The You I've Come To Know (A Mother's Love Book 1) Page 15

  She was afraid to ask, afraid to open her eyes—especially once she’d let his tone sink in and realized even his voice was smiling. What was with all the smiling? For no reason she could put her finger on, he was making her insane on purpose, the devil.

  Prying open only one eye, she repeated, ‘This one more than usual?”

  “I wasn’t having kids, remember?”

  She nodded.

  “So, this one means a huge celebration. Makes up for the big-time disappointment my folks felt when I chose career over family.”

  “Disappointment? In you?”

  He shook his head. “Not in me. No. They supported my decision completely. But they were disappointed that the Wolfsley name would end with me. Now there’s a chance it won’t. If our child is a son.”

  “I feel like a specimen. On a slide. Under a microscope.” She covered her face with both hands, peeked out at Joel from behind spread fingers. “Half of three dozen people, minus the one who waited too late to get a flight, have all come to see the woman who holds the Wolfsley future in her... womb.”

  Joel pulled her fingers away from her face, pressed them, entwined with his, to his chest. “No, Willa. They’ve come to see the woman who managed to capture the wolf.”

  Capture the wolf? She looked up. Her stomach plunged down. No. She couldn’t have heard that right. “Wha—”

  “Joel? Is that you hiding in the bushes? And why are you hiding in the bushes?” A pause, then, “Maybe I should come back later?”

  Joel threw back his head and laughed. “No, Mom. You don’t have to come back later.”

  “All right. As long as you’re certain.”

  “I’m sure,” he said and released one of Willa’s hands as his mother appeared. “Mom, this is Willa Darling. Willa, my mother, Madelyn Wolfsley.”

  Madelyn Wolfsley had Joel’s green eyes in an attractively made-up face of classic features. Her short silver hair was sassy and stylish, her lithe frame equally smart in a sunshine-yellow camp shirt tucked into crisp khaki slacks.

  Willa pulled in a deep breath, took Joel’s mother’s offered hand and, seeing the welcoming smile on the other woman’s face, marginally relaxed. “My pleasure, Mrs. Wolfsley.”

  “Madelyn, please. And, Willa, dear, no. The pleasure is most definitely mine.” She held Willa’s hand firmly between her own. Her voice was Lauren Bacall rich and genuinely warm. “I know you must be feeling overwhelmed, facing this bunch all at once.”

  Overwhelmed barely covered what Willa was feeling. Over her head. Drowning. Buried alive. Any of those was closer to explaining her trouble with breathing.

  “Actually, I didn’t know until about five minutes ago that there’d be a bunch here for me to face.”

  Madelyn turned a mother’s displeasure on her son and his lack of manners. One eyebrow arched in a falsely haughty reprimand. “You didn’t tell her you were bringing her here to meet your family?”

  Joel ran a hand back over his short hair. “I didn’t mention who all would be here, no.”

  Madelyn poked a finger into his shoulder. “You. Go find your father. Willa and I can get acquainted much better without you hanging around.”

  When Joel made no move to move, Madelyn gave an exasperated sigh, crossed her arms and tapped one loafer-clad foot. When he still refused to budge, she turned her request into a teasing attempt at intimidation. “Move it, Joel Scott Wolfsley, before I drag out the family albums.”

  Joel scowled playfully at his mother. “Is that a threat?”

  “What do you think, Willa?” Madelyn brought a finger to her chin. “Should we start with the bearskin rug pictures? Or maybe the bathtub shots?”

  “Willa’s seen me naked, Mom,” Joel said before Willa could get a word out “You’ll have to do better than that”

  “Joel!” Willa gasped. The man was totally incorrigible.

  He raised a brow in Willa’s direction. “Just making sure you know I’m not abandoning you. Or leaving under my own free will.”

  Willa glanced from Joel’s solid six-foot-two to Madelyn’s slender five-foot-eight. The battle lines were drawn. “I can see you’re being steamrolled. So, you might as well go already. Don’t let me stop you.”

  He glanced first at Willa then his mother. “You know, it’s a cryin’ shame when a man’s run out of town on a rail by both his mother and his woman.”

