A Son For Christmas (West Coast Christmas Secrets Book 1) Read online

  Kendra looked puzzled. “Shane, this is my son, Matt. I told you about him last night.”

  “Hi, Matt,” he said enthusiastically. But his energetic tone masked the confusion building inside. This kid was old enough to be in school. How could she have a son that big?

  Shane turned his attention to Kendra and dropped his voice. “Of course, I remember you said you had a son. But I didn’t expect him to be this big. I’m not an expert on kids, but from the picture you showed me, I figured he was about three years old.”

  An odd expression crossed Kendra’s face. As a flush crept up her neck, his analytical skills kicked in. Something wasn’t right here, but what was it? Why was she acting so weird about having him meet her son?

  Hearing his name being called, Shane turned to see his mother a few feet away.

  “Hi, honey, I thought that was you,” his mother said, smiling. “I was on my way to meet you at the restaurant.”

  He reached out to take a shopping bag from her hands. “Mom, I ran into an old friend. This is Kendra Stevens, and this is her little boy, Matt.”

  Shane’s mother extended her hand and the two women shook hands and smiled at each other. “And how are you, Matt?” Nancy McCarthy asked, smiling at the boy hanging on to his mother’s side while he stared down at what appeared to be brand-new shoes. When Matt looked up, Shane’s mother let out a gasp, and her hands flew up to cover both of her cheeks.

  “Mom, are you all right?” Shane stretched out his arms to grasp her.

  Nancy’s jaw dropped as she stared at young Matt for several seconds. She looked at Kendra and then at Shane. “Oh my, I don’t know what came over me. I think I need to sit down.”

  He guided his mother to an empty bench across from the store entrance. She plopped down like a rag doll and took deep breaths. Kendra hurried over, pulling Matt along with her. “Can I do something to help you, Mrs. McCarthy?” she asked.

  “Thank you, dear,” Nancy said. “I need to sit here for a minute or two. I suddenly felt very warm and lightheaded.” She dropped her voice. “Probably my hormones fluctuating.”

  Shane looked at his mother and then at Kendra, his eyebrows scrunched together in thought. “I think Mom will be all right after she gets something to eat,” he finally said.

  “I hope you feel better, Mrs. McCarthy,” Kendra said, turning to leave. “It was very nice to meet you.”

  Shane’s mother smiled weakly at Kendra. “Please call me Nancy, dear. So nice to meet you. And you too, Matt,” she said, reaching over to pat his head.

  After Kendra and Matt retreated into the crowd of shoppers, Shane turned to his mother. “Mom, what is going on? I think this is something more than unstable hormones.”

  His mother bit the inside of her lip and then whispered, “Shane, have you ever slept with that woman?”

  He took a step back from his mother. “Why are you asking me that?”

  “Answer me.”

  He shifted from one foot to the other. “Yes, I have. But why are you even asking?”

  “Was it about six or seven years ago?”

  Shane cocked his head to one side. “What are you getting at, Mom?”

  “That little boy is your son. I’m as sure of it as I’m sure of my own name. He’s practically an exact duplicate of you at the same age.” Nancy McCarthy’s eyes hardened, and she pointed her right index finger at him. “I think you have some explaining to do.”

  Now he understood why Kendra had acted so guarded in her explanations about Matt. An icy stab shot through his belly.

  “No, Mom,” Shane said. “It’s Kendra who has some explaining to do.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Later that afternoon, Kendra tried to focus as she stared at the recipe on her kitchen counter for the third time. But the words may as well have been in a foreign language. She couldn’t push the impromptu meeting with Shane and his mother from her mind.

  Shane had to know that Matt was his son. She was sure that’s what freaked his mother out. Matt didn’t really look like anyone in Kendra’s family, instead tending to take after Shane. Mrs. McCarthy probably spotted the family resemblance right away.

  Could Shane have also noticed that Matt looked similar to him?

  He had already asked if he could call her later, but how was she going to handle the conversation that was bound to take place?

