Love's Suicide (Love's Suicide #1)(99)

I let out a laugh. “He still is.” I couldn’t tell Branch that we were running from my abusive ex. “I thought he’d hate me for keeping my pregnancy from him, but he didn’t.”

Branch reached over and put his hand on my ankle. At first, I felt strange having him touch me. Sure, I’d slept with him for years, but something had changed. I no longer felt any kind of connection to Branch, and I knew why. Branch had been right. I’d been settling for him, when all the while Brooks was who I was supposed to be with. “Can we please be a family again? I’d really like to get to know my niece, and Melissa misses you. She thinks you hate her.”

“Did you sleep with her before or after I was gone?”

He put his hand out when he stood up. I let him help me off the bed and we started to walk out of the room. He laughed. “Yeah, we probably shouldn’t talk about that, seeing as you slept with my brother and all. When I took Melissa to bed is irrelevant.”

“Fine.”

I took two steps and saw Brooks sitting on the couch with his parents. He smiled when he saw us and I smiled back. Melissa was on the floor playing with B. “It’s good to be home, Branch.”

And it really was, good to be home. I was getting my life back; the one I’d never thought I’d see again. I could see my future in the horizon and Brooks was a huge part of it.





Chapter 47


It took a few hours for everyone to relax. Melissa and Branch turned all of their attention to B while I helped out in the kitchen. Brooks and Walt ran out to get her a swimming ring for the pool and a new bathing suit. We were also running low on diapers. It was funny to me knowing that two grown men were shopping for a little girl.

While I sat watching B’s new uncle and soon to be aunt swoon over her, Danica handed me some vegetables to cut up. “You know, I’ve never seen Branch around a small child before. It’s quite entertaining. Although I always knew Brooks would be a good father. He’s always been nurturing, caring about others and ignoring his own needs.”

“Trust me when I say, Brooks dropped everything to be with us. There hasn’t been a second that he’s not working where he hasn’t been with us. It’s wonderful.”

“Keep telling yourself that when it’s years down the road,” she teased.



I handed her what I’d cut up and she tossed it all in a bowl. “Nah. I think we’re different. I’ve already loved him for more than twenty years. Now that we’re finally together, I don’t see myself loving him any less. I hope you’re okay with that. I mean, after everything that’s happened, I want to be honest.”

She dried her hands and hugged me. “Katy, I’m thrilled to have you home. Thank you for your honesty. Without that there’s nothing to go on. You can always trust me with anything. You know that?”

I nodded my head but felt terrible because I was keeping secrets that could make them all hate me. I had to give it to Brooks for going along with it. He had nothing to worry about, but hiding my * husband wasn’t exactly a normal kind of favor.

I looked out into the family room and decided to break the ice with Melissa. If we could just have a normal conversation everything would be easier.

She saw me coming and stood up as I approached. Right away she hugged me. “I really did miss you, Katy. You know on the way here I tried to call you. I wanted to talk things out so it would be so weird at first.”

I thought about the phone that I’d purposely thrown away. “I lost my phone before we came. I haven’t replaced it yet.”

“Oh, that explains why you didn’t answer my messages.”

“Sorry about that.”

We sat down on the couch, while Branch lifted B up and pretended she was an airplane. He was making all sorts of sounds as they flew around the room.

“It’s okay. I guess you have a lot of questions. Branch said you wanted to know how long we’d been together.” She looked down at the carpet and I could tell she was ashamed of the answer. For some reason I didn’t care anymore. It was good that Branch had someone, because he was never going to have me.

“You know what? It doesn’t even matter. You’re getting married and things are the way they are. It’s nice to know that you two had each other.”

I could tell she started to relax more. “I love him, Katy. I really do.”

“Mel, I have a child with Brooks. It doesn’t bother me that you’re with Branch. It’s sort of weird, but I get it.”

She hugged me again. “You should probably not listen to your messages, because I may have gone into detail explaining everything.”

I laughed and became curious as to what was said, thinking that maybe Brooks and I could listen to the messages together in bed later. He liked to be entertained.

“Yeah, I will erase them,” I lied.

It was a good thing that Brooks and Walt came back when they did, because I’d already run out of things to talk about with Melissa. Every day B was becoming more attached to her father. She saw him walking in and went running for him. “Daddy.”

I liked that she called Brooks ‘Daddy’ and Bobby had always been ‘Dada’. I wondered if she considered them to be two different things. No matter what, I was grateful that her real father was already recognized for his part in making her. I knew that as time passed there would never be a question about him not being around. She’d never know a time when he wasn’t everything to her.