  His woman? Willa’s heart slammed against her ribs then settled into a wild rhythm. She searched Joel’s eyes, found sparkling humor and a hint of a promise of... what was it?

  Try as she might, she couldn’t put a name to what it was she saw—because every name that came to mind contradicted what she knew of Joel’s feelings.

  But then she decided she didn’t know a thing about his feelings because, before he walked away, before he heeded his mother’s request, he dropped a kiss on the tip of Willa’s nose.

  What was he doing? Willa thought, watching that gorgeously broad retreating back. Joel wasn’t so insensitive as to play with her heart.

  And he had no need to put on a show for his mother. The innuendoes and flirtatious play didn’t fit with the way he’d barely spoken to her since the showdown at the kennels.

  What in the name of all her dogs was going on here?

  She didn’t have time to wonder further because Madelyn took hold of her hand. Willa sighed, turned and met the other woman’s gaze.

  Madelyn squeezed Willa’s fingers. “You two throw off some mighty powerful vibes.”

  “Joel and I?”

  A nod. A smile. “A blind man could see how much he loves you.”

  Loved her? Loved her? Willa shook her head. “Madelyn, no. You’re wrong. He doesn’t love me at all.”

  Madelyn’s eyes widened, then narrowed, then gentled and misted over. “Oh, Willa. Darling. We need to talk.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “THAT’S SOME WOMAN MY BOY’S got there.” Fred Wolfsley joined the three men standing watch over the beef brisket and pork ribs smoking on the backyard pit. He’d made his way back across the yard after a private conversation with Willa that Joel had timed at twenty-four minutes. “A hell of a brain and beauty both to be reckoned with.”

  “And not a bad sense of humor to boot.” Rob Collins raised his longneck in salute. “Bet she could give that wife of mine a run for her funny bone.”

  “You done good, Joel.” Fred’s brother-in-law, Don Karr, glanced up from mopping sauce across the slabs of ribs. “I talked to Willa a while ago about that ol’ bluetick hound of mine. She’s gonna board Scooter at a discount when me and Karen go to Vegas in September.”

  “She’s a business woman, Don. You told her how often you and Karen travel. She’ll spoil that dog until you have to board him with her every time.” Fred inspected the meat then lowered the heavy pit cover. “A smart cookie that one, right, Joel?”

  “Yeah. She is,” Joel said automatically in answer to his dad. Truth and the obvious were like that. Automatic. He lifted his beer and left the rest of the conversation to his dad, his uncle, and his brother-in-law, turning his attention to Willa.

  He looked across the yard to where she stood talking to Jen. Earlier it had been Carolyn and before that Moira. His sisters had echoed his dad’s, his uncle’s, and his brother-in-law’s observations.

  That was some woman he had there.

  She’d traded her trademark work boots today for simple brown leather sandals. Her denim shorts were darker than his, shorter than his, and her long, long legs a whole lot nicer look at.

  The plain white blouse she wore had the feel of an expensive handkerchief, soft and deceptively simple when, having seen four sisters shop over the years, he knew it cost a small fortune.

  Her hair had regained the bounce and shine and unruly attitude he’d noticed missing in her early days of pregnancy Her eyes shone as blue and as bright as the pansies in his mother’s flower beds. Her smile came from the heart. He knew that. He’d missed that.

  He’d missed h
er. God, he’d missed her, he mused, blowing out a puff of breath as if it would keep him from crossing the yard and dragging her home.

  He’d known Willa was special that first long day and night they’d spent together. But he hadn’t realized what he’d found in her until recently. And looking at her now...

  All he could do was drool. And grin. A grin that came a lot easier these days after all the thinking he’d been doing.

  A guy tended to do a lot of thinking after learning he was going to be a father then being dumped by the woman carrying his child. That combination pretty much shot the wad of male emotions.

  Joel had questioned everything lately, from what he felt for Willa, to what he felt about himself, to why he felt so strongly about his job. He’d weighed the cost of priorities against the value of compromise and then factored in the loss of his relationship with the mother of his child.

