Pregnant by Morning(58)
Of course he was disappointed. He’d dreamed of a family for a long time. Instantly, the image of Evangeline holding his child, her beautiful face luminous as she smiled at the bundle, popped into his mind, and the sharp stab to the gut nearly doubled him over.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“You’re going to figure it out.” Lucas put a brotherly hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “I’ve never seen you fail at something you put your heart into.”
He eyed his little brother with new respect. Lucas had stepped into the role Matthew formerly occupied, and with more success than probably anyone had expected, thanks in no small part to Cia. Never underestimate the power of the right woman.
Lucas excused himself so Matthew could get ready for dinner.
When he arrived downstairs, everyone was already at the table. Conversation ground to a sudden halt—obviously because they’d been discussing him—when he came into view.
“Hey, son.” His dad, who looked tan and fit, jumped up to give him a brief manly hug.
“Playing a lot of golf lately?”
His dad nodded. “Lucas is running the show at WFP, and I’m enjoying life. Care for a round?”
Matthew agreed without really intending to, but he was home. Home meant doing all the things he used to. Might as well reestablish the routine right away.
Cia glanced up at him and flicked her long, dark hair from her shoulder. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t get up.” She pointed to her huge stomach, and he quickly averted his eyes. Pregnancy was a sore subject.
“Cia.”
He kissed his sister-in-law’s cheek and smiled at Mama, then proceeded to suffer through a long discussion about the strategies Lucas was working to drive Richards Group back to Houston where their competitor belonged. It was staggering to hear Lucas spit out such cogent, well-thought-out plans.
More than once, his attention wandered back to Venice, only to snap back to the present when someone said his name. Matthew. He’d been called that more times today alone than in all of the past few months.
It felt weird to answer to it.
Afterward, he flopped into one of the wicker chairs on Mama’s porch, across from Lucas and Cia. They giggled and nuzzled each other until he thought he’d throw up.
“Get a room.”
“Hey, just because you screwed things up with your woman doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy mine.” Lucas ducked as Cia smacked him.
“Leave him alone,” she said with a conciliatory kiss to her husband’s jaw.
Matthew did a double take. His sister-in-law had never liked him. “Defending me? What is the world coming to?”
But she shot him a mellow smile instead of flaying him alive like she’d have done in the past. “You tell me. What has your world come to, Matthew?”
“Disaster,” he muttered. Louder, he said, “Lucas spill all my beans?”
“No, the internet did. It was quite the discussion at the shelter for a week. Did you at least come home with an autograph or two?”
Yeah. Evangeline had taken a Sharpie to his insides all right.
Matthew grimaced. “I came home with nothing.”
“I see your attitude hasn’t improved. Shame.” Cia clucked. “Now I owe Lucas something that’s going to be very hard for me to do in my current state.”
The smoldering glance she skewered his brother with said she’d figure out a way to pay up or die trying. They seemed blissfully happy, even almost a year into their marriage. Who would have thought?
“Did you lose a bet?”
“Yeah.” Lucas answered for her. “The second she saw the pictures of you and Eva, she swore you’d never come home. So I won.”
Matthew shook his head. “I don’t know how you could make such a bet over a picture.”
Coolly, Cia evaluated him. “You haven’t seen them. Have you?” Without waiting for his answer, she held out a hand to Lucas. “Phone, please.”
When she got it, she tapped a few times and handed it to Matthew. Pulse hammering, he glanced at the photo taken in front of the restaurant in Venice, and zeroed in on Evangeline’s beautiful, radiant face. The small resolution didn’t diminish her light in the slightest. She burst from the screen, burst into his gut. The reporter he’d punched took a great picture.
“That picture is the first evidence I’ve seen that you have teeth. You have a nice smile,” Cia said quietly.
He tore his gaze off the woman in the photo to look at the guy she was with. Him. But a version of Matthew Wheeler he’d never seen before.
“Before you left,” Cia continued, “you had a permanent scowl. Kind of like now.”