Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Dennis
Dennis had never felt so much rage and so much yearning at the same time, in the same body, all of it consuming his blood stream, pumping at a rate of a million gallons a minute.
Her belly.
Her gorgeous, lush, round, beautiful belly.
Pregnant? She was pregnant with his child? He was going to be a father? Ana’s ghosting had hurt him in so many ways, but this took the cake.
Before he could utter another word, Lucinda Armistead got in his face, shouting, “Dennis Luview! Are you saying you are the father of this baby?”
“Luview!” Ana gasped, looking at him with those incredible, minky eyes eyes. “You’re part of the Luview family?”
“BABY?” Deanna screeched. “I’m having another grandbaby? Dennis, is this really your baby?” His father pressed his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place. Deanna looked like she was full of helium and about to ascend to the heavens.
“I–”
Suddenly, the world hit a speed bump, a tiny but annoying tickle of pain rippling along his jaw.
The force of the blow wasn’t enough to make him move more than an inch to his right, but he caught an eyeful of his entire family standing in a cluster, all their mouths forming an O of surprise, his mother’s hands flying to her face.
Miss Lucinda had just slapped him as hard as possible.
“YOU ARE THE SCOUNDREL?” she bellowed. “YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE? YOU SICK, DISGUSTING MAN! HOW DARE YOU!”
Her body tall like a wizard’s, her face full of the kind of righteous indignation only a woman of deep morals can conjure, Lucinda’s single slap had brought all movement around them to a dead halt.
Other than the arm of Nadine Khouri, Annabeth’s mother and town gossip, who was slowly raising her smartphone, clearly recording this.
“Poor Annabeth,” he heard her mutter.
“Miss Lucinda!” he grunted, eyebrows knitting in deep confusion as he looked at her, then Ana, and back. “Why did you just hit me?”
“You are very lucky I don’t have my shears, Dennis!” She turned to his mother. “I know you raised him better, Deanna, but he is a–a scoundrel. A cad. A ne’er-do-well who has caused severe harm to this beautiful little dearie.”
“Harm?” His dad’s voice rang out, loud and firm, a tone Dennis felt in his spine.
Because it was the tone he got in his own voice when he went into protective mode.
“I never harmed Ana!” he protested, looking at her in shock. Disbelief radiated through him. Why would she lie about such a thing?
Lucinda raised her arm as if to hit him again. The woman with Ana stepped forward quickly then, grabbing the old lady by the elbow.
“You’re the police chief,” he heard Kell say to Luke. “Shouldn’t you do something?”
Luke just shrugged.
“You!” Lucinda pointed at Dennis with her free arm. “You poked a hole in the condom and got this woman pregnant on purpose so you could gain sympathy from law enforcement!”
Ana looked at Brie.
“You told her?”
“Sorry!” her friend said as Lucinda struggled to free herself, clearly intending to hit Dennis again.
“Where’s Moore? I need him to go get popcorn,” Colleen muttered to Kell.
“Off with Jordy at his high school, remember? Something about set design for the production of The Laramie Project.”
“I was making a bad joke. Sort of.” She looked around, eyes scanning the crowd. “Of all the times for them to be gone. Moore’s going to hate missing this!”
Dennis overheard everything, felt everything, but couldn’t move.
What the hell was Lucinda accusing him of?
And had someone actually done that to Ana?
Leading with her belly, Ana walked forward and inserted herself between Lucinda and Dennis.
“Auntie!” she began.
“You’re Lucinda’s niece?” Deanna gasped.
“Sort of,” Ana said, then returned to Lucinda. “Dennis is not the father of this baby.”
“Looks like I am,” he insisted. “You’re about five months pregnant. That lines up with when we slept together in Boston.”
“Popcorn and nachos,” Colleen hissed to Kell, folding her arms and leaning against a tree. Kylie quietly took Harriet and Jester away, luring them back to the chocolate kiosk.
His mom stepped forward then, grabbing his arm.
“Dennis. That woman is at least six months pregnant.” She eyeballed Ana’s belly. “Six and a half?”
“Twenty-six weeks,” Ana answered. “Good eye.”
“I’ve had four kids of my own. Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Deanna Luview, the scoundrel’s mother.”
Patience already as thin as silk, Dennis was having none of this.
“You’re sure, Ana? The baby isn’t mine?”
Pain filled her face. “I wish it were.” Clapping her hands over her mouth, she was nothing but those huge orbs.
And huge belly.
“I’m so sorry, Dennis. I, um… I found out I was pregnant three days after we met. I was too ashamed to tell you, and–”
“I see.” A rush of emotion nearly knocked him off his feet. “Now it makes more sense.”
Sad eyes met his.