  The solution to the equation had not been easily reached.

  He loved his job, being on the street. It took a certain personality to face what he faced day in and day out. To see the greasy underbelly of a city, the pit of inhumanity, filth in human form, predators dealing in flesh, drugs—any market where the money came fast, came easy, and came in amounts that made the lure of the dark side hard to resist.

  He’d seen it all and was proud of his record. He’d served, he’d protected, he’d put away the scum. The job had never been easy, but he’d never had the added stress of taking it home to a family. He’d been able to unwind with a beer and the blues, bass fishing and barbecues. It was the way of the lone wolf and it had served him well.

  Until Willa and their baby.

  “Thanks.” His dad’s offer of a second beer brought him back to the present. But only for a moment He tuned out most of the golf stories, the stock-market discussion, the political debate, and watched Willa work the crowd.

  He loved her.

  It was such an easy thing to do, though it had been a hell of a revelation to come to grips with.

  Once he’d admitted to himself what exactly he felt, he’d panicked. Love was not a part of his plans. He didn’t know what to do. What choices to make, what changes to make, because both were inevitable if he and Willa were to have any sort of future.

  He’d thought of a departmental transfer. He’d thought of a career change. Teaching criminal justice appealed and a return to school for the necessary certification wouldn’t take a lot of doing. He’d still be in the business of serving and protecting by sharing his experience with others.

  Thing was, he didn’t know if he and Willa had a future. When he’d blurted out that bass-ackward proposal, she’d rightfully accused him of not loving her. At the time, he’d been blown away by her news and couldn’t respond.

  He hadn’t known what she’d wanted or expected from him. He hadn’t had enough presence of mind to know what he expected of himself. The proposal had come out of nowhere, like a scripted line called for at that particular point in the plot.

  And he’d been relieved, so relieved, when she’d said no.

  Later he’d been insulted, angry, and finally confused enough to seek advice from his father. Who’d told his mother. Which meant he’d heard a parental talking-to the likes of which he hadn’t heard since eighth grade.

  Once punishment had been handed down in the form of cold ham sandwiches instead of his mother’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes, he and his dad had talked. Really talked. About careers and families. About sacrifices and responsibilities. And even for a while about feelings.

  Joel had left his parents’ home that evening still hungry but carrying a sense of accomplishment. He and his dad had made great headway on the Chevy engine they were rebuilding. And he’d made a lot of progress making sense of the last few weeks.

  Yeah. He loved her.

  So, now what was he supposed to do about it?

  “SHE WAS A DOLL, REALLY. Weren’t you, Sweetie?” Willa bounced Leigh on one hip while her mother brushed grass and mud from her half-brother’s knees.

  “No blood, Robbie. Sorry.” Jen dropped a kiss to the nine-year-old’s head. “Now, go tell those cousins of yours that you’re the first baseman, not first base.”

  The towheaded boy, his recovery made miraculous by the lack of blood, scrambled over every lawn chair between the picnic area and the makeshift ballpark set up at the back of the yard.

  “You make that look so easy,” Willa said, amazed that Robbie’s sobs had ceased immediately once Jennifer cleared away the dirt. “The way he was crying, I thought he’d never walk again.”

  Jennifer chuckled. “We have a rule when he’s with us. No blood, no broken bones, no crying. We’ve somehow managed to convince him that unless a bone is showing or he needs stitches, then he’s not really hurt.”

  “I’ll try to remember that,” Willa said, handing a kamikaze-diving Leigh back to her mother.

  Jen caught her daughter, then caught Willa in a big hug. “I can’t believe you and Joel are going to have a baby.” She stepped back then, her eyes a soft and dreamy blue. “I’ve been ragging on him for years that playing pool or softball or fishing with his buddies does not a personal life make. I should’ve had faith that the right woman would open his eyes.”

  Willa wasn’t sure that what she and Joel had constituted a personal life for either of them. She wasn’t sure that Joel thought of her as the right woman, regardless of his earlier teasing remarks. The only thing she was sure of was that she shouldn’t pry, but Jennifer had left her an opening too good to pass up.

