“Honey is perfectly fine.” It was an effort to keep her voice calm and steady when her whole body trembled with fear and fury. “And I haven’t changed my mind about you seeing her.”
Their distress at being kept from their granddaughter spun Claire’s emotions into a chaotic mess. On one hand, Jasper was their only son, and even though they’d driven him away over fifteen years earlier, Claire recognized that they might want to try to do better with his daughter.
Unfortunately, they’d shown themselves to be toxic people and had resisted Claire’s attempts to deal fairly with them. From the moment they reached out to her after Jasper’s death, they hadn’t had a single nice thing to say and had even gone so far as to accuse her of deliberately getting pregnant to force Jasper to take care of her.
“You will let us see her now,” Jasper’s father stated, his voice rising. “Or we will call the authorities.”
Although Claire never took her eyes off the pair, she became aware that heads were turning in their direction. The last thing she needed was for the stir to reach Linc. He’d feel compelled to come see if she was okay. Then he’d meet Jasper’s parents and find out that she’d been lying to him for over a year.
“Honey is our granddaughter,” Sharon said, picking up the argument. “We need to make sure she’s safe. You had no right to take her away from us.”
Claire ground her teeth. She had every right to move across the country and away from these people. Jasper had told her numerous stories of his childhood and how he’d been verbally abused if he got a couple answers wrong on a test or didn’t get his chores done fast enough. She couldn’t imagine entrusting her sweet-natured baby to these unhappy, abrasive people.
Claire tried again. “Let’s go somewhere and talk. We don’t want to disturb this lovely function.”
“I don’t give a damn about this party,” Jasper’s mother said. “I just want my grandbaby.”
“Is everything okay?” To Claire’s dismay, Linc was approaching with Knox and Sawyer trailing after him.
“Everything is fine,” she answered.
“Everything is not fine,” Jasper’s mother declared. “This girl has stolen our granddaughter from us.”
“That’s not true,” Claire said. She couldn’t look at Linc. This sort of outrageous scene was the height of disrespect. What he must think of her.
“Are you Claire’s family?” he asked, his deep voice ringing with authority and bringing a much-needed calm to the situation.
“Her family?” Doug Patmore gave a caustic laugh. “Hardly. She wanted to marry our son, but we wouldn’t have her.”
That wasn’t true. At least the part about her wanting to marry Jasper. No doubt Jasper’s parents blamed her for their estrangement from their son, even though it had begun years before she and Jasper had ever met.
Linc was frowning at Jasper’s parents. “I’m sorry, but I’m confused. Claire was married to your son.”
“Well, that’s a pack of lies,” Jasper’s father said, his eyes narrowing as he regarded Claire. “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, considering the way you duped my son into thinking you gave a damn about him and got pregnant so he’d have to take care of you.”
Horror kept Claire pinned in place even as the desire to crawl under a shrub and die flooded her. She told herself not to glance Linc’s way for his reaction, but she simply had to know if he believed the lies Jasper’s father was spouting.
Linc’s face was an impenetrable mask. Only his eyes expressed the deep sadness and crushing disappointment he was feeling.
“You were never married?” he asked her, his voice low and husky.
Her gaze flickered to Jasper’s parents. It was all over. She might as well come clean. There’d been no future for her and Linc anyway. But watching his faith in her crumble was a blow she hadn’t seen coming.
“No.”
Ten
Scarcely able to believe that Claire had been lying to him this whole time, Linc tried to get his head around what was going on. She wasn’t a military widow, or any sort of widow. Had any of what she’d said been true? Or had she simply been playing him all along?
“Why did you tell everyone you were?” he demanded.
Instead of rushing into an explanation of her actions, she crossed her arms over her chest and glanced at the older couple who’d been harassing her as he walked up.
She ducked her head and spoke in a low voice. “Can we please talk about this later?”
“Why can’t you just tell me?” Linc growled, staring at the woman he’d started thinking in terms of spending the rest of his life with, willing her to say something—anything—that would make the churning in his gut go away. “Claire, what the hell is going on? Who are these people?”
“Jasper’s parents. Doug and Sharon Patmore.”