“Let’s just tell her about the wedding now,” Aidan said. “I want her to digest that and then we can tell her about the baby later, when she’s ready. Are you okay with that?”
Kate put her hand on her middle and nodded. “Of course. You know Chloe and if you think that’s the best way to handle it, I’m right there with you.”
He reached out and ran the pad of his thumb along Kate’s jawline. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Do you really think so?” she asked. “I mean, are you sure Chloe isn’t going to feel like I’m an intruder in the life that the two of you have built together?” Kate whispered the words.
“I hope not. I mean, I can’t imagine that she would feel that way. Her mom has never been a part of her life. Since she’s been hanging around Beatrice and Doris so much lately, she’s asked me a couple of times why she doesn’t have a mother like her friends.”
Kate’s face softened. “Oh, poor little girl. I hope I can live up to the task and be a good mother to her.”
“You already are,” Aidan said. “All you have to do is...love her. I think you’ll be good at that.”
The word love made him think of how they hadn’t resolved Kate’s question, which seemed to have come from out of the blue. Of course, he cared for her. He wouldn’t have married her if he didn’t. Then he saw Kate’s throat work as she swallowed. When she looked up at him, emotion swam in her eyes.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her softly on the lips.
“You’re going to be a great mother,” he said.
The sound of Chloe’s feet scampering on the hardwood floors made Kate tense and pull out of his arms.
“It is going to be fine,” he said. “I promise.”
A half hour later, Kate, Aidan and Chloe were seated on a quilt in Forsyth Park. As Kate helped Aidan set out the food for their dino nugget dinner along with six gourmet cupcakes he had picked up at the store for the celebration, the little girl danced around them on the grass.
“Princess Sweetie Pie wants to know when we can have our surprise,” she said. Now she was jumping up and down. “Can we have the surprise before dinner? Pleeease, Daddy? Pleeease.”
“It is not exactly something that you have,” Aidan said.
Chloe stopped jumping and blinked. Not in a disappointed, spoiled-child way. It was more of a look that said she was trying to understand what he was telling her.
“What is it, then?” she asked quietly, holding her cat by one arm at her side.
Aidan glanced at Kate, as if looking for the answer. She shrugged and gestured back at him. She had nearly blown it once today when she had spilled the beans to Doris. He needed to figure out the right way to break this news. She would be right here for moral support.
He must’ve understood, because he finally said, “It is something that Kate and I have to tell you.”
Chloe dropped down onto the quilt that they were using as a picnic blanket and stared up at them, her face solemn.
“Don’t look so upset,” Aidan said. “It is good news. It is happy news.”
Kate’s heart was hammering in her chest as if it was trying to break out and run away.
Then Aidan reached out and took Kate’s hand.
“You know how you told me that you wished you had a mommy?”
Chloe nodded.
“Well, now you do. Kate and I got married when we went away—remember when we went away, and you stayed with Beatrice?”
The little girl nodded again, her eyes looking hopeful.
“Since we’re married, Kate is your mommy. What do you think about that?”
Chloe’s hands flew to her mouth. “Really?” The words were muffled behind her little fingers. “Are you really my mommy?”
“I would be honored to be your mommy, if you want me to be,” Kate said.
Chloe nodded earnestly. Then she jumped up and threw her arms around Kate’s neck.
Suddenly she pulled back and tilted her head to the side. “Does that mean you’re going to live with us and tuck me into bed and eat dinner with us every night?”
“It sure does,” Kate said around the emotion that had knotted in her throat. “I’ll even take you to school every morning if you want me to.”
Again Chloe nodded enthusiastically. “Will you take me to school tomorrow?”
“I would love to take you to school tomorrow, as long as it is okay with your daddy.”
Both heads swiveled to looked at Aidan. He held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, it is two against one. Majority rules. It looks like I’d be outnumbered if I said no, but I would not have said no anyway. Not to my two best girls.”
He locked gazed with Kate and hot tears stung the backs of her eyes. She blinked them back and bit the insides of her cheeks until the temptation to cry passed. She had never been a big sap like this. She had prided herself on being stoic and cynical. One look at the happiness on Chloe’s face—the little girl made it seem like getting a mother was the best gift anyone could have ever given to her—and Kate was about to become a blubbering mess.
Was this what kids did to you? Soften your hard heart and strip away your defenses? Because that was what was happening to her as she realized that Chloe—and Aidan—and their baby were the best gifts she could have received.
From where she sat, she could see the Forsyth Galloway Inn across the grassy expanse and through the moss-laden trees on the other side of the street. The place that had belonged to six generations of women in her family. It felt as if each one of her ancestors who had come before her was smiling down on her right now,
