“Thank you.” She sits at one of my small round pub tables and smiles as I sit opposite her. “How are you, Nic?”
“I’m fine.”
Her eyes narrow as she watches me, an expression I’m all too familiar with on her son. “That’s good.”
“What can I do for you?” I ask. “Would you like a cupcake? Cup of coffee?”
“Oh, not right now, although I might take a few home to Steven.” She leans an elbow on the table and looks about my shop. “This is a beautiful bakery.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you spoken to my son?” she asks bluntly.
“Not in a few weeks,” I reply softly and feel the stab to my heart. God, I miss him so much it hurts.
“I see.” She frowns and links her hands, resting them in her lap. “May I ask why?”
I clear my throat and frown. Geez, how much do I tell his mom? “Honestly, it feels like a betrayal to him to talk about our relationship with you without him here.”
She smiles widely and reaches across the table to lay her hand on my arm. “I like you, Nic. It’s only because I like you that I’m here. I spoke with Matt the morning that you had your fight.”
My eyes widen in surprise.
“That startles you,” she guesses correctly.
“Matt’s not really the kind of person to seek someone out to talk to,” I reply honestly.
“He didn’t seek me out. He ran into me at the hospital.”
“Oh, how is Natalie?” I ask, genuinely concerned. Another difficult part of losing Matt was losing the fragile friendships that I’d just started to form with his family.
“She’s very well, thank you.” Gail shifts in her seat and considers her next words carefully. “Nic, Matt confided in me about your medical troubles.”
Well, she just keeps shocking the hell out of me.
“I’m actually quite healthy,” I reply.
“He said that, too, but he said that the main reason you believe you can’t pursue your relationship with him is because you may not be able to give him children.”
Tears prick my eyes as I stare down at the tabletop. I can only nod in response.
“And that you think that Matt should have a large family.”
“I’ve seen him with the kids, with his pregnant sisters, Mrs. Montgomery. He’d be an excellent father, and he should have that.”
“I agree, but Nic, why do you feel that you can’t eventually have that with him? Aside from the fact that your relationship is new, and marriage and children are still in the distant future, why do you not think that you could be the woman to eventually share those things with him? You’re obviously very much in love with each other.”
“Because I can’t have children, ma’am. Sure, I may be able to get pregnant through the miracles of modern medicine, but the PCOS is so bad that I’ve been advised that I shouldn’t have children.”
“And why is it necessary for the children you may have to be biologically yours?”
I sit in stunned silence and stare at the older woman, then crease my brow in confusion. “Isn’t that usually how it works? Matt should have his own biological children.”
Gail’s eyes flare in irritation, and she crosses her arms over her chest, and I have a bad feeling that I’ve just pissed off the mama bear.
Shit.
“Because you’re new to our fold, let me explain something to you about our family, Nic. The saying ‘blood is thicker than water’ is bullshit. My Natalie first came into our family when she was in college with Jules. They became fast best friends, and Nat came home with Jules during holidays and such. And when her parents died, leaving her orphaned, we are the ones who stood by her, helped her through that difficult time, and continue to love her. Natalie is as much my daughter as Jules is, but she isn’t my biological daughter.” Gail smiles softly.
“Caleb,” she continues, “just adopted Maddie and Josie and couldn’t love them more than the baby he’s conceived with Brynna. Those girls are his. In every way, Nic.”
I remember the girls with Caleb when I was invited to dinner and smile as I nod in agreement.
“Another example is Meg and Leo. They both came from some of the most difficult of circumstances, but found each other and have claimed each other as brother and sister since Meg was a preteen. But they don’t share parents, Nic. They just love each other so much that they made a family together.
“The Williams family, all of my sons and daughters-in-law, have become as much my family as those I gave birth to.”
God, I’m such a moron. All this time, I thought it would be important to Matt to have children of his own, but it never occurred to me that he would welcome children who might come to us through other means.
“And Dominic,” Gail continues, much to my surprise. “Did Matt tell you that story?”
“Just that Dominic is his half brother.”
“I’m surprised he worded it that way,” Gail murmurs. “My husband and I had a rough time of it right after Caleb was born. We split for a few months, and during that time, Steven slept with a woman while on a business trip, resulting in Dominic.”
My mouth drops as I stare at her, shocked.
“We didn’t know about the baby until early this year when Dominic hired a private investigator to find his biological father. It shocked Steven, but between you and me, it turned my world upside down. Nic”—she leans in and lays her hands on the table—“my husband had a child with another woman. I knew about the sex more than thirty years ago, right after it happened, but now there was a man in front of me, claiming to be my husband’s son. His mother died last year, and he was curious. What was I supposed to do? Throw him away and pretend he never existed?”
“What did you do?” I ask, enthralled.
“I welcomed that man into our family. I’d forgiven Steven a lifetime ago, and Dom is his child. He’s come to fit in very well with our family, and my other children love him, too.”
“You are an extraordinary family, ma’am. Families like yours don’t happen every day.”
“Oh, darling, we are not perfect, that’s for sure. But my point is, whether it’s through blood or pure love, family is family. I dare you to tell me that the twins, Olivia and the new baby about to come aren’t my grandchildren.”
“Of course they are,” I reply immediately.