Miranda’s face softened with sympathy. “My bone-headed brother helped.”
“He’s not bone-headed,” Tess snapped. “He’s kind and honorable and loyal to a fault.”
Her lips twitched. “So you are in love with him.”
“Miranda,” Norah warned.
“She doesn’t have to answer. It’s written all over her face.”
Liz reached out, as if she wanted to touch Tess, but folded her hands instead. “You’re right. My son is all of those things, but he’s also old-fashioned, chivalrous, and very thick-headed. He has in his head that there is one right way to do things and he didn’t listen to you like he should have.”
“The fact of the matter is, marriage isn’t always the right thing in these situations. That you’re willing to stand up to that says a great deal about your character,” Sandy said. “I wasn’t that strong when I found out I was pregnant the same day I was planning to leave my first husband for Trey. I opted to stay, because I was afraid of the alternative. I lost a lot of years with your father. I can’t say it was the wrong choice because if I’d gone to him like we’d planned, there’d be no you. But I absolutely agree with you that a baby is not a good basis for a marriage. It didn’t save mine.”
It looked like they were reconciling, like she’d chosen him. So I left, without a word.
Her father’s words echoed in her head. This was what he hadn’t known. Sandy hadn’t chosen her husband, she’d chosen her son. Tess thought about what her dad had said about Sandy’s first husband—Immature. Selfish. An ass—and she felt a pang for what Sandy had no doubt endured because of that choice. Mitch was none of those things. They didn’t need saving from being a poor match in the first place. And he wasn’t like her father, either. There was no other woman with a claim on his affections. So maybe they had a stronger foundation than she’d given them credit for.
Tess studied this woman who’d held her father’s heart for decades. “With respect, Dad’s told me some about your ex-husband. If you’re comparing Mitch to him on any level, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Oh, she’ll fit into the family just fine,” Grammy crowed in satisfaction.
“She hasn’t agreed to marry him,” Anita pointed out.
“And she doesn’t have to,” Norah added. “That baby is a Campbell either way, and that makes Tess family.”
This time Liz did reach out, stroking a hand down Tess’s arm. “Whatever you choose, he’ll be a good father.”
“I know he will. That’s never been a question.” This child was already loved. By its father and the rest of his insanely tight-knit family. And Tess understood, as they all pulled her in for hugs, that they’d be there for her and this baby, no matter what happened with her and Mitch. That kind of love was more than a little heartbreaking because she wanted it so much for herself.
When they’d gone, she sank down on the sofa, wondering for the first time if maybe she wasn’t being fair to Mitch. From her front-row seat to the failing of her parents’ marriage, she’d learned to expect the worst out of this situation. And yet, at every turn, his upbringing had prepared him to expect the opposite. They couldn’t both be right.
Never in her life had Tess wanted so desperately to be wrong.
I’ll never know if I don’t try.
Her purse and keys were already in her hands when the phone rang. She fished it out, seeing Brody’s name flashing on the screen.
“This is Tess.”
“Hey, my client meeting got cancelled this morning, so I find myself with time to go over the site plans. Are you free?”
She wanted to say no. She wanted to get in her car and go
straight over to the house to see if she could fix what was broken between them. But Brody’s call reminded her that it was, in fact, a work day, and she had a job to do.
“I can meet you over there in fifteen minutes.”
She headed to her car on autopilot, sifting through the everyday details she’d put out of her mind when everything had blown up yesterday. Mitch had a meeting in Lawley this morning, so he probably wasn’t even home. Even as disappointment flared, she squashed it. The extra time was okay. Maybe by the time he got back, she’d have figured out what she needed to say.
I love you.
That needed to be right at the top. She’d been so worried about whether he did or could love her, she hadn’t ever told him how she felt. What if he felt as lost and rejected as she did? The idea that she could’ve hurt him like that made her ill. Or more ill than she already was. By the time she’d fought off the fresh wave of nausea, she’d overshot her turn. Pulling into a rutted track past the chainlink fence, she opened the door and vomited. Again.
Dear Lord, would this baby ever let her keep food down?
Weak and shaky, she shut the door and leaned her head back against the seat. She’d just sit here for a few minutes with her eyes closed until it passed.
Something struck the car. Her body whipped with the impact of the crash. Before she could even scream, before the airbag deployed and the seatbelt dug deep, driving the air from her lungs, Tess’s head cracked against the window and she slid into blackness.