Love and Secrets - Kit Morgan Page 0,26
to do the same. This was not the reaction he thought he was going to get from his parents. He’d misjudged them, plain and simple. It made him blatantly aware he’d been away for far too long.
As if reading his thoughts, Dad asked, “When will you be moving the rest of your things here?”
Zane looked at Holly and back. She gave him a supportive smile. “I’m not sure. There are things I need to take care of first.”
“What things?” Mother asked.
“I need to tell Sophie’s other grandparents about her.” He looked at Mom, then Dad. You could have heard a pin drop. “She does have another set, you know.”
“Well, obviously,” Mom huffed. “And where are they?”
“Long Island.” He glanced at Holly again.
“Wait a minute,” Dad said. “You mean to tell us they don’t know about Sophie any more than we did?”
He shook his head. “Jillian never told them about her. Just like she never told me.”
“Seems to me this girl needs to speak up more,” Mom said.
“She can’t speak anymore, dear. Remember?” Dad reminded her.
“Oh, yes. Forgive me. God rest her soul, poor thing. But you would think her parents would know!”
Zane quietly tapped one foot under the table. It wasn’t long before Holly put hers over his. When he looked her way, she smiled. Thank Heaven she was here. He didn’t know what he’d do without her. But how much longer would she be around? Maybe he could think up an excuse to have her help him a while longer.
He smiled at the thought and got back to eating.
Chapter Nine
“What? A baby!” Katie said in shock.
Holly sighed. “Yes. A beautiful, wonderful, baby girl named Sophie.”
Katie’s mouth was still hanging open. “I don’t believe it!”
“What’s so hard to believe?” Holly asked. “He hasn’t lived here for eight years. Things happened.”
“Obviously.” Katie ran a hand through her hair. “Zane Brody with a daughter. I freaking can’t believe it.”
Holly frowned. “Why not? You’re a widow with three kids. To Zane that’s news.”
“Unless his parents told him at some point,” Katie shot back. She grabbed the broom and began to sweep up the hair around her station. Holly purposely waited until they were almost done for the day to tell her. She didn’t want to have to keep talking about it for hours on end. Who knows what sort of questions she’d fire at Zane once she had time to think about things? She’d gone easy on him the day before.
“By the way, he needs a highchair for Sophie. He was going to go to Stones, but…”
“You wanted to ask me first?” Katie smiled. “I still have mine and won’t be getting any more use out of it.”
“You never know…”
Katie rolled her eyes. “Oh, pleeeease.”
“I’ll let Zane know. He’ll appreciate it.” She went to the counter on her side of the shop and dug her cell phone out of her purse.
“He’ll be doing me a favor. One less thing to sell in a garage sale,” Katie said. “I might even still have some of Tiffany’s clothes. How old did you say the baby was?”
“About eight months. She sits up and is getting ready to crawl. You know how they get on their hands and knees and rocked back and forth?”
“And fall on their face half the time?” Katie laughed. “Oh, my goodness, you should’ve seen Carlton. Once Jack learned to crawl he was off like a rabbit. Same with Tiffany. But Carl…”
“I remember,” she said. “He was very cautious.” She brought up Zane’s name and hit the call icon.
“Hello?”
“Hi! Guess who?”
Zane laughed. “I take it you just told Katie?”
“Yes. She looks appropriately shocked and mortified that I didn’t tell her earlier.”
“That’s right, I am!” Katie called across the shop.
He laughed. “The highchair?”
“Is yours. Katie and I will clean it up before you get it.”
“Tell him to give me about an hour, if that’s all right,” Katie said. “In fact, tell him to bring the baby with him and they can have dinner with us.”
“That’s a great idea,” Holly said. “Did you hear that?”
“Not quite,” he said with a laugh. “But it sounds like the two of you are plotting.”
“Just dinner. Would you like to come?”
“Katie’s house?”
“Sure.” She gave him the address, settled on a time, then ended the call. A tingle went up her spine at the thought of seeing him again. Now that his parents knew about Sophie, he wouldn’t be as worried about how things would turn out. She knew he’d been nervous about telling them. Even she was surprised at