Angel's Peak (Virgin River #10)(28)

She shook her head, giggling. Then she spied Sean, leaning against the stove in the small kitchen. He held a coffee cup in one hand; his green eyes were wide and fixed, his mouth open in shock and disbelief.

“Where’s his shirt?” Rosie asked.

Franci pulled Rosie onto her lap more firmly, one leg on each side of her. “I think he forgot something,” she said. “Rosie, this is Sean. Sean, this is my daughter, Rose.”

“Wide Iwish Rose,” Rosie corrected her mother.

“That’s right,” Franci said with a smile. “My wild Irish Rose.”

“Mama, what’s Iwish again?”

“A country. A beautiful country that’s green like your eyes.” She glanced at Sean. He was in a state of shock. She hoped she wouldn’t have to resuscitate him in front of Rosie.

Franci heard footsteps. The door squeaked open farther and the doorknob rattled. “Good Lord, Franci, you left your keys in the lock! Not exactly safe! And presumably not locked, either, since Rosie—”

Vivian stopped dead in her tracks as she spotted Sean. She gulped.

“Mom, you remember Sean, don’t you?”

Sean recovered himself. His eyes were no longer wide, but narrowed, and his mouth was fixed in an unhappy smile. “Vivian,” he said with a nod. Then he sipped from his mug.

“Sean,” Vivian said, her hand rising to her cheek as she looked at the purple bruise on Sean’s.

“It’s healing up nicely,” Sean said. “How’ve you been, Viv?”

“Good,” she said a bit weakly. “Very well. Thank you.”

“Mama, did he fall down?”

“Yes, poor thing. But he’ll be just fine. Will you do something for me, peanut? I’d like to have a cup of coffee with Sean before he has to leave. Would you mind having breakfast at Grandma’s? Then I’ll come get you, and later, after we clean our rooms, I think we should take Harry to the dog park, then maybe we’ll bake something and put on one of your best movies.”

“Aww,” she whined.

“Come on, Rosie,” Vivian said authoritatively, a hint of panic in her voice. “I’ll let you scramble the eggs. Come on, right now.” She plucked Rosie off Franci’s lap and had her out the door so quickly it was almost a magic trick.

That left Franci and Sean standing in a very small kitchen in deafening silence. No one moved as the seconds ticked by. Then Sean lifted the coffeepot and filled both their cups. He pulled out a bar stool and sat down. He focused on her eyes and waited. When she didn’t speak, he said, “Tell me you didn’t—?”

She gave a brave nod. “I was just about to tell you when she came bounding in the front door. Rosie doesn’t walk anywhere.”

“You were just about to tell me? A few years after the fact?”

“I told you I needed a commitment, that I wanted a child…children. You were adamant—you were not interested in the same things I was.”

“You might’ve left out a couple of things—like you were pregnant. That red hair and those green eyes—they’ve been in my family for generations.”

“Did you really think I would tell you? After the way you acted about the whole idea?”

“I didn’t have the facts,” he said, anger seeping into his tone.

“Do you even remember how it was? Do you remember that I cried and said it was the most important thing to me and you said I’d have to come up with other important things because you weren’t getting into all that? Do you remember telling me not to let the door hit me in the ass? Do you remember saying, ‘Fat chance! Not in this lifetime’?”

“And do you remember telling me I was a child, an irresponsible f**k-around who would never grow up? That if I couldn’t settle down and have a wife and children, you weren’t interested in wasting any more time on me? Remember, Franci? But you didn’t tell me you were pregnant!”

“I couldn’t! I was afraid to!”

“Aw, Jesus, Mary and Joseph—afraid? You’ve never had any reason to be afraid of me!”

“I was afraid you’d marry me!”

“That was what you wanted!”

“I didn’t want you to marry me because I was pregnant! I wanted you to marry me because you loved me!”

“I did love you! I just didn’t want to be married!”

“Or have children!” she shouted back. She pinched her eyes closed and took a steadying breath. She spoke quietly. “I didn’t want you to be stuck with us. More to the point, I didn’t want us to be stuck with you, regretting our accident every day of our marriage. I wanted my child. I wanted to raise her knowing she was wanted. Loved. You will never understand this, Sean, and I don’t expect you to—but when my period was five minutes late, I started to love her. Passionately. And it grew by the day. If I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure that you’d love her just as much, I wasn’t willing to take a chance on you.”

“Were you never going to tell me?” he asked. “If I hadn’t bumped into you, were you—”

“Yes, I was going to tell you. I was going to have to—Rosie has just started asking questions. I was dreading it, but I was going to tell you.”

“Dreading it? Because you knew how pissed I’d be?”