Page 77 of Find Me in California

“Did you tell her that?”

“No.”

“Then how could she have asked me about that?”

“I don’t know.” Julia looks as freaked out as he’s feeling. “But there’s something else you need to know.”

“What’s that?” he asks, desperate to make sense of this weekend.

“It’s impossible you look like Matthew Holloway. He wasn’t your grandfather. Adam is.”

CHAPTER 38

MATT

Julia is speaking nonsense. In fact, this entire trip hasn’t vibed with him. He fell asleep Friday night and woke up in an alternate universe. He almost laughs at her. This is a poor time to joke.

“We both know Adam’s not my grandfather.” He’s been told since he was a kid it’s Matthew Holloway. Elizabeth had been pregnant with Matt’s mom in the last entry Julia read to him. His grandmother had just announced the news to Magnolia. Isn’t that proof?

Julia remains straight faced and silent. She isn’t joking.

“Adam?”

He thinks of the man who picked him up at the Burbank airport when he flew to California upon his parents’ deaths. Adam was the only person who went out of his way to purchase Matt clothes when he outgrew them. Adam signed him up for baseball. He went to some of Matt’s games. He would have told Matt if he was his grandfather. Adam knew how lonely he’d been those first months when Elizabeth couldn’t bear the sight of him.

“Liza told me last night,” Julia says.

An angry laugh bursts from his throat. “Of course she did. Don’t you see? She would have been evicted today had I not shown up. She thought I’d bailed on her.”

“You did bail on her. Would you have come if she didn’t have a stroke?”

He waves a dismissive hand. “Point is, she was trying to hurt me.”

“I don’t think so. She didn’t believe she’d get the chance to tell you herself. She made it very clear to me nobody knew your mom was Adam’s daughter. She asked me to tell you.”

Matt scoffs. He doesn’t want to believe Julia. But she has nothing to gain by lying. Was this the elusive news Elizabeth had to tell him about his mom? Why not tell him when he was a kid and thought she was his only family?

He thinks of all the time he spent with Adam, and acid churns his stomach. Had Adam known? Did he intentionally keep their relationship secret? To what end? To further torment him?

“What took you so long to tell me? I got to the hospital hours ago.”

“Liza was dying. I didn’t want to lay that on you too. I didn’t mean to tell you just now either.”

“When, then?”

She throws out her arms. “I don’t know. Later sometime?”

“Pardon to interrupt.”

“What?” they both snap at the woman he didn’t see approach. Startled brown eyes widen behind thick-framed glasses.

“Whoa.” The woman lurches back with palms facing out.

Julia winces. “Lenore, hi. We were coming to look for you.”

“Steve told me you were on-site. You must be Matt Gatlin. Lenore Pullen.”

“Hey. Matt.” He briefly clasps the hand she offers.

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