Lynnette Kent - Matt's Family

“Good idea.” Matt stood up and held out his cup. “Anybody else want a refill?” Everyone shook their heads. He looked at Luke’s wife. “Sarah, you sure you don’t want some coffee?”

She smiled—more brightly than the question called for, Kristin thought. “No, thanks. I’m cutting out caffeine.”

Kristin watched Sarah and Luke smile at each other in the soft light of sunset. “Um…do you two have something else you want to mention?” she asked.

Luke’s grin widened. Sarah looked over. “It’s that obvious?”

Kristin smiled back, though her insides felt as if she’d taken the first hill on a roller coaster. “Now that I think about it, yes.”

The Colonel drew on his pipe. “What’s obvious? What’s going on?”

“A minor detail, Dad. We’re having a baby.”

“Congratulations, son.” Colonel Brennan got up to shake Luke’s hand and give Sarah a hug. “Maybe we’ll get us a boy this time.”

“Another little girl would be wonderful,” Matt’s mother said firmly, still seated in her chair. “When are you due, Sarah?”

“Around the first of December.”

Elena Brennan sighed softly. “A Christmas baby. How lovely.”

Babies were lovely at any time of year, Kristin thought. But she couldn’t help worrying about Erin and Jenny. What would a new baby do to the precarious balance they were reaching for, after a divorce and two new marriages?

Especially if she rocked their world at the same time with the announcement that Matt was Erin’s father?

Matt had stepped over to shake his brother’s hand. He bent to give Sarah a kiss on the cheek. “Let’s hope, boy or girl, the baby gets your looks, not his.” He nodded sideways at Luke.

“Thanks, bro.”

“Anytime.”

Kristin knew she had to say something. “I’m so happy for you both. You’ll love having a baby. Who’s your doctor?”

The question led them into a discussion of symptoms and signs and preparations. The men dropped out—Luke went into the pool to play with the girls while Matt and the Colonel talked basketball. Mrs. Brennan unbent—babies had an amazing way of softening her up. The Brennans had lost a daughter, before Luke was born. Kristin tried to remember that tragedy when her mother-in-law became a challenge.

Like now. Mrs. Brennan broke into a short silence. After a moment, she said, “You know, Kristin, you and Matt have been married longer than Sarah and Luke. Don’t you think it’s about time we heard the same good news from you?”

“Maybe not just yet, Mom.” Answering his mother, Matt felt Kristin’s stare as she turned in her seat to face him. “My career is kinda up in the air—if I take a transfer back to Special Forces, we may need to move. Two little girls is plenty family for us.” He cleared his throat. “For now.”

“But surely, Matt—”

“So you are thinking about going back in. I knew it!” His father pounded the arm of his chair at the same time, drowning out his wife’s argument. “Good man!”

Kristin didn’t say a word. Matt felt her gaze leave him, felt her withdrawal like a drop in air temperature. He should have kept his mouth shut. Hadn’t he learned long ago to let his mother assume whatever she wanted, just to avoid the hassle of a discussion?

But he couldn’t imagine a baby in their house, especially after today. Erin and Jenny hadn’t come close to accepting him as their dad. How would they feel about having another child—especially his child—in the family?

Late that evening, as he made the drive home from his parents’ house with the girls asleep in the back seat and Kristin silent beside him, Matt laughed at himself.

Family—us?

Not by a long shot.

LUKE AND SARAH had the girls over for dinner on the Wednesday before their trip and broke the news about the mountain vacation. Erin and Jenny came home that night dancing on the air.

“We get to go to the mountains!” Erin gave Buster a hug and then flopped down on the floor beside him, her chin on her hands and her legs bouncing off the floor in alternate arcs. “Isn’t that neat, Mommy?”

“An’ Daddy says there’s a castle we can see.” Jenny had climbed into her mother’s lap. “We get to see a real castle.”

“It sounds just wonderful.” Kristin smiled but Matt didn’t think the effort quite worked. He could see the sadness behind her eyes. “I know you’ll have a lovely time.”

“You could come, too, Mommy.” Erin cast a guilty glance in Matt’s direction. “I mean you and Daddy Matt. We could all go to the mountains.”

Matt set his jaw, waiting for Kristin’s response. When she didn’t seem to have one, he figured he’d better say something. “I think you and Jenny will have fun with your…with Luke and Sarah by yourselves. We’ll stay home, and then the four of us can take a trip later. Two vacations in one summer. How does that sound?”

Jenny stared at him with her mother’s serious brown gaze and sucked her thumb. Erin shrugged. “Okay. Maybe we can go back to the mountains. Daddy says you can see for forever in some places, and in some places the clouds are so close to the ground you can’t see anything. That’s why they’re called the Smokey Mountains. Can we get a book from the library on mountains, Mommy? I want to know all about ’em before we get there.”

Erin was still talking about mountains when Kristin herded the girls up to bed. Matt dropped his head back against the chair and stared at the ceiling, keeping his mind a careful blank until Kristin returned.

“Did they go to sleep?”

She sighed and dropped onto the couch. “Jenny did. Erin’s still reading. She found that book about North Carolina Indian tribes that Luke gave her and is learning all about the Cherokee Nation.”

“Oh.” In the silence that fell between them, he argued with himself about mentioning—again—the possibility of telling Erin the truth. Nothing major had changed in their lives to warrant a new request. Kris would never agree to break the news just before the girls left for a vacation with Luke. Why say anything at all?

Because…because the awkwardness and the dishonesty of the situation were tearing him up, dammit. He couldn’t keep quiet. “You know, I’ve been wondering if this summer would be a good time to explain…things…to Erin.”

Kristin stared at him. “Now? Before they go away?” She shook her head. “I don’t think—”

He held up a hand. “No, not right now. But afterward, we could go somewhere, like I said—a theme park, or maybe Stone Mountain—and talk about it while we’re there. Neutral territory, and all that.”

“But—” Kristin didn’t know what to say. The suggestion made sense…and it terrified her. “I’m not sure Erin is…is ready.”

Just how will you know when she’s ready?” Matt’s voice was dangerously even.

She gripped her hands together in her lap. “Well, when she’s more accepting. When she counts less on Luke.”

“And how’s that going to happen when she spends two weeks with him in the mountains?”

“You liked the idea!” The words exploded before she thought them through. “ You said yes before I could even decide.”

He shrugged and looked away. “I figured you’d agree.”

“I’m not sure whether I would have or not. But you didn’t give me a choice.”

“However it happened, there’s no going back. So let’s plan what to do about the rest.”

Kristin pressed her fingertips to her pounding temples. “I don’t think I can do that right now. Why don’t we just get through the next couple of weeks, get them back home, and then figure it out?”

“That’s what we’ve been doing for the last two years—postponing the inevitable, waiting for the ‘right’ moment. Or…” He looked over, his eyes suddenly those of someone Kristin wasn’t sure she knew. “Maybe you’ve changed your mind about ever telling her.”