The Wreck (31 page)

“Good.” He leaned over to kiss her. “Then
no more talk about not meant to be or any other such foolishness, okay?”

“All right,” she said, but she still
wasn’t sure. He was saying all the right things, but the conviction he’d once
had was gone. She hoped it would be back in time for their wedding.

“I’m going to go talk to my parents about
Zoë.”

“I want to come with you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, Brian. Yes, I do.” She got out of
bed and reached for her robe. “Give me twenty minutes.”

After
a quick breakfast at Miss Molly’s, they walked through town to Tucker Road with
a police officer following them. They stopped for a few minutes at the accident
site where Carly pulled weeds and pinched off some dead blooms from the bank of
wildflowers.

“I don’t even know what he does for a
living,” Brian said absently as he watched her fuss with the flowers.

Still in a crouch, Carly turned and
looked up at him. His hands were in his pockets, his eyes fixed on the white
cross bearing Sam’s name. “Who?”

“Tom.”

“He’s a vice president at a
pharmaceutical company. He oversees their New England sales force.”

“Sounds like a good job.”

“It is. He does well. And it’s flexible,
so he can go to all the kids’ games and stuff. That’s important to him.”

“So then Cate doesn’t work?”

“She keeps threatening to go back now
that Lilly’s in first grade, but she’s up to her eyeballs in all the kids’
activities. I don’t know where she’d find the time for a job.”

“They sound like good parents.”

“They are.”

His eyes shifted from the cross to her. “That’s
what I’d want for our kids—a full-time mom and a dad who doesn’t miss much.
Would you want that, too?”

“Yes.”

“You wouldn’t want to work?”

“Not if we could afford for me to stay
home.”

“We could.” He rattled off the salary the
attorney general had offered.

Her eyes widened. “For real?”

He nodded. “Do you think you might be
pregnant? Can you tell yet?”

“Not yet. But I can take a test in a week
or two.”

“I hope you are. I want you to have a
baby you can keep.”

Carly stood and put her arms around him.
“I want that for both of us.”

He held her close for a few minutes
before he kissed her and said, “Let’s get this over with.”

Carly
went up the short flight of stairs that led to the Westbury’s living room.
Brian hung back for a moment to talk to his father, who had come home from the
station when Brian called and asked him to.

“Did you talk to her about Luke?” Michael
asked.

“Shit, I never thought of it.”

Michael stared at his son, astounded.
“What the hell could be so important you’d forget about that?”

“Come on up, and I’ll tell you.”

They went up the stairs to the living
room.

“Is everything all right?” Michael asked.

“Sit down, Dad.”

“You’re making me nervous, Brian,” Mary
Ann said. “What’s going on?”

Brian and Carly exchanged glances.

With a deep breath for courage, he said,
“I found out yesterday that Carly was pregnant when I left for college.”

“What?”
Mary Ann gasped.

Brian told them the whole story, an
abbreviated version that hit on all the important details. He held back the part
about Zoë’s being born on Sam’s birthday, fearing that might be one detail too
many at first.

When he finished, his mother’s face was
frozen with shock. “You mean to tell me all these years I’ve had a
granddaughter
living less than two miles from me?”

“Mary Ann—”

She held up a hand to stop Carly.
“Please. Don’t.”

“I know this is terribly shocking, Mom.
It was for me, too. But after hearing Carly’s side of it, I can see how she did
what she thought was best for me and for Zoë.”

“Zoë Murphy is my granddaughter,” Michael
said, more to himself than anyone else.

“Yes,” Brian said. “And after talking to
Carly, Cate, and Tom, they’ve convinced me that telling Zoë the truth now would
not be in her best interest.”

“What about
your
best interest?”
Mary Ann’s eyes were hot with anger. “What about
ours?”

“It was important to me that you and Dad
know the truth, but I assured them you wouldn’t do anything to upset her life.
It’s too late for us with her, Mom. There’ll be other grandchildren. We hope
soon.”

“When Brian and I get married, the two of
you will become part of my family—if you want to, that is,” Carly said.
“There’ll be holidays, birthdays, graduations. You’ll have the opportunity to
get to know Zoë.”

Mary Ann glanced at Carly with hard eyes.
“And that’s supposed to be enough?”

“Don’t you remember how awful everything
was then, Mom?” Brian asked with a pleading edge to his voice.

“Do you think I need to be reminded of
that?” Mary Ann snapped. “I live with it every minute of my life.”

“Then maybe you can try to understand the
situation Carly was in after I told her I was leaving and not coming back. She
couldn’t talk. She couldn’t leave the house. What was she supposed to do?”

“I would’ve raised her!”
Tears spilled down Mary Ann’s face. “I
would’ve done it without a second thought!”

Brian looked over at Carly and saw that
she too was crying.

“I’m sorry,” Carly whispered. “I didn’t
know what to do. I didn’t want to upset Brian’s life and his plans. I wanted
him to get past what’d happened. I was thinking of him.”

“You were thinking of yourself,” Mary Ann
said.

Carly shook her head to say no.

“Mary Ann…” Michael got up to sit next to
her. When he tried to slip an arm around her she shook him off.

“You know Carly, Mom. Can you even begin
to imagine what it cost her to give up her baby after she’d lost me and every
friend she had in the world? Can you try to image that?”

Carly sent him a look that told him she
appreciated him defending her.

Mary Ann swiped impatiently at her tears.
“How can you stand having a daughter who’ll never know you’re her father? How
can you
stand
that, Brian?”