  The sound of the doorbell interrupted her racing thoughts. When she spotted an unfamiliar car in the driveway, she peeked to the side of the window and saw Shane standing on the front porch.

  Kendra opened the door and stood face-to-face with him. “How did you find out where I live?” she demanded.

  “I specialize in security, remember?” He glowered at her. “I know how to dig up information.”

  “I realize we have to talk. But this isn’t a good time.” She lowered her voice to a whisper as she glanced over her shoulder. “Matt’s playing up in his room. You and I need some privacy.”

  “Wasn’t last night at that secluded table at Antonio’s private enough?”

  “Can we please meet sometime tomorrow? My father is taking Matt to a model train show. I’ll have the whole afternoon available.”

  Shane clenched his jaw, and his eyes flashed with anger. “Okay, I’ll be here at one o’clock.” He abruptly turned and headed to his car.

  * * *

  When Kendra’s cell phone alarm buzzed the next morning, she rolled over and groaned, reaching toward her night table. Her flailing arm sent the phone flying to the floor, where it continued to buzz at an even higher volume.

  “Stupid phone,” she muttered, dragging herself out of bed to retrieve it and turn off the alarm. With the phone back on the night table, she retreated to the warm mattress. She needed five more minutes to shake off the night of fitful sleep.

  After she finally heard Matt rustling around in his room, she pulled on her bathrobe and shuffled to the kitchen to start the coffee and prepare her son’s favorite weekend breakfast of pancakes and sausage.

  A little over an hour later, she and young Matt arrived at her father’s house, about two miles from her own home. “Good morning, Pop,” Kendra called into the living room after ringing the bell and unlocking the door with her key.

  Tom Stevens, known as Pop to his family, emerged from the kitchen and waved them into the house. A big, strapping man in his mid-fifties wearing well-worn jeans and a flannel shirt, he easily fit the picture of a man who’d spent his career in construction.

  Hugging her father and planting a kiss on his cheek, Kendra felt the mixture of love and pride at the core of their relationship. And gratitude. Pop had worked hard over the years to perfect his carpentry skills. He’d turned out to be a good businessman too, and eventually started his own home building and remodeling firm while providing a loving home for his family.

  Pop returned Kendra’s hug and then ruffled his grandson’s brown hair. “Are we set for the train show, Matt? Gonna be all kinds of trains and layouts there. Model trains winding through little villages, across bridges, into tunnels—it’ll be great.”

  “Cool!” Matt jumped up and down in excitement.

  Pop asked Matt to check on his dog Duke in the back yard and then bring the dog inside before they left for the train show. After Matt galloped into the kitchen and the back door slammed, Pop turned to Kendra. “Everything okay, sweets? You have an exhausted look about you.”

  She took a few seconds to respond. “You’ll find out eventually, so I may as well tell you. I was up a good part of the night worrying…”

  “Worrying about what?”

  “Matt’s father is back in town. I saw him on Friday and then again yesterday.”

  “Well, I’ll be…” Pop gave Kendra an assessing look. “Does he know about Matt?”

  “Kind of.”

  “Kind of? What the heck does that mean?”

  Taking a few steps toward the kitchen, she glanced out the back window to make sure Matt was still in the yard with Duke.
“He’s met Matt. And I think he suspects Matt is his son.”

  “For Pete’s sake, what are you waiting for?”

  “Don’t get mad at me, Pop,” she begged, feeling tears well up in the corners of her eyes. “I know we didn’t agree on how I handled this when I was pregnant.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “I’m actually meeting with Shane this afternoon while Matt’s at the train show with you. I’m going to tell him everything.”

  “This should have been done years ago,” Pop grumbled. “Now you have a six-year-old boy who’s not sure who or where his father is. Then this Shane guy pops up out of the blue and all of a sudden, it’s…welcome home, Daddy.”

  “You make it sound almost outrageous.”

  “I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”

  “That’s not fair to me.”

