Dance Away with Me(60)

Tess’s lips thinned into a snarl. “Why? Because your son knocked up her mother?”

“Tess . . .” Ian said softly. “That’s enough.”

Jeff wasn’t as compassionate as his wife, and his jaw tensed. “She’s our flesh and blood.”

“But I’m the only mother she knows!” Tess cried. “I’m a good person! A good citizen. I’m strong and healthy. I’m sane. Most of the time, anyway. I’m ethical, and— Ian, tell them. Tell them I’m a good, competent person.”

“You’re a great person, Tess, but—”

“You’re only making this harder on yourself,” Diane said.

“She needs a real mother!” Tess exclaimed. “Someone young. Someone who loves her unconditionally. Not that you don’t, but—” Some of the steam went out of her. “She needs me.”

“We can see how much she means to you,” Jeff said, more calmly. “But being raised by a single mother isn’t what we want for Wren. She deserves a family.”

Diane reached out to touch Tess’s arm, then seemed to think better of it. “Women raise children on their own all the time, and they seem to turn out fine, but that’s not what we want for our granddaughter. We may only be grandparents, but there are two of us. Girls need a father. Or in this case, a grandfather, to tell them they’re beautiful and they’re loved. To show them how good men treat women.” She twisted her hands. “Tess, I didn’t have that. I was raised by a mother who was so tired and frazzled that she never had time for me. And there were boyfriends.” Diane’s grip on her hands tightened, and her face seemed to collapse. “I— I can’t bear for Wren to go through what I did with them.”

Jeff slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulders.

Diane had been molested. This was the crux of it. Ian could see that, just as he could see Tess wouldn’t accept it.

Her shoulders shot back. “Bianca would have been a single mother.”

“If Wren’s mother had lived, Simon would have done the right thing,” his father said firmly. “You don’t seem to have a stable lifestyle, and I’m guessing you’re not secure financially. As we understand it, you’re working in a coffee shop. Grandparents might be second best, but there are two of us, and there’s only one of you.”

Tess stared at him. Blinked. She’d reached the end. She had no more arguments. She turned to Ian, but there was nothing he could say to fix this, and he hated that. He also hated the way she was frowning at him, as if this were somehow his fault, which maybe it was, since he was the one who’d dragged her into this mess.

She looked directly at him and shook her head. “You didn’t tell them.”

He felt an unpleasant chill at the back of his neck.

She took a quick step toward him. “We’d planned to take our time. Tell our families first. But I can see that’s not going to work.”

“Tess . . .”

She ignored the warning note in his voice. Instead, she hooked her hand through his arm, speaking quickly. “We intended to wait until next year, but if it’s that important to you, we can get married earlier. Look at us. We’re upstanding people. Ian’s at the top of his profession. His only criminal record is tied to his early career, and look how well that’s served him. He’s clean and sober. Richer than anyone deserves to be. More than that . . .” Her throat moved as she swallowed. “He loves Wren, and he’d never do anything to hurt her. You should see them together. It’s like they’re one person. He feeds her, takes her on walks. Her favorite place to sleep is on his chest. Sometimes I have to make him give her back to me.”

He shook himself out of his paralysis. “Tess!”

She dead-eyed him. “I know we agreed not to tell anyone, but we don’t have that choice now.” She spun back to the Dennings. “Two parents. Two stable, loving, involved parents. Neither of whom is a deadbeat or a child molester. Isn’t that what you want for her?”

To his horror, they hesitated, looking suddenly confused. Tess had plunged him into the most god-awful mess he could never have imagined, and while he was trying to sort through his options, she went in for the kill.

“What does another day matter?”

Another day for what?

She took a deep, unsteady breath. “Take her with you. For tonight. There’s a bed and breakfast right up the highway. They always have room, and you’ll be comfortable there.” She plunged on. Not letting anyone get a word in. “You have her things. You’ll be able to hold her as much as you want and think about what I’ve told you. You can look into your hearts and decide what’s best for her. For her. Not for you.”

She made this weird shooing motion with her hands, as if she were swatting away chickens. “Go on, you two. I’ll call the Purple Periwinkle and tell them to have their best room ready for you.” She grabbed Wren from him. “Be good to Grandma and Grandpa, sweetheart. Mommy loves you.” She kissed Wren’s head, ducked into the backseat of the Lexus, and buckled her in.

Her head popped back out. “I’ll fix breakfast for all of us tomorrow morning. Ian makes the best coffee, and my eggs Benedict are to die for. Let’s say ten o’clock. That way you can all sleep in. There! That’s decided.”