage of a crisis to split up a family, then she really didn’t know her well at all.

She had never wanted to break up the Reiss family, she realized as she stood outside Tyler’s bedroom. She had simply wanted to be accepted as one of them. And it had been as much her fault as theirs that it had never worked out quite that way. Maybe she had subconsciously pushed them away from the start because she was so accustomed to rejection by family that she’d been trying to protect herself from being hurt again.

She had often blamed Jackson for the rift, telling herself that his impossible comparisons between her and his mother kept Laurel from wanting to be close to the woman. That had been unfair, she saw now. She had used Jackson’s closeness to his family as an excuse—perhaps because she had so desperately envied that closeness.

Now that his family was threatened, she couldn’t bear the thought of breaking those ties. For Jackson’s sake. For Tyler’s. And for her own last chance at belonging to a supportive, loving extended family who accepted each other for who they are, without trying to change them or have them prove their worthiness of love.

Maybe they could be that kind of family, after all, she thought with a rush of hope. Once Jackson got over his hurt and accepted that his mother had made mistakes, maybe they could all forgive Laurel for the mistakes she had made in holding them at arm’s length for so long. And maybe she and Donna could finally learn to see each other as friends, and not rivals for the affections of Jackson and Tyler.

But they had a way to go before they could reach that idealized goal, she reminded herself, still the experience-scarred pessimist. Jackson had to reconcile with his parents before Laurel could have the chance to do so herself.

Jackson arrived home even earlier than Laurel expected. His parents were still playing in the den with Tyler, and she had just taken dinner out of the oven when Jackson came into the kitchen from the garage.

“I saw the truck outside,” he said by way of greeting. “Is he here?”

“Yes, your father is here,” Laurel replied, emphasizing the relationship. “And so is your mother. She wanted to see Tyler, so Carl brought her over. Can you believe she was afraid I wouldn’t let her in to see her grandson?”

Without saying anything, Jackson set his briefcase on the counter.

Laurel lifted an eyebrow. “Jackson? You wouldn’t expect me to turn them away, would you?”

“No, of course not.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Did they say how much longer they plan to stay?”

“I’m going to ask them to stay for dinner. I made plenty for everyone.”

A frown drew his eyebrows downward. “Oh.”

She sighed and placed her hands on her hips as she faced him. “This is ridiculous. You can’t keep avoiding them. I don’t care what happened more than thirty years ago, Carl and Donna Reiss are your parents. You love them, they love you, and nothing will ever change that, no matter what. Now would you please stop sulking and deal with this like the man Carl raised you to be?”