needed.
“All right. Sam and I will be over in the morning, but I’ll call if we find anything major in the meantime. Let me know if you hear from this guy again.”
Gabe nodded and pulled PJ up to her feet, then guided her to the back door. She seemed a bit shell-shocked as they walked back down the beach.
Chapter 13
PJ felt numb as they walked up through Gabe’s backyard. He entered the code to the back gate and held it open for her, then ensured that it clicked shut behind them before they continued up to the patio.
When her phone chimed, she pulled it out of her pocket, tense but comforted when she felt Gabe’s strong hand on her back. She didn’t mind at all that he looked over her shoulder, and she angled the phone toward him to allow him to see. Aunt Susie and Uncle Brian had sent a text.
Call when you can.
She hit the button to make the call and put the phone to her ear. Brian picked up almost immediately.
“What is it?” PJ asked. “Is Matthew all right?”
“Yes, PJ. But, we wanted to let you know,” he paused, and she felt a jagged pain in her gut, dreading what was coming. Had her blackmailer found Matthew? Had he contacted them?
Brian continued. “We told Matthew about you. We told him you’re his birth mother.”
PJ felt hollow and then felt Gabe’s arm around her, all but holding her up. Her head was reeling. “I always thought…. Well, I always just assumed….”
Matthew had known for years that he was adopted, but they hadn’t told him PJ was his birth mother until now. She thought she’d be a part of that conversation when the time came.
“I’m sorry, PJ,” Brian’s voice softened. “We just felt we needed to tell him before he found out some other way. We didn’t want to wait and then have him see something on the news.”
She squared her shoulders. “Yeah…. No, I get it. That’s fine, Brian. I understand. How did he take it? Can I talk to him?”
There was hesitation in his voice when he answered. “I’m sorry, Peej, honey. He’s upstairs. He doesn’t want to talk right now. I think he’s still processing it.”
PJ broke down when she heard that. Tears ran down her cheeks as Gabe’s arms came around her and held her tight. She tried to talk, tried to ask if Brian thought Matthew would be all right, but she couldn’t.
In her head, all she could do was berate herself for crying like this. Matthew was the important one. Only his feelings mattered here.
But somehow, knowing he knew the truth about where he’d come from and might choose never to speak to her again…well, it brought back all of the memories of having to turn over her tiny, incredible, precious baby the day he was born.
For months after she gave him up, her arms felt hollow, like she should be holding him but wasn’t.
Even though she had given him to people she knew in her heart, with all her heart, would care for him and love him as if he were their own, she’d still felt the agony of letting someone else raise her child.
Now, she could be losing Matthew all over again.
She heard Brian soothing her. “It’ll be okay, PJ. Matthew just needs time, but he loves you. And, he knows we’re all there for him. He’ll come around.”
PJ felt Gabe take the phone from her hand. “Brian, she’ll call you back.”
PJ would like to say she was strong, that she brushed away the tears and collected herself and all was good and well in the world….
It wasn’t. And she didn’t. Gabe lifted her and she let him. She rested her head against his chest and sobbed as he carried her to the house and into her room.
Gabe sat on the edge of her bed, letting her settle into his lap.
PJ couldn’t believe she’d let him see her fall apart like this. She was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake. But, she also hadn’t had any warning, had no idea she was about to hear what she had. What if Matthew didn’t ever want to speak with her? What if he didn’t want her in his life? What if she couldn’t be a part of his life? Couldn’t see him growing up?
Part of her knew it had been better for him to find out this way than to discover it when or if it leaked to the media, but that didn’t