Right All Along by Heather Heyford

Author:Heather Heyford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

In the following days as Jack went about his work, he could think of nothing but Harley’s pending adoption. He didn’t know why he was so surprised. She’d been a lonely child. She had talked wistfully about someday having a houseful of children. But what had prompted her to take such a drastic step on her own? He could only come up with two reasons. Either she underestimated the importance of a father in raising a child, or she had given up on finding a man. Either way, he had misgivings.

No one knew better than he how hard it was to raise children alone. He should know—he’d been doing it for the past five years.

As for Harley giving up on love, that brought up a confusing mix of feelings. Because while he wasn’t accepting of her, he couldn’t bear the thought of her with someone else.

All that aside, how could she have kept such an important decision from him, when they had once been so close? Then again, he’d been the one who threw that away. What right did he have to be part of her world? Still, he couldn’t keep from doing a little research of his own, in the evenings. He discovered that what she’d said was true—a lot could go wrong. Aside from the challenge of finding a baby, there could be medical problems. Or the birth parents could renege. Some of his hurt at being left out of Harley’s life was replaced with respect for her courage.

A week later they were sitting at a table at one of the nicest eateries in town.

But this wasn’t like it used to be. In the old days, they’d be riding around in Jack’s pickup, not sitting across from each other, a white tablecloth stretching between them.

Conversation was halting at best.

Their server arrived holding two plates. “Roast chicken?”

“That’s me.” Jack raised a finger.

“And vegetable strata,” she said, placing the second dish in front of Harley.

When they were alone again, Jack said, “Maybe we could start over. Pretend the past never happened.”

How was that possible? Jack had altered the course of her life in ways he still didn’t know about.

She shrugged. The alternative wasn’t working very well. Anything would be better than these long, awkward pauses.

“Good.” He settled deeper into his seat. “Let’s start from the very beginning. Tell me about yourself. Where are you from?”

“Well,” said Harley. She took a sip of wine. “Let’s see. I had a great childhood. Grew up outside a small farm town in a valley where there were no boundaries—”

“—that you obeyed,” inserted Jack, grinning, thinking of all the times she’d trespassed in his family’s vineyards.

“Details. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I had wonderful parents who let me be me. A great teacher-mentor. I’ll stop there and let you have a turn.” She stabbed a carrot with her fork.

“That’s interesting, because I grew up in the same kind of place. Except that I had a lot of boundaries.” He switched to a serious tone.

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