  “The situation’s not fair to Matt.”

  “I’m trying to straighten it out,” she said.

  He took another long look at Kendra. “And what if this guy wants to share custody with you? It would be so different for our family. If Matt’s not home with us on holidays…I can’t imagine Christmas without him.”

  Taking a deep breath, Kendra straightened her shoulders and jutted out her chin. “I’ll make it right, Pop.” The back door opened, and a large shepherd mix dog bounded into the living room. “I haven’t done all that bad raising a great kid so far,” she whispered as Matt ran into the room behind the barking Duke.

  * * *

  Keep calm even when you’re ready to explode. Like you did back in the army.

  Shane told himself to maintain his composure as he approached Kendra’s house. Nothing would be gained by blowing up at her.

  “Look, I know he’s mine, so don’t even try to make up some story,” he said matter-of-factly when Kendra let him into her house precisely at one o’clock. “My mother said your kid is almost an exact double of me when I was the same age.”

  “Shane, please sit down first.” She motioned to the sofa and two chairs in her living room. “Would you like something to drink? Have you had lunch?”

  “I could use a beer, but let’s get straight to the facts instead.”

  “You’re making it sound like a criminal case that needs to be investigated.”

  He sat in one of the chairs opposite the sofa and looked directly at Kendra. “I think you need to tell me why an investigation is necessary,” he said.

  “This isn’t an investigation—”

  “Look, I’ve had a son I didn’t even know about for the past six years. My mother had a grandson practically right in her neighborhood all that time. She missed out on so much. We both did.” His eyes turned steely. “What’s the deal, Kendra?”

  She slouched down into the other chair. “It was complicated. I’m sorry.”

  His anger turned to confusion. She better not be talking about a question of paternity making the situation complicated. If she’d played him for a fool back then… “Was it because you weren’t sure I was your baby’s father? Were you with other guys at the same time you were with me?”

  “No! How could you even think that?”

  “If you were sure I was the father, why didn’t you let me know you were pregnant?”

  “I did. I tried to call you after you left for the army, but your cell phone was disconnected.”

  “That’s it? You couldn’t reach me on my cell phone, so you gave up? Give me a break.” He rose from the chair and folded his arms across his chest. The woman was beyond frustrating. How was she in charge of public relations at a huge corporation if she couldn’t even figure out the basics of communication?

  “It was more than that.”

  “You could have tried harder,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to have cell phones at boot camp. That’s true. But there are ways to reach members of the military in case of emergency.”

  She scoffed. “Maybe I didn’t consider it an emergency.”

  He squinted at her. “It might not have been an emergency initially, but still important enough that I should have been contacted.”

  Kendra cut him off. “I’m sure I could’ve tracked you down if I’d set my mind to it. I didn’t want to contact you.”

  “What?”

  “I – I even told my father not to try to track you down. He wanted to. He was ready to go after you with a gun.”

  Shane struggled to keep his cool. “Okay, I’m going to lose it real soon. I’m not in the mood for this kind of game.”

  “I’m not playing any kind of game.” She stood and planted her hands on her hips. “Do you think it’s been a game raising a little boy on my own for the past six years? Nothing but nursery rhymes, toy trains, and fairy godmothers?”

  “No. And that’s my point. Why in the world wouldn’t you tell me that we were having a baby together? Even if you didn’t want me in your life, didn’t you think I had a right to know about my child? To be a part of his life?” His voice softened. “And to let my son be part of my family too?”

  “I’m sorry, Shane. I guess I made a mistake.” She looked at him with misty eyes.

  “You guess you did?” His anger flared again. “I don’t think there’s any guessing about it. You screwed up big time. You messed up a lot of people’s lives.”

  “Wait a minute. Where do you get off saying I messed up a lot of people’s lives? You had a hand in this too, you know.” She shot him a look. “I mean, you’re the one who got me pregnant in the first place. I didn’t do this whole thing single-handedly.”

