Love At Last (Lily's Story, Book 3) (6 page)

As the time to go next door drew near, I found myself becoming more and more nervous. If it weren’t for my interest in Marcus, I really wouldn’t care what Trish thought, but because I cared for her son so much, her opinion mattered to me. A lot.

“Time to go, baby girl,” I said to Natalie as I put her in her stroller and wheeled her out the door. We walked the short distance to Trish’s house, but by the time I reached her porch, I was sweating. I thought it was due to the heat of the day, but in the back of my mind I wondered if it was also due to my worry about how this meeting would go.

Trish must have seen me coming, because she opened the front door before I had a chance to knock. She immediately knelt in front of the stroller. “Oh, you are a pretty little thing, aren’t you?” She looked up at me. “What a beautiful baby.”

I smiled, feeling more comfortable. “Thank you.”

“Please come in.”

I took Natalie out of her stroller and held her on my hip, then slung her diaper bag over my shoulder and followed Trish inside. I admired her immaculate home and the beautiful way she’d decorated. I hadn’t been there since before Natalie was born, and realized how much had happened since I’d had dinner with Marcus and his parents.

“May I hold her?” Trish asked as she and I stood in the middle of the living room.

“Sure.” I let her take Natalie from my arms, and Natalie frowned like she was going to cry. “It’s okay,” I murmured to her.

Trish held her facing out, so that she could see me. “I know sometimes at this age they don’t like to be away from Mom.”

I laughed. “She is definitely a momma’s girl.”

“Please, sit.”

I sat on a nearby chair and she sat on the couch. “I’m glad you invited me over,” I said, wanting to get the awkward part of this over with.

She smiled. “I haven’t really talked to you since everything happened and I just felt it was time to clear the air.”

I nodded, grateful for her honesty. “I don’t know what Marcus told you about my . . . well, my circumstances. But I had to conceal my identity to keep myself and Natalie safe.”

“He told me about your husband.” She glanced at Natalie, who sat on her lap, then back at me. “To tell you the truth, after he told me about what you went through, I felt really bad that I had basically turned my back on you after Natalie was born and I found out your husband was actually alive and well.”

The blood rushed to my face as I remembered the mortification I’d felt when Marcus had walked into the hospital room and Trevor had been there and had announced that he was my husband. “I didn’t tell him where I was. He tracked me down and found me.”

“I know you were doing what you could and I feel bad I wasn’t more understanding.”

I shook my head. “It’s not your fault, Trish. Please don’t feel bad.
I’m
the one who should feel bad for lying to you about who I was. But I just couldn’t take the chance of Trevor finding me.” I paused. “Not that it mattered. He found me anyway.”

She smiled. “Well, I hope we can put it behind us and move forward.”

“I’d like that.”

“Good.” She stood. “Why don’t we eat some lunch?”

I nodded and followed her into the dining room, where she’d set out a plate of chicken-salad sandwiches on croissants, along with a fruit salad, and a pasta salad. “This looks delicious.”

“Thank you.”

“Let me put a blanket on the floor and we can lay Natalie on it.” I took a blanket out of the diaper bag and lay it out on Trish’s thick carpet, then took Natalie from her and placed her on the floor, along with a couple of toys.

We sat at the table and Trish invited me to serve myself. “I’d love to get the recipe for this chicken-salad from you,” I said as I set a sandwich on my plate.

“Sure. It’s a recipe I’ve been using for years and it’s a family favorite.”

“Those are the best kind.”

As we ate and chatted, I felt completely relaxed and happy that Trish and I were back on friendly terms. That is, until she made an off-hand comment toward the end of lunch.

Trish spooned a serving of fresh fruit on her plate and smiled at me. “Did Marcus tell you about his new girlfriend?”

Chapter Six

The fork I held in my hand froze as I stared at her, but after only a moment I was able to wipe the shock off of my face. I used all of my self-control to keep my voice from betraying my feelings. “No. Tell me about her.”

“She’s worked at his firm for quite some time, but they only started working together a couple of months ago.” Trish seemed oblivious to my consternation as she spoke. “He’s told me so much about her, I’m surprised he hasn’t told you. I know what good friends you are.”

