Page 46 of The Fiance Dilemma

Bobbi chuckled, the sound as stiff as it was brief. “Andrew has plenty of time for his children,” she said before turning to the other woman. “There’s barely been a second to breathe with the news of his retirement and everything that it entails, much less to fly around the country. That’s why we have the internet. I FaceTime everyone in my life.” Her eyes landed back on me. “That’s completely normal.”

Despite the smile I gave her, a heaviness I’d more than gotten acquainted with had settled in my belly. “Absolutely. Hundred percent. I’m sorry I phrased it that way.”

With a long, worn-out-sounding sigh, as if he’d just lost somesecret inner battle, Matthew dragged me closer to his side with his arm. Right against him. And I couldn’t know what it was about the gesture, or the way he felt against me in that moment, but if he offered me a cuddle—even with Willa and Bobbi right there—I’d take him up on the offer.

“Hey,” he said, low, so low. Almost hushed. And I didn’t want to look at him, because I was clearly on the verge of doing something silly. But I did. I watched his eyes as they roamed all over my face, searching for something. Then I felt his fingers close softly—yet tightly—around the tulle of my dress. He looked away. “He’d better get here in the next thirty seconds.”

I rolled my eyes at the muttered words. Even if for myself.

But all I could think about was how glad I was that Matthew was here. How absolutely relieved I was to have him with me. Even if all of this was nothing but an arrangement, and the ring on my finger was on loan, and we weren’t celebrating that wedding everyone was so hyper-focused on. Even if I’d cornered him into helping me. Matthew had managed to be someone I could escape to for a second of respite, for support, just like Adalyn had encouraged. Right this moment, I really was leaning on Matthew like I would on my partner, my fiancé. Using him to bear some, if not most, of the weight I couldn’t hold myself. And I didn’t think he was aware how much I was doing that.

“Josephine,” a new voice sounded.

I sprang to my feet.

I didn’t have the slightest idea why, only that I did.

My eyes landed on a sixty-something man with striking blue eyes I knew well. They were my own. Unlike all the previous times I’d seen him, Andrew wasn’t wearing a suit. Instead, he wore a collared sweater over a dark shirt that matched the color of his pants. Oddly enough, it somehow seemed even more formal than the suit.

“Sorry to make you wait,” he said, looking straight at me. As if I was the only person in the room with him.

I realized I hadn’t yet spoken then. Not even a hi.

I also realized how strange it felt to hear those words coming out of his mouth.Sorry to make you wait.What a natural yet intricate thing to say for someone who is always making me wait. I knew he meant those fifteen or twenty minutes that we’d been sitting here. But what about the twelve months since the day he called me to inform me he was my father? What about the lifetime I’d gone without knowing about him? Was he sorry about those waits too?

“No problem,” I said. I willed my mouth to give him a smile, ignoring the way the gesture made me off-balance. “So how was the trip? Tedious, I bet.”

“It’s a two-hour flight,” Andrew countered in the same deep voice he’d use during those scattered Zoom calls we’d had. “So it wasn’t too bad.”

It’sjusta two-hour flight, I thought, and not for the first time.

A two-hour flight, but so much distance between us.

“Right.” I chuckled, the sound matching the tightness in my chest. “I knew that. It would be a different thing if you were on the West Coast, huh? Now that would be a hassle to come all the way over here for this. Changing time zones is one of my least favorite things in the world.”

Andrew’s jaw clenched in response, something changing in his gaze. I waited for him to voice whatever that was, engrossed by how much the color of his eyes resembled mine. Or the other way around, perhaps. He moved, striding in my direction, and with those first steps, I felt my whole body go into high alert. Would he go for a hug? A handshake? A kiss on the cheek? I didn’t know what I preferred.

My father came to a stop before reaching me. Right on the other side of the coffee table that had been separating Bobbi and Willa from me and Matthew. Andrew hesitated, and it was as if an invisible line was drawn.

I felt a weight, soft but solid, at the small of my back. It was what made me notice I’d taken a small step back myself.

“You look just like her,” Andrew said. “Eloise.”

I changed my mind. I no longer cared about whether I wanted a hug, or a handshake, or a kiss on the cheek from this man. I wanted him to take that back. To start this over. Not because it was untrue. But because I didn’t think I could have this conversation right now. Not right off the bat. Not when we could have talked about Mom on any of those calls his assistant had scheduled for us. This was not how I’d ever pictured meeting him. We were supposed to make some small talk. Maybe I’d tell a joke and break through that hard façade. Maybe he’d laugh. Maybe we’d awkwardly hug each other goodbye. I’d been ready to try that, not this.

“Liz,” Andrew explained, as if my silence could possibly mean I didn’t know. “Your mother.”

Both my thoughts and emotions scrambled. Liz. Mom. God, I wondered what she thought of this moment. I wondered what she’d like me to do, too. Or what she’d seen in a man like him. I wondered if she’d go off on that woman for calling me Andrew’s misstep. No. She wouldn’t do that.

She would have laughed at how awkwardly I was smiling and said something funny to lighten the mood.“I think you knew how I looked before entering this room,” I told him, shoving everything aside. Clean slate, Josie. Second chances can’t bloom without water. I pushed out a light laugh. “And I do have your eyes. Mom’s were dark, just like her sense of humor.”

“Right,” my father said. He cleared his throat. “Congratulations are in order.” His gaze shifted to my side, making me notice Matthew was right there. Solid. Silent. His palm at my back. “Matthew. Happy to see you.”

“Andrew,” my fiancé replied in a voice I’d never heard him use. “Wish I could say the same.”

Unlike me, or Bobbi, or Willa, who I could see turning a page in her notepad, my father’s face didn’t register shock at Matthew’s words. Especially when he said, “Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“About what, exactly?” Matthew asked.

---