“Or at least verified. I should have taken responsibility.”
He was uncomfortable because he didn’t know how to face her, the boy who had knocked up her daughter, she realized.
“I’m sorry, Juliet. I know what you must be thinking of me and there’s nothing I can say in my own defense.”
It was completely inappropriate, but for an instant, Juliet wanted to laugh. He hadn’t ruined her daughter’s life. If anything, Caitlin was the very best thing to come out of that tragic time.
As if she could ever think less of him, anyway. This was the boy who used to eat dinner at her table at least once or twice a week, who always helped wash up afterward.
Who had risked his own life to save Steve’s.
“The hard truth is, I’ve been a deadbeat dad all these years without knowing it, leaving you to bear all the responsibility for raising my child. On the way here, I was thinking I have some savings. Some stocks and things. I need to pay you back child support or something for all the years I should have been here taking care of Caitlin.”
Her words suddenly came back to her in a rush. “You will do nothing of the kind,” she exclaimed.
“I have to do something. A man takes care of his responsibilities.”
He was always such a stubborn boy, always determined to do the right thing.
Oh, Natalie. How could you do this to your dearest friend?
“You didn’t know you had a responsibility because my daughter told you that you didn’t. You believed her. We all believed her. If you had any inkling, I’m certain you would have been here.”
He was a victim, too, denied the joy of being a father for fifteen years, she realized suddenly. Why hadn’t Natalie told him the truth? She thought she might suspect the reason. Cooper had been on the cusp of starting his life away from Cape Sanctuary, something at the time he had desperately needed.
By joining the military, Cooper was trying to escape the hard family life he’d had here. Would he have gone on to become a special forces pararescue specialist, as he had dreamed? Doubtful. He would have stayed here to take care of his child.
Natalie had loved him, had known what he needed maybe even more than Cooper had. Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to give him one more responsibility, when he had spent his entire childhood caring for his mother and his baby sister.
Or maybe, knowing now what kind of life Natalie was living by then, the drugs and the partying, it was possible her daughter genuinely hadn’t known who had fathered her baby.
Juliet petted the sweet little dog, her heart aching with sorrow for all of them.
“I shouldn’t have accepted what she told me,” Cooper said again. “I have no excuse, really. But now that I know, I intend to step up. If it’s all right with you, I would like to start building a relationship with Caitlin.”
“Naturally. Of course you will. I would have been disappointed in you if you had said otherwise.”
Caitlin look thrilled, which made Juliet’s heart ache all over again. She had known her granddaughter wanted a father. That was natural. Juliet should have realized how much Caitlin had needed a father. The longing in her eyes as she looked at Cooper was raw, vulnerable, nervous, as if she were afraid to hope.
“Caitlin is fifteen. She’ll be sixteen in September. She’s old enough to decide how much or how little she wants you involved in her life.”
“Agreed,” he said, looking relieved.
“Much,” Caitlin said in a small voice that made Juliet want to hug her.
“You’re part of this family now,” Juliet told him sternly. “That means I expect you for Sunday dinners when you can make it, an invitation that will of course include your sister and her boys.”
He nodded, looking overwhelmed and, she thought, touched. He had always been such a sweet boy, so grateful to be welcomed into their home.
She didn’t like to think ill of the dead but his and Melody’s mother had been a weak, selfish woman who had given little love and no structure to her children. That he had turned out to be such a good man was a testament to his own strength of character.
“Thank you, but I’m willing to take a rain check on the invitation for now. I’m afraid you won’t be up to cooking one of your big Sunday dinners for some time yet.”
“I’m stronger every day,” she said. How long that would