“I can do it because it’s what Carly
asked me to do. She knows Zoë, and she convinced me this is what’s best for
her. She’ll be my niece. That’ll have to suffice.”

“And we’re expected to just fall in line
and keep quiet about it?”

“I didn’t have to tell you,” Brian
reminded her. “I assured Carly, Cate, and Tom that you and Dad would do
whatever I asked you to. And what I’m asking you to do is what’s best for a girl
who came into this world under less than ideal circumstances and who’s
flourishing despite it.”

“How did you find out about her?” Michael
asked.

“I took one look at Zoë, and I knew.” He
added in a whisper, “I just knew.”

“So you weren’t going to tell him?” Mary
Ann asked, her tone accusatory.

“No, I wasn’t,” Carly said.

Exhaling a snort of disbelief, Mary Ann
sat back against the sofa to study her son. “How can you go forward with this
marriage, knowing she would keep such a thing from you?”

“How can you ask me that after what we’ve
been through? She did what she thought was best for me. She gave up her baby so
I could get through college and law school. If that doesn’t tell me how much
she loves me,
what the hell ever could
?
”

“Brian,” Carly said, reaching for him.

He squeezed her hand, stood, and ran a
hand through his hair as he fought to calm down. “I’m sorry, Mom. I just can’t
bear the idea of you holding this against Carly like she set out to maliciously
deny you your granddaughter.”

“He’s right, Mary Ann,” Michael said.
“Those were dark days for all of us. It wouldn’t be fair to judge Carly on
decisions she made at that time in her life.”

“Thank you,” Carly said to Michael.

“I’m sorry I can’t forgive and forget so
easily,” Mary Ann said. “I understand it must’ve been a terrible time for you,
Carly. As a mother, I get that. But how you could just leave us out of the
whole thing … I’m sorry. That part I can’t forgive.”

“I hope in time you’ll be able to forgive
me,” Carly said. “I’ve always loved you very much, and I’ve been so looking
forward to being your daughter-in-law.”

“Now don’t you do that.” Mary Ann wiped
furiously at tears. “That’s not fair.”

Carly moved to squat down in front of
Mary Ann. “I thought of you. I did. How could I not think of you? And I knew
what it would’ve meant to you to have Zoë in your life, especially at that
time. But I put what I thought was best for Brian ahead of what was best for
you. I hope you can forgive me for that.”

Mary Ann didn’t resist when Carly hugged
her. “Again, that’s not fair.” She sniffled.

“There’s something else,” Carly said.

“Carly.” Brian’s tone was full of
warning. “This might not be the time.”

“For what?” Mary Ann asked.

Carly clutched the other woman’s hands
when she said, “Zoë was born on Sam’s birthday.”

Brian’s parents gasped.

Mary Ann whimpered. “Oh, Michael, did you
hear that?”

As he dealt with a torrent of tears,
Michael said, “I did. Yes, I did.”

“That sure is something, isn’t it?” Brian
asked, sharing an intense moment of wonder with his parents.

“It surely is,” Michael agreed.

“He was with me,” Carly said. “I felt him
all around me that day.”

Mary Ann suddenly stood. “I’m sorry. I
just need … I’m sorry.” She left the room.

Michael got up to go after her. “She’ll
need some time, but she’ll get past this.” He bent to press a kiss to Carly’s
forehead. “She loves you, too. So don’t you worry.” On his way out of the room,
he said to Brian, “Talk to her about Luke.”

Startled, Carly looked at Brian. “Luke?
Luke McInnis? What about him?”

Brian urged her to her feet and put his
arms around her. “Later, honey. We’ll talk about that later. Are you all
right?”

Carly shrugged. “I feel beat up.”

“I know. I do, too.”

“Thank you.”

His eyebrows knitted with confusion. “For
what?”

“The way you defended me. Earlier I was
wondering if you’d ever be able to truly forgive me for this, but it seems like
maybe you already have.”

“I’m still getting used to the whole
thing, but I
do
forgive you, Carly. I just hope my mother can, too.”

“Will you be able to live with it if she
can’t?”

“If you can, I can.”

“I should’ve told you.” She shook her
head with regret. “My mother wanted me to. She warned me that someday you might
find out, and I’d have to face the music.”

“You did the right thing. I would’ve come
home and married you. We probably would’ve made a terrible mess of things
between us and with Zoë. It was better this way. Maybe not for the rest of us,
but definitely for her.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I knew
you would’ve come home. I knew that for sure, Brian. But I also remembered what
you said before you left about getting married and having to live in my
parents’ house because I couldn’t leave there. As I thought about whether or
not I should tell you, I just kept wondering how I could condemn you to that.”

“It overwhelms me to know you put me
first, even after I walked away from you.”

“You didn’t do it because you’d stopped
loving me,” she reminded him.

“I never stopped loving you.” He tipped
up her chin so he could see her face. “You believe me, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.”

He kissed her forehead. “What you said,
about my parents being part of your family and getting to know Zoë? That was
good. I think it’ll help my mom to cope with this.”

“I hope so.”

He took a deep breath to clear his mind
and refocus. “Do you think
your
mother would give us a ride to one of
the car dealers on the south side?” he asked.

“I’m sure she would. You want to do that
now? Today?”

“I’m getting tired of walking everywhere,
and I was thinking I’d like to take my fiancée and my … niece out to Cape Cod
for a couple of days. What do you say?”

For the first time since the day before,
Carly smiled, a genuine smile that made it all the way to her expressive eyes.
“Your fiancée and your niece would love that.”

F
or the second time in his life, Brian
Westbury had fallen flat-on-his-face in love.