Page 17 of Pucking Secret

As Millie splashes happily in the bathtub, humming one of her favorite songs, I sit on the edge of the tub, pretending to focus on getting her shampoo ready, but my mind drifts. I can’t help thinking about everything that happened after Owen left Wisconsin. Telling my mom I was pregnant, and her reacting exactly the way I thought she would. Then, having to tell her that my baby’s father was gone and when I tried to call him again, the number was disconnected. Mom had been so condescending, telling me I was stupid for trusting a guy and now I had to deal with the consequences all by myself.

When she told me I was coming here to live with Gram, I was relieved. I still remember her exact words, “I paid my dues of motherhood raising you, and I refuse to give up my life yet again. Nor do I want my friends to know my eighteen year old is pregnant. You’re better off with your grandma. She’ll know what to do with you.” I think getting away from her when I did helped keep me from growing bitter and resentful like I feared I would. I didn’t turn into my mother… I figured out how to build a life I’m proud of and not give up my dreams.

Looking down at Millie, so happy and innocent, I can’t imagine how anyone could resent her. How anyone could abandon her.

My mother and Owen really fucked up when they left her behind.

A loud knock on the bathroom door jolts me out of the memory, and I turn to see Grace poking her head in, a soft smile on her face. She has a key to the house in case of emergencies—I needed someone to be able to get to Millie if needed and I was somehow incapacitated or unable to reach her, especially since Gram moved out.

“Need a hand with Miss Millie?” she asks, her voice cheerful and warm. It makes me want to cry, but I manage to keep hold of myself… barely.

Millie’s face lights up. “Grace! Will you read me a bedtime story?”

“Of course,” Grace says, grinning as she sits down beside us. She gives me a concerned look and I shake my head; later. We’ll talk later. We help Millie out of the tub, wrap her in a towel, and soon we’re all curled up in Millie’s room, Grace reading from my daughter’s favorite fairy-tale storybook. It’s not long before Millie’s eyes are growing heavy and soon, she’s curled up against Grace, fast asleep.

I watch them, a warmth spreading in my chest to mix with my anxiety and uncertainty. “You’re a natural with kids, you know that?”

Grace glances up and shrugs. “Maybe one day, but I’m in no rush. Jensen and I are taking things one step at a time.” Her eyes brighten as she adds, “Speaking of, we finally chose a wedding location.”

“Oh?” I sit up, eager for any distraction from the heaviness tugging at my heart and the thought of Owen somewhere out in this city. “Where?”

“Miami,” she says, beaming. “At the resort where we met and where he proposed. It was too hard choosing between Wisconsin and Colorado, so we thought, why not go back to where it all started?”

I can’t help but smile. It’s so perfectly them. “That’s fantastic, Grace. I’m completely on board with this idea.”

Her expression softens. “I’m so glad you agreed to be a bridesmaid, and Millie will be such a cute flower girl.”

My heart swells with excitement. “We wouldn’t miss it!”

Grace gently closes the book and slips out of the bed without disturbing her. I move to tuck Millie’s blankets in around her and take a moment to study her sleeping face. There’s so much of Owen in her. The curve of her nose, the dimples in her cheeks, the arch of her brow. My heart aches to think about the two of them meeting after all these years. I’m also angry, though. How dare he reject her. How dare he abandon this perfect little person.

How dare he abandon me.

The only communication I got from him was that awful letter that shattered my heart beyond repair…

Kissing Millie’s forehead, I brush a lock of her hair behind her ear before I turn, and Grace and I tiptoe out of the room.

We make it down to the living room and plop down on my couch together. Grace pins me with her gaze, her expression turning serious now that we’re alone.

“So… Owen.”

“Yeah, fucking Owen,” I grumble.

“Are you okay?” she asks. “Seeing him after so long?”

“Fuck, I don’t know.” I exhale. “Seeing him again stirred up a lot of emotions. Anger, hurt… more than that. He looked… well, he looked good. Really, really good. Better than he has any right to look, damn it.”

“Did he say anything about Millie?”

“No,” I murmur. “Not a word. To be fair, I kind of bolted out of the office before he had a chance to say anything too.”

“Okay, so when you see him again and he asks about her…?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. If he wants to be in her life, what right do I have to deny him?”

After finding out that Owen did indeed go to Canada and that his mom had remarried, I Googled his new family and… wow. They’re like the Kennedys of Canada. Rich, powerful, and influential, they’re the kind of people who could rip away a child from a poor single mother without batting an eye.

“If he wants to be in her life and I say no, I’m afraid of where that could lead,” I confess.

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