I squeezed her hand. “I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you. You’re his sister, after all.”
“You guys going to be okay with this?” Jason asked.
“Might as well get this over with,” I replied.
Nora squeezed my hand and we followed Jason inside.
Uncle Jerome rose from the sofa and gasped. He stared at me as if I was a ghost. “You look so much like your mother.”
I knew that, and took it as the compliment it was surely meant to be. “Uncle Jerome.”
He stared at Nora awkwardly. “It’s good to see you again, Nora.” His gaze flitted to the man glowering beside her.
“My husband,” she said. “Fletcher Coleridge.” She fixed Uncle Jerome with a stare, daring him to say something about Fletcher’s heritage.
Uncle Jerome shook Fletcher’s hand. “Glad to finally meet you.” His eyes dipped to the child in my arms. “Yours?”
“This is Wesley, and this is my husband Ian.” I turned to Ian. “My uncle Jerome.”
Ian extended his hand. “Sir.”
Uncle Jerome’s eyes welled with tears. “I knew you’d land on your feet. You always were one tough cookie.”
Wesley fussed and I rocked him in my arms. “The baby’s hungry.”
Ian handed me a baby blanket, which I draped over my shoulder as I sat on the couch. Wesley struggled to latch on, something I attributed to the tension coiled in my body.
“Aunt Brynn!” Georgia came running from her bedroom and launched onto the sofa beside me.
I hugged her with my free arm and she stared at the blanket.
“Is that my cousin?” she asked.
“Yes, sweetie. He’s eating right now, but you can say hello when he’s finished.”
She bounced beside me.
Sharon held out a hand. “Georgia, honey, why don’t we go to your room and play for a few minutes so Grandpa can talk to Aunt Brynn and Aunt Nora.”
“I want to see Wesley,” Georgia whined.
“And you will. As soon as he’s done eating,” I said.
Georgia pouted and folded her arms.
Ian crouched in front of her. “How about if I come with you?”
Her face contorted as she struggled not to smile. She was as enamored of her Uncle Ian as I was. She thrust out a hand and tugged him along behind her.
“You going to be okay?” Ian asked over his shoulder.
“Of course.”
Uncle Jerome settled into a chair, avoiding eye contact. Because I was nursing? Or because he was uncomfortable?
“Jason said you wanted to see us,” Nora said.
He nodded. “With Jeannine’s wedding a month away, I thought it would be better if we had a chance to talk beforehand.” He glanced at me. “I’m so glad things have turned out well for you. Truly, Brynn.”
“Where’s Theresa?” Nora asked.
Uncle Jerome bowed his head again. “She doesn’t plan to attend Jeannine’s wedding. As you might guess, she doesn’t approve. However, Jeannine has asked me to give her away, and I fully intend to do so. She is my daughter, after all.”
Nora’s eyebrows rose. “What do you have to say about her wedding?”
Uncle Jerome’s gaze shifted to where Fletcher scowled beside Nora. “I only want her to be happy.”
“I believe she is,” Jason said.
I smiled at my cousin, proud he’d come to accept his sister’s choice.
My uncle’s voice became thick with emotion. “I haven’t always done the right thing or made the right choices. I tried to be a good husband, and sometimes that meant I wasn’t as good of a father as I should have been. For that, I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how happy I am you kids have found a way to be a family.”
He turned to Nora. “I shouldn’t have let her divide us, either. I’m glad you’ve found your happiness, too.”
Fletcher’s expression softened.
Uncle Jerome waved around the room. “I’ve missed out on all this. Weddings. Babies. When Jeannine asked me to give her away, I realized how much I’d already given away. I know that’s my fault, but it stops. Now. Theresa can do what she wants, but if my family is willing to invite me in, I plan to be there for them, from here on out. I hope you can all find a way to forgive me.”
“It’s about time,” Nora said softly.
Wesley unlatched. I put myself together beneath the blanket and raised him to my shoulder to burp him.
“I’m grateful to you for taking Brynn in,” Uncle Jerome went on. “And doing the job I wasn’t able to.”
“Charlotte gave her a good head start,” Nora said. “Brynn has been a blessing to me.”
Georgia came running down the hall again, her little brother Remy in her wake. Remy detoured to his grandfather, who scooped him up. Georgia climbed onto the sofa beside me.
“Is he done?” Georgia asked.
Ian rested a hand on the back of the sofa and inclined over us, a contented smile on his face.
I cradled Wesley against my legs, his dark blue eyes struggling to focus.
“Hi, baby,” Georgia said.
Ian and I exchanged a questioning glance. Was that a spark we saw in Wesley’s eye? And a matching one in Georgia’s?
“Jason?” I asked. “Something I should know?”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” He shot a side glance at his father. “Georgia’s so attached to you, and she loves Ian, too. I know you’ll do your part in helping to raise my daughter. We are family, after all, aren’t we?”
Ian’s eyes sparkled as he answered for us both. “Indeed, we are.”
Dear Reader:
Thanks so much for reading this book. If you enjoyed the story, I hope you will encourage others by “liking” my books on Goodreads.com and everywhere the option is offered, and by posting an honest review to the site where you bought this book and/or at other book blogs/reading sites so you can help other readers decide whether it’s worth their time. Authors like and need to get feedback to make each new book as good as it can be.
—Karla Brandenburg
Also by Karla Brandenburg
The Hillendale Novels
Family Alchemy
Unintended Consequences
The Hidden Grimoire
Interrupted Magic
The Epitaph Series
Epitaph
The
