Foolish Games(36)

“Thanks.”

The quiet of the house settled over them, the humming refrigerator and Owen’s suckling the only sounds in the night. Will was a bit shaken by the intimacy of the moment. He and Julianne stood, their bare feet nearly touching, with only their son between their bodies. Owen, who would forever link them together, closed his eyes in bliss as he drained the bottle. Will brushed a thumb over the baby’s head, and Owen propped open an eye at him before closing it again. Will looked up into Julianne’s eyes. They were red rimmed and swollen behind her smudged glasses. Had he done that to her?

Guilt weighed on him as he pulled a chair out from the kitchen table. “You’re dead on your feet. Sit.”

Julianne slid into the chair with a sigh, her body giving a little shake as she shifted Owen to a more comfortable position. Will went into the great room to grab a blanket off the sofa. Julianne’s eyes were drifting shut as he wrapped it around her shoulders. He poured her a glass of water and pulled a lemon bar from the container Gavin’s mom had given him earlier, placing the snack on a paper towel.

“When was the last time you ate or drank anything?” he asked as he set the water and lemon bar on the table beside her.

She glanced up, her eyes struggling to focus.

Will pulled another chair forward with his foot as he reached for Owen. “Gimme. You eat.”

Julianne didn’t resist, carefully transferring the baby into his arms. She picked at a piece of the lemon bar. “All you had to do was ask; you don’t need to bribe me to hold your son.”

“You’ll thank me when you taste it.”

She arched an eyebrow at him before popping the morsel into her mouth. Her eyes slid shut as she swallowed. “Mmmm. Where did you get this?” She tore off a larger piece and put it in her mouth.

“My other mother made them.”

Julianne wrapped the blanket around her more tightly. “You have more than one mother?”

“Uh-huh.” He pulled the bottle from Owen’s mouth and lifted him over his shoulder, gently rubbing his back. “Growing up, I practically lived at my friend Gavin’s house. There are five kids in the McAlister family, so one more wasn’t a stretch for them. My mom worked a lot. It was a place to go when no one was home. Mrs. McAlister, Patricia, is dying to get her hands on this little guy.” Owen burped, and Will returned him to the cradle of his arms, gently prodding the bottle back into his mouth. The baby’s eyes rolled back in his head as he began to suckle again. “I told her to give you a few days first to get acclimated before she descends on us.”

“Hey, if she has more of these, she can come over at seven in the morning.”

Will stared down at Owen so Julianne wouldn’t see the smile on his face.

“So you do have fond memories of growing up in this town.”

He did have some, but they were mostly of the few people in Chances Inlet who’d accepted him unconditionally, like the McAlister family and his friend Chase Jordan’s family. They were often his refuge from his world at the Seaside Vista Trailer Park. Unfortunately, the Jordans had only been summer and weekend residents, the rest of the time living in Charlotte. Still, neither family treated Will as some charity case like the rest of the town did. He was often the special project of the town’s do-gooders, and he hated that he couldn’t do without their largesse because he and his mother needed it to survive.

“We don’t have to stay here. If it bothers you too much to live near the ocean, we can go someplace else. I just need to be within an hour’s flight to Baltimore for mini-camps, but we could work something out.”

Julianne had pulled her feet up, her chin tucked to her knees and the blanket wrapped securely around her. She turned toward the sound of the ocean ebbing against the dock. “No,” she finally said, her eyes meeting his. “You have something you need to prove here, misguided as I may think it is. And this is your hometown, so it’ll be Owen’s, too. He’ll grow up here at least part of the year with you. And with your mom. I need to get a grip on my emotions and stop letting them rule my life. Besides, it’s only temporary. For me at least.”

Will had to admire Julianne’s determination. It seemed there was nothing she wouldn’t do for Owen: live by an ocean that constantly brought on panic attacks, put her career on hold, or marry a man she didn’t love. He was relieved that she seemed resigned to the fact that Owen would live with each of them separately and that they’d make it work. For his part, Will would make concessions, too—keeping his raging libido in check, for a start. Like she said, their situation was only temporary.