“I’ll come to your place when I finish everything I’ve got to do,” he said.
“Can you stay the night?”
“What do you think?”
She felt her grin widen. “I’ll leave the light on.”
“Skye…”
“Yes?”
“We’ll get through this together.”
“That’s what I needed to hear. Tell Jeremy I hope he has a wonderful time at his grandma’s.”
“I will.”
Skye was still smiling when she hung up. Now that she’d told David, the baby felt more real. Putting her work aside for the day even though it was only 2:00 p.m., she switched over to the Internet and started shopping for nursery furniture.
She was marrying, having a baby—finally putting Burke behind her. Her happiness at that thought made her feel like a new person.
Standing up, she circled her desk and took down all the pictures on her wall.
25
“Where’s Jane?”
Oliver summoned a sad expression as he handed his mother the overnight bag he’d packed for Kate. He shook his head, silently asking his mother not to mention Jane again until they could talk without Kate being present.
“Why don’t you run out and feed Horse?” she suggested, putting an encouraging hand on Kate’s back. “He gets lonely without you.”
Kate ran through the house. Oliver could hear her little feet tapping down the hallway, but he waited until the back door slammed before he spoke.
“Jane’s gone,” he said as if it was the hardest message he’d ever had to convey.
The eyebrows his mother painted on with a makeup pencil every day arched high on her forehead. “Gone where? I thought, well, when you called to say you were bringing Kate, I’d been hoping maybe you and Jane were able to patch things up.”
“I tried. Lord knows I tried.” He took perverse pleasure in the fact that he could lie so well. His father generally seemed less prepared to believe him than his mother, but his father wasn’t there. He just had to sell this one to his mom, and she’d take care of his dad. “By the time Jane came home last night, I’d had a chance to think about everything and calm down. I realized I didn’t want to lose her, so I begged her to give me a second chance. I promised to forgive her and Noah. The situation’s been hard on all of us, you know? But she wasn’t interested in hearing me out. And this morning I realized why.”
“Why?” his mother breathed expectantly.
“She had plans to leave again. Only this time she ran off with Noah.”
His mother staggered back. “What? No! What about Wendy? And the kids?”
Oliver managed a few tears. “He and Jane are too wrapped up in each other to care about anyone else. Like…like their families.” He let go of a dramatic sigh and dashed his hand across his cheek, as if impatient with his weakness.
His mother’s lip quivered as tears filled her eyes, too. “How could Noah do this to us? To his wife? Poor Wendy. She was so understanding about the whole thing, so ready to stand by him.”
Oliver stared at the ground. “I guess he couldn’t appreciate how great she really is.”
“How will we tell the children?” his mother asked, wringing her hands.
The door slammed again, signaling Kate’s return, and Oliver fell silent as his daughter came skipping down the hall carrying the dog’s dish. “I’m going to give him a lot,” she announced.
His mother turned away so Kate couldn’t see the distress on her face, but Oliver smiled and nodded. “You do that, honey.”
They waited until she was gone again, then his mother dried her cheeks and pulled him into an embrace. “I’m sorry, Oliver. You’ve been through too much. This isn’t fair. And…and I never would’ve expected it from Noah, I’ll tell you that.”
“Me, neither,” he said. “I guess he wasn’t the person we thought he was.”
This statement caused more tears, but his mother didn’t contradict him. “Does Wendy know?”
“She’s got to be wondering. We got together last night, then he had me drop him off at Starbucks. He said he needed some time alone, but I doubt he ever went home because I think he called Jane from there. The last Wendy probably heard was when he left with me about an hour after we found Kate gone.”
“Poor Wendy.”
“And I haven’t told Kate, of course. Maybe I should’ve, but…I thought I’d wait in case…in case Jane comes back to me.” He pretended to choke up again, which elicited another fierce, sympathetic hug from his mother.
“They both know better than this! It’s not like Noah to…to break our hearts.”
It was difficult not to grimace at her words. Noah was no saint. What he’d done with Jane proved that. As surreal as the morning had been, Oliver was thinking clearly again. He knew he had to play it smart, do a better job from here on out or he’d be spending the rest of his life in the prison he’d just left, or one like it. “I trusted Jane, too.” Sniffing, he blinked rapidly, as if fighting tears. “It’s a shock.”
“Of course it is.”
“What’s a shock?” His father had just come out of the bathroom, where he spent at least fifteen minutes every time he went in.
“I’ll tell you later,” his mother said, visibly struggling to bear up under the news.
“I appreciate you two taking Kate,” Oliver said. “My injury’s really giving me trouble this morning. I think I’ve been doing too much. And last night was pretty brutal.”
“Of course it was.” His mother cupped his cheek. “You go home and get into bed until you feel better. Kate can spend the next few days with us. We love the little thing. And she enjoys being here. We’ll take care of her.”
His father stood watching the exchange, waiting to hear what was going on. The expression on his face said he knew it wasn’t good.
“I’ll call tomorrow and check in.”
“Don’t worry about anything here,” she said and kissed his cheek.
“What is it?” Oliver heard his father ask, but Oliver was already walking to his car and didn’t look back as his mother began to explain. He had to hurry. He’d driven by The Last Stand on the way to his parents’ house, had spotted the cars in the lot. Fortunately, Skye was at work, as usual. But he didn’t know how long she’d be there, and he had a lot to do.