  She pulled back from the other woman’s warm embrace. “You don’t buy his logic? That he can’t have a relationship because of his career?”

  “Puh-lease.” Jen scowled. “Joel’s such a guy at times. He goes into his manly cave to work out his manly problems. Only this time he never came out. If a career is a reason not to have a relationship, then Rob and I wouldn’t be together. Joel knows that.”

  Jen glanced across the yard toward the smoking pit where her husband and brother stood with her father and uncle, four cooks spoiling the broth. “My brother’s put me back together more than once after Rob’s flown out of the country and into the middle of nowhere on a moment’s notice.

  “I lie awake those nights, holding his pillow close, knowing I have no way of contacting him except through channels lined with red tape. No, it’s not the relationship I’d’ve chosen for myself, but it’s the one I live with. And I’d live with worse if I had to.” She turned to Willa then, blinked back joyous tears. “I’d live with anything for Rob. And Joel knows how I feel.”

  Willa didn’t know what to say. She waited for Jennifer to compose herself, wondering so many things about the members of this family who had been introduced into her life. The one thing she didn’t wonder about at all, however, was the depth of feeling each member had for the others.

  She’d seen that today. Every time she’d been pulled aside for a private conversation, she’d seen how much love flowed from one Wolfsley to the next. She knew without a doubt her child would be welcomed here into the heart of this family, knew also that, even apart from Joel, she would be welcome here as... what? A friend? An acquaintance? A distant relative more than a few times removed?

  Jennifer shook off her mood with a small laugh that brought Willa back. Taking Willa’s arm, Jen headed toward the back patio and beyond where a half-moon-shaped flower garden sprinkled bright summer colors across a quarter of the yard. Fire-red geraniums, a mix of yellow and blue pansies, orange-hued day lilies, and white daisies danced in thick beds of green.

  Jen stepped carefully along the flagstone path. “Joel’s wanted to be a cop for as long as I can remember. He was a pain to live with before he hit his teens. He’d arrest us for leaving our bikes out or for playing down at the ditch after a flash flood when the water was cold and disgustingly dangerous. Talk about a tattletale.”

  Willa had grown up an only child. She didn’t know about tattletales. Or about pain-in-the-butt brothers. But
she’d been a tomboy with enough rough and rowdy know-it-all male friends to relate. “What happened when he hit his teens?”

  “He didn’t hide what he wanted to do, he just didn’t advertise it as he had in the past.” Jen moved to sit on an iron bench hidden beneath the drooping branches of a willow. Leigh stood on the seat beside her, pulling at a lone branch of low weeping leaves.

  Patting the seat for Willa to join her, Jen went on. “He wasn’t totally immune to peer pressure and knew he was caught in the adverse dynamics of teenagers and respect for authority.”

  “But he never changed his mind?”

  “Joel? No way. He changed his attitude if anything,” she said, rescuing a handful of willow leaves from Leigh’s mouth. “Looking back, I think that’s probably when the Big Bad Wolf was born. He grew serious. Studious. Even a little bit dangerous.”

  “Dangerous? Really?”

  Jen quickly shook her head. “Not physically, though he didn’t hesitate to defend himself, his ideals or any of us. It’s just that knowing what he wanted as early as he did put an edge on his personality.”

  Willa knew that personality. She’d seen that edge. “He grew up too soon.”

  “Exactly. Kids who used to come around didn’t anymore. I think he enjoyed that loner reputation. By the time he finished college and graduated from the academy, he was living his own press.”

  “Then the Big Bad Wolf was all for show?”

  “Oh, it was real enough. And living that way as long as he has makes it easy for him to put his career first. Especially after seeing so many cop marriages fail.” Jen lifted Leigh down from the back of the bench she was using as a ladder. “Thing is, he forgot one very important fact.”

  “And what’s that?” Willa asked, intrigued by this look into Joel’s past

  “He forgot about the man who lives beneath the skin of that wolf. Joel Wolfsley would never let his career destroy a relationship. That’s not the kind of man he is. He’s a lot like our father. Honest and honorable. But he’s more.”