I nodded, unable to speak as I felt my hopes in a relationship with Marcus slipping away. “I haven’t spent a lot of time with him lately. He’s been working a lot.” My words trailed off as I made the connection between the time he’d been spending at work with this new girlfriend, and his hesitation in coming over to see me. Of course he’d been spending more time at work—that’s where she was. “What did you say her name is?”

“Chelsea.” Trish took a bite of cantaloupe. “She’s quite lovely.”

“So you’ve met her?”

“Oh yes. We’ve gone out to dinner with her and Marcus several times.”

I felt my heart sink even further. It sounded serious. “I’m glad he’s found someone. I know he had a hard time after he broke things off with Marissa.”

Trish frowned. “Yes, I’m glad he was able to move past her. I didn’t like her at all.” She smiled at me. “Would you like some dessert? I made some chocolate mousse.”

Normally I would have loved some, but my appetite had vanished and I’d only eaten half of my sandwich. “I’m completely full, thank you.”

Trish glanced at my plate. “Okay.”

Natalie started fussing then, which gave me a good excuse to head home. I picked her up from the floor and held her on my lap. “I’d probably better take her home and feed her. I really enjoyed talking with you.” That was true up until the last five minutes, so I didn’t feel like I was lying. “Thank you so much for having me over.”

“We’ll have to do this more often.”

I nodded.

“Let me send some of this food home with you. Jeff’s out of town and I can’t eat all of this.”

“Thank you.”

A short time later Natalie and I were walking home, loaded down with containers of salad, along with a couple of sandwiches. When we reached our house I brought Natalie and the food inside. After I put the food in the fridge, I sat on the couch and nursed Natalie and thought about the revelation about Marcus having a girlfriend.
 

Is that why he’d seemed so ambivalent about my confession that I liked him more than a friend? He’d told me he wasn’t ready to be in a relationship—clearly untrue. Did he think it was okay to lie to me because I had lied to him in the past? I’d only lied to keep myself safe—I’d never lied about the way I felt about him. Did he think he was protecting me by not telling me the truth? Did he really believe I was so weak that I would fall apart if I knew he had another woman in his life?

Confused and hurt, I held Natalie close and tried to think about happy things—like the cruise I would be leaving on in just a few weeks. I didn’t have time to get passports for Natalie and me, but I’d learned that since we were leaving and returning to a U.S. Port, we could use our birth certificates instead, so that was one less thing to worry about.

After I finished feeding Natalie, I looked at the list I’d created of the things I needed to do before the cruise. All that I had left was to pack up and go. My excitement helped to push aside my sadness over Marcus, and I tried to stay focused on the positive.

One evening, a week after my lunch with Trish, Marcus stopped by.

“I was over at my parents’ house and I wanted to come see how you’re doing.”

I stared at him a moment, picturing him with his new girlfriend, Chelsea, then pushed the thought aside and invited him in. Natalie had fallen asleep in her swing, and Greta lay on her pet bed in the corner of the living room. “I’m doing fine.”
Except for missing you
. We sat on opposite ends of the couch. “Your mom had me over for lunch last week.”

“Yeah, she told me.”

“We had a nice talk.” Except for the news she delivered about you, I wanted to add. “I think you’re right and she’s over what happened in the past.”

He smiled. “Told you so.”

I laughed. “Tell me the truth. Was it your idea for her to have me over for lunch?”

He crinkled his nose. “I may have mentioned that you were feeling bad about everything. So technically no, it wasn’t my idea.”

“You just planted the seed.”

“Okay. Yes.”

“It’s okay. I’m not mad about it. I’m glad we cleared the air.”

He nodded. “Good. Hey, are there any projects you need help with around here?”

Is that why he’d come by? Just to see if I needed any help? Not that that was a bad thing, but I would have preferred it if he’d come over just to see me. I shook my head. “No, we’re okay.”

“Will you tell me if you need anything?”

If my expectations for our relationship had to be reduced to us just being friends, I would need some time to adjust to that before I could allow myself to spend time with him. Otherwise I would just be torturing myself. “Of course,” I said in answer to his question, but in reality I wasn’t sure I would call him.

