Happily This Christmas (Happily Inc #6) - Susan Mallery Page 0,72

time you had. You always had secrets with him and things you did together.” Her mother sighed. “I’m sorry. That’s on me, not on you. There’s no one reason I didn’t push you to be with him. I guess I should have tried harder to make you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said softly. “I did what I did because Sandy said he’d dumped her because he didn’t care about her and I was next. I got scared that she was telling the truth, so I stopped seeing him before he could tell me he didn’t want to spend time with me anymore.”

“What? No! That bitch. I never liked her. What a horrible thing to say. You know it’s not true, don’t you? Honey, your dad adores you. He always has. If anything, I’m sure Sandy was jealous because you were so important to him.”

Pretty much what her dad had told her, which was nice to get confirmed.

“What a mess,” her mother said. “This makes me feel awful. I really should have made you keep seeing him. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mom. It’s not your fault.”

“It feels like it is. Then I sent you away. Do you want to come home?”

Even two weeks ago that question would have had her throwing her things into her suitcases and heading west. But since then, a lot had changed. She and her dad were doing better. Plus she had a meeting at Weddings Out of the Box to talk about Holly’s wedding.

“I’m good here,” she said. “It’s easier for everyone.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m fine, Mom. Really. I’ll be back when Chandler gets home.”

“I miss you so much.”

“I miss you, too, Mom.”

They hung up.

Joylyn stared at the phone, then picked up the snowman she’d been working on. Funny how a little information could change so many things, she thought. What was that saying? Perception was reality, or something like that? Whatever the saying was, she never would have guessed it was true.

* * *

HUNTER WAS QUIET the rest of the afternoon and evening. Wynn decided rather than press him to talk, she would let him work out whatever he was feeling on his own. A little after seven, he said he was going to read in his room—confusing, but again, she let him be. About twenty minutes later, there was a knock on her front door.

She opened it to find Garrick on her front porch. The sight of his handsome face and strong, broad shoulders had her flinging herself at him. He caught her and pulled her close, then eased them both in the house and closed the door behind him.

“Bad day?” he asked, lightly kissing her.

“No, just stressful. You smell like wood shavings. It’s nice.”

“I was working on the bassinet. Now that all the wood is cut and sanded, it’s coming together quickly.”

“Joylyn is going to be excited when she sees it. She still doesn’t know?”

“No.”

They walked to the sofa. He sat first, then pulled her down next to him. She leaned her head on his shoulder and rested her arm across his chest.

“Tell me what happened today,” he said, fingering one of her curls.

She told him about visiting Major Rumsey and how Hunter had come clean.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do until he asked me to meet him at the JROTC office and told me he was going to tell the truth.” She looked up at Garrick. “I wanted him to do the right thing and I hoped he would, but until that moment, I wasn’t sure.”

“You should have been. You’ve raised a great kid. He’s going to be a good man.”

“I hope so. Parenting is hard.”

“And yet people do it again and again.”

They did, she thought. They had multiple kids and raised them and were happy.

“I should have had more kids,” she said impulsively.

“I agree, but that was one of the ways you were punishing yourself.”

She grimaced. “You figured that out?”

“Once I knew your history, it wasn’t hard. Don’t give me any credit for being insightful. You believed you’d done a bad thing, so you stayed away from relationships—at least the guy-girl kind. Without that, it’s tough to get pregnant.”

He was right. She hadn’t thought she was worthy. She’d carefully chased away anyone who had tried to get close. Something she was fairly sure she was over, which made her relationship with Garrick intriguing. She wondered how he felt about having more kids—not that she was going to ask. They hadn’t even slept together. Asking about children would send him screaming