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A Forever Love(21)

By:Maggie Marr


“I never told you anything. You and Mom and Dad assumed Justin didn’t want me or Max in his life.”

“And you never told us otherwise.” Nina dropped into the chair in front of Aubrey’s desk. “Aubrey, are you kidding? You never told Justin you were pregnant? He didn’t know he had a son?”

Aubrey’s chest tightened. She shook her head and pressed her fingers to her temple. “When I found out—” She searched Nina’s face. How could she make her sister understand how alone and afraid and completely powerless she’d felt when she discovered her one night with Justin had gotten her pregnant? “Not telling him, at the time, seemed like my only option.” Her lips thinned. Now, looking back, of course she knew keeping this secret had been a mistake. Her bad decision had angered Justin and might even harm Max, but then, in that moment, there’d been nothing other than pure terror and the need to flee. To come home.

“No wonder he’s pissed off.”

Aubrey shook her head. “He wouldn’t have wanted Max back then. His life was all about parties and models and building his empire. He would’ve thought I’d gotten pregnant intentionally. There would have been pressure to end the pregnancy.” Her eyes flitted around the room until her gaze landed on a photo on her office wall of Max as a baby, grinning with his perfectly round head and drooling smile while she pressed her lips to the side of his face. “I just wanted to come home.” Aubrey pulled her gaze from the framed photo. “I suppose he has a right to be angry.”

“Yeah, but even if he’s mad, he can’t possibly think the best thing for Max is to yank him away from his entire life. His friends, his family, his home?”

“I don’t know what Justin thinks. He’s angry and he wants his son. But more than that, he wants to punish me for taking Max and for never telling him.” A strange mixture of shame and humiliation and anger with hints of heat coiled in her belly. How could she be attracted to a man who had shamed her? Did her psyche believe that she deserved his anger? “We need to have a rational conversation about Max’s future. I assume I’ll hear from him sometime today.”

“He’s booked the suite for three weeks.”

“Three weeks!” Aubrey’s eyes widened. “No way Justin stays in Hudson, Kansas, for three weeks. He won’t be able to stand this place for more than three days.”

Aubrey clicked her mouse. Justin needed to go back to New York before Max returned from Camp Willow. They would find some compromise. Perhaps in the fall, or maybe over the holiday break, she and Max would travel to New York so that Max could meet his father.

She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath. She could get through this. She would get through this. Work had pulled her through the dark months of doubt when she’d first arrived home and been pregnant with Max. Work would pull her through again. The calendar for today was clear until the tasting in the afternoon. “The Kesslers are at two. When does Cassidy get here?”

“Eleven. Best decision we ever made, hiring Cassidy once you forced me to accept weddings.”

“She’s awesome, isn’t she?” Aubrey’s best friend since second grade, Cassidy contained more effervescence and energy than a can of shaken soda in a hot car.

“Bob wants you to come up to the barn. He wants to talk to you about milk production and orders.”

“I’ll go deal with the cattle first. When Cassidy gets here, have her prepare the tasting service for the bride and the groom, and they’re each bringing their mothers.”

“That never goes well.”

“Not usually. They’re doing the cake tasting after.”

“That’s too much,” Nina said. “How can they possibly have room for cake after the tasting menu?”

“Their request. The groom will be in Texas until the wedding. This is the last day they could do it. Tomorrow we need to prep for the Stoddard wedding this Saturday.” Her gaze met Nina’s. “You know it’s two hundred.”

“Which is one hundred and fifty more than I like serving at one seating.”

“You like your fancy kitchen here at Rockwater Farms, and you still need the new freezer?”

“You know I do.”

“Then a wedding for two hundred on Saturday keeps the kitchen and gets you a new freezer. The weddings are pulling us into the black every month. The word is out that The Red Barn at Rockwater Farms is the place to get married.”

This was good. Lots to do. Work to accomplish. Meetings to have. Phone calls. People. Her gaze swept across her desk and out the large windows that looked out over the rolling grass hills that led to the Kaw River.