I really wanted to ask him about his new girlfriend and ask why he hadn’t told me about her, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. He’d obviously made a conscious decision to keep me in the dark about her, but why? Was he afraid of hurting me? Did he want to keep me on the back burner in case things didn’t work out with her?
 

That last thought made me angry and reminded me of Trevor and Amanda. After Trevor had taken Natalie, he’d admitted that he’d been waiting to see if I’d agree to come back to him, and if I didn’t, he was going to ‘give’ Natalie to Amanda. Evidently she couldn’t have children of her own, but really wanted to be a mother, so he’d promised her he’d get his baby for her.

The memory drew my gaze to my baby and I felt a jolt of adrenaline as I remembered that night only a few months before when I’d literally had to fight Trevor to get my baby back.

“What are you thinking about, Lily?”
 

I looked at Marcus, who was watching me. “I was just remembering how I almost lost Natalie.”

A look of regret came over his face. “That was a terrible night.” He looked thoughtful. “You never told me what happened when you went to see Trevor’s parents on the Fourth of July.”

It had been two weeks, so the sting of Chris’s comments weren’t quite as sharp now that a little bit of time had passed. “It started okay—his parents were really nice to me. But one of his brothers hates me and blames me for what happened.”

Marcus seemed to bristle at the idea. “Does he know his brother tried to kill you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know how he wouldn’t know that, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think it’s my fault for bringing Trevor to that point.”

He shook his head. “That’s just crazy. You did nothing wrong. You were only trying to protect yourself and your child.”

I smiled at the anger in his voice. “I know that and you know that, but his brother must still be in denial.”

“Sounds like it.” Marcus looked at me with a question. “Is that why you came back early?”

I recalled Chris’s comment that no one wanted me there. “Yeah. Things were getting uncomfortable, so I decided it would be best if I left.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Natalie woke up and started fussing. “I think she’s getting hungry.”

“I need to get going anyway, but I wanted to check up on you.”

What are friends for?
“I appreciate it.”

“I’m going to be pretty busy at work for the next couple of weeks,” he said. “But I’ll be sure to stop by and pick up your key before you leave for your trip.” He hesitated. “And I’ve decided not to stay here while you’re gone.”

That didn’t surprise me. Not with his new girlfriend in the picture. “You know, now that your mom and I are talking again, why don’t I just have her take care of Greta? It would be a lot easier since she just lives next door.”

His brow furrowed. “Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“No. I’m sure you have better things to do then drive over to my place every day.”
Like spend time with Chelsea.

“Okay. I guess that would work. Let me know if my mom can’t do it and I’ll be happy to.”

I smiled, but it was forced. I felt him slipping further away and I didn’t like it. “Thanks, Marcus.”

“No problem.”

I walked him to the door, and as I watched him get in his jeep, I wondered when I’d see him again.

Chapter Seven

The next morning Natalie and I walked over to Trish’s house. She seemed surprised to see me on her porch. “Would you like to come in?”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I just stopped by to ask you a favor.”

“What is it?”

“I’m going on a cruise in a couple of weeks to see my friend get married.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun.”

I smiled. “Yes. I’m really excited about it. Anyway, Marcus was going to take care of Greta, but I know he’s busy at work and with . . . other things, so I was wondering if you’d be willing to keep an eye on her and feed her.”

She hesitated. “I have to be honest. After what she did to your . . . husband . . . I’m a little nervous about being alone with her.”

Though I understood her concern, I felt a need to defend Greta. “She was just trying to protect me. Trevor was on top of me, strangling me.”

Trish recoiled slightly at my description and I wondered if it was too graphic—but it was the truth.

“Oh.” Her hand touched her throat. “I’m just not sure.”

“If you’re not comfortable, I understand. Marcus said he’d do it if you weren’t able to.”

A funny look crossed her face, but was quickly gone. “I suppose it does make more sense for me to do it since I live right next door.” She paused. “Would it be okay if I came over a few times before you left so I can see how she reacts to me?”