  “No, but you weren’t exactly an unwilling participant, if my memory serves me correctly,” he said, unable to control himself from smirking.

  Kendra shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. “Fair enough.”

  “Look, you were friendly, nice, and looked pretty good.” Damn good, he remembered, but he wasn’t going to go overboard describing her looks right now. Or his feelings.

  “Your point is…?”

  “I’m saying we…we both enjoyed each other’s company.” A smile formed at the corners of his mouth as memories began to resurface. Catching a whiff of her spicy-scented fragrance, he wanted nothing more than to make love to her again. Right now.

  “Okay, I think we get the picture. We both had a hand in it,” she said, her voice interrupting his daydream. “Now what do we do going forward?”

  Feeling like a jackhammer was pounding in his head, he struggled to shift his brain back into gear. The whole world had gone crazy. He had a son, but he didn’t really understand how he’d been in the dark about it. The natural desire he felt for Kendra seemed to have gotten him into the biggest snafu ever, so he’d better rein in the feelings that had produced his son years before.

  “Could we take a step back, so I can try to figure out what the heck is going on here?” he asked, holding both palms in front of him as if ordering her to halt.

  She clenched her hands. “Where should we start?”

  “Okay, start with when we first met at that St. Patrick’s Day party.” No way could he forget that. An image of a younger Kendra in jeans and a tight-fitting t-shirt popped into his head. Without a doubt, they hit it off right away. He’d told her he was leaving for the army in a month or two. She’d sure acted like she appreciated all the physical workouts he’d been doing to get in shape for basic training. Not one ounce of resistance when he’d suggested getting together again.

  “I remember that night,” she whispered.

  “And I remember that I was well-prepared when we did get together after that. Came with a condom, just in case. And I wasn’t disappointed.” He looked squarely at Kendra. No, he wasn’t disappointed at all.

  “I remember that too.” Her voice was barely audible.

  “Uh huh, and I remember plenty of other similar occasions.” He didn’t break eye contact with her. “We had some pretty good times.”

  “Pretty good?”

  “To say the least. I think it was right before Memorial Day wee
kend when I left for basic training.”

  Kendra nodded but said nothing, letting him continue. She was blushing. Well, why wouldn’t she? The memories were beyond steamy.

  “But what I don’t remember,” he continued, “is me ever showing up empty-handed.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  “By that I mean not prepared with protection. I brought a condom every time we got together.” He couldn’t help smiling. “And I used one every single time we made love. So, we shouldn’t even talk about you not letting me know you were pregnant. First, I want to know how you even got pregnant.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “I know I used protection every single time. I’m sure of it.”

  “Remember the time when we ran into each other after jogging? You didn’t have any protection with you.”

  “That’s not the thing I remember most about that day.”

  “Whatever. Look, I was shocked too when I finally figured out I was pregnant.” Kendra returned both hands to her hips in a challenging stance. “Besides, condoms aren’t one hundred percent effective. They can fail sometimes. And it happened with us. Or it was one of those times when we took a chance…”

  Oh yeah, he’d never forget that chance meeting along the jogging path. The jogging had escalated into sprinting as they high-tailed it back to her room to steal some time together. But the part about not having protection somehow had slipped from his memory.

  He felt as though he were scrutinizing a defendant in a jury trial and trying to decide on guilt or innocence as he studied Kendra. After a few seconds, he asked, “When’s Matt’s birthday?”

  “February ninth.”

  He did some quick mental calculations. Nodding, he said, “Okay, sounds like you got pregnant in May. Before I went to basic training.”

  Kendra nodded back.

  “So, when did you find out?” he asked. “Don’t those at-home pregnancy tests let you know even before you’re due for your next period?”

  “They do,” she said. “But I didn’t even know I was pregnant until late July.”

  “Late July?” Now the story sounded preposterous. Shane knew she was intelligent. It couldn’t possibly have taken two months for her to figure out something so basic about her own body. “So, what was going on in June and most of July?”