Holly Jacobs - Dad Today, Groom Tomorrow

“That’s none of your business.”

“No, I guess it’s not.” Abruptly he asked, “How could you just leave me like that?”

His voice was barely more than a whisper. “I explained about the engagement. I thought you understood. And then you were just gone. I decided you were too young. After all, I was three years older than you. I figured you’d had second thoughts and were just too young, too confused to tell me, so you’d just left. But that’s not why. You left to have my son in secret. Why? Did you think I’d be like my parents, trying to control him and squeeze the life out of him, inch by inch?”

“You said you never wanted children.”

“Did you think I’d abandon you and our baby?”

She could tell him about his mother’s visit. She could tell him that it had been easier to just leave than risk having him agree with his parents, having him think she’d tried to trap him.

Of all the things his mother could have said, that was the one that cut to the quick.

Louisa had believed what the town said, that she was just “that Clancy girl,” a girl from the wrong side of the tracks.

She’d believed that people would agree with Joe’s mother, that she’d tried to trap him.

She’d believed that his parents would cut him off without a dime, force him to quit school to support her and the baby, and steal his dream of being a doctor.

Maybe they could have found another way…could have dealt with all that. What others thought of her had long ago ceased to matter. But a part of her had felt that eventually Joe would believe all that as well. That he’d think she’d trapped him and stolen his dreams.

That, she couldn’t live with.

What had she done?

She’d been so hurt, felt so betrayed, been so afraid that she’d simply left. In her heart she’d never understood how Joe could love her.

How could she have doubted him?

Looking at the pain in his face right now, she knew that he’d never have abandoned their son.

“Louisa?” Joe said. “You look like you’re going to faint. Sit down before you fall down.”

He led her to a chair behind the counter and helped lower her into it.

His voice was gentle, a whisper of the Joe she used to know. “Here, tuck your head between your knees and breathe deep.”

She’d let her own fears and doubts rob the man she loved of knowing his son.

Slowly she sat up and fought back the tears that threatened to fall.

She should tell him. Should tell him everything that happened.

She wanted to.

She’d believed his mother and doubted Joe. She’d taken the check his mother had offered to secure her son’s future and left, thinking that breaking her own heart was easier than waiting for Joe to break it for her.

She hadn’t trusted him enough…or trusted in their love.

No other explanation was needed.

She’d trust him now.

It was too late for their love, but not too late for him to know his son.

Not that she could marry him.

He said he wanted his son—he wanted Aaron—not Louisa.

She’d thrown away their future when she left, but she would find a way to give Aaron a future with his father.

She’d make it work.

“The past is ancient history. Right now it’s the present we have to worry about. I have an idea,” she said. “I have to do some checking. Meet me after work tonight and we’ll talk.”

“I mean it, Louisa, I want every minute of his life.”

“I understand. And I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I’ll do whatever I can to see to it you and Aaron build a good relationship. We’ll talk. After work.”

As new man on the job, Joe worked third shift. Ten-thirty at night until six-thirty in the morning.

He should have spent the day sleeping, but instead he spent it tossing and turning.

By five-thirty, as he waited outside Louisa’s store, he was a wreck.

So many questions he wanted to ask. So many details he wanted filled in.

She opened the door and looked surprised to see him there. “Joe, I thought you weren’t coming.”

“I said I’d be here.”

“Yes, yes you did.” She was quiet a minute, studying him. “Let’s go over to the diner. I’ll buy you a coffee.”

“Is that a polite way of saying I look like I need one?”

“It’s a polite way of saying you look like hell.” The comment was softened with a weak smile.

“You always were direct.”

“I still am.”

They walked across the square to The Five and Dine.

“Cute,” he said as he looked around.

It was decorated like something out of Happy Days, right down to a vintage jukebox.

“I like it,” she said as she led him to a small booth in the back.

A waitress followed right on their heels. “Hey, Louisa.”

“Hi, Missy. Could I have a coffee?”

“Sure. And you?” the girl asked Joe.

“Same.” As soon as she was out of earshot, he asked, “You said something about an idea.”

He needed this settled. He didn’t want to waste another minute waiting to be with his son.

Louisa nodded. “I had to ask first, but…” She sighed. “There’s so much we have to talk about.”

“Yeah, like why you left. Why you kept my son from me. None of your explanations have answered all the questions. As a matter of fact, they just raise more. Why—”

“Joe, it was so long ago, and I’ve changed so much since then, but I still remember what it was like.”

“What what was like?” he asked.

“Growing up as Clancy’s kid. I remember feeling as if I’d never be more than that and wondering what you saw in me. Whatever it was you saw, I didn’t see it in myself. When I found out I was pregnant, I’d never been so afraid. It wasn’t that I was afraid of the baby, or even what people would say—they’d been talking all my life. I was afraid of losing you.”

“Why? How could you think I wouldn’t stand by you?”

The waitress brought their coffee and said, “Holler if you need something else.”

“Joe,” Louisa said, as soon as the woman was out of earshot, “when we talked about the future, you said repeatedly how much you didn’t want kids.”

“I was young and I was afraid I’d be like my parents. I thought I couldn’t take the chance. But I’d never have abandoned you.”

How could she have said she loved him and not known even that much about him?

“But at the time, all I knew was that I didn’t measure up to you or your family and I was pregnant and you didn’t want kids. I was so scared. But I planned to tell you. It took me a couple weeks to work up to it, but I’d planned it all out. We were supposed to go out that night and I even memorized what I was going to say. But then I saw the paper.”

“The engagement announcement?”

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