“Yes. I should have been mature enough to have let you know. Ghosting wasn’t fair to you.”
“Thank you. And–wait.” He studied her, then looked at Lucinda. “She said someone poked a hole in a condom so that he could… what?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have plenty of time.”
“I’d really rather not air my laundry in public,” she replied.
“Can’t close the barn doors now,” Colleen piped up. “Those horses are long gone. They’re somewhere near Montreal by now.”
“Then Dennis is not the father?” Lucinda asked, her breathing slowing, anger dissipating.
“No.”
“And you’re one hundred percent certain of that?” he asked again, needing to hear it in different ways so his brain could process it all.
“Yes.” She reached out and touched his hand, the connection sending electricity through him. Their eyes met. “Again, I’m so sorry. I just… knew that nothing would happen between us.”
“You what?”
“If I replied to your text. It was too late, and too complicated.”
“Why would you say that?” he gasped, voice going low with hurt.
She let out a strangled laugh, then looked around.
“I can see I’ve interrupted a family gathering of yours.”
“I’m the one who interrupted by barging across the common to confront you. If anyone should apologize, it’s me.”
The way she peered at him took his breath away.
“Look,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Can we please talk? Somewhere more private?”
She looked at her friend.
“I’m here for Brie. She’s getting married, and we’re planning the wedding. I can’t really–”
“Oh, yes, you really can!” Brie jumped in. “You’ve been talking about Dennis since the day you met him. Go! Shoo! I’ll handle Auntie, and–”
“Handle?” Lucinda said in a dark voice. “I do not need to be handled.”
“Um, I didn’t mean it that way.” Brie’s voice shook. “I just–I thought we were coming here to plan my wedding and have a lovely long weekend in Love You, and suddenly you turn into a boxer and hit a guy the size of a wall, screaming the word scoundrel over and over!”
The friend had a pretty good grasp of things.
Dennis noticed Kell elbow Luke, who sighed, slowly putting on his hat. As he walked over, he held up his hands.
“Hey, now, Lucinda. Let’s stop the violence.”
“You’re a Johnny-come-lately, aren’t you, Lukey Loo?”
Lucinda was spitting fire.
“I, uh–”
“You dicker about and wait until my grandniece steps in and defuses everything, then you bother to get involved?” Lucinda sniffed with contempt. “I hardly understand why taxpayers should be funding your nonsense.”
“So you want me to arrest you for battery?” Luke asked, looking like he would rather eat a live snake head first than do that.
“I want you to find the disgusting man who hurt my poor dearie!”
“Hurt?” Dennis growled, Ana’s hand still touching him. Now he sounded like Dean.
Luke turned to Ana, eyeing her midsection. “I assume that whatever led to your pregnancy didn’t happen here in Luview? In this town?”
She shook her head.
“Then it’s out of my jurisdiction.”
“A crime has been committed!” Lucinda continued.
Dennis’s insides twisted. A crime? He didn’t like what he was hearing. Was Ana pregnant from an assault?
“Maybe we should go talk,” Ana finally said. “Alone.”
“GO!” Brie urged, giving Lucinda a fearful eye. “While you can.”
Unable to tolerate the chaos any longer, Dennis acted swiftly. Taking Ana’s hand in his, he marched across the common, with her keeping pace.
His hand sang.
The last ten minutes were a whirlwind, so many emotions flying, so many perceptions all queued up. Instinct had dominated, though he had let Lucinda sucker slap him.
Rafe would be laughing his ass off if he knew, telling this story for years.
“Dennis?”
“Yes?”
“Can we slow down?” She looked back at the chocolate shop’s kiosk. “And, um, maybe get some chocolate?”
“Chocolate. You want chocolate right now?” Keeping the incredulity out of his voice was impossible.
Her hands went to her swollen belly, thumbs and fingers in a loose heart shape over her navel.
A serene smile almost made him kiss her.
“We were about to get some. I have a craving. It’s hard to explain, and I’m not going to try to justify it, but I’ll be in better shape to talk about all this if you can let me indulge myself.”
The thought of going back to where his family were collected, all of them speculating and casting side eye their way, was intolerable.
“You want Love You Chocolate chocolate?”
“I do. And… do you want a coffee?”
“Excuse me?”
“Maybe we could pop into Love You Coffee, get some chocolate and coffee there, then find a place to sit and talk? I’m sure Skylar or Reef can help us.”
“You know Reef?” He didn’t even try to hold back his surprise. “Who are you?”
“Ana DaSilva.”
“I know who you are.” He glowered. “Know your last name, too.”
“You do?” She rubbed her stomach. “Because I had no idea until just now that you’re a Luview. Wow.”
His temples began to throb. This morning, he’d left home with the bed of his truck empty, intending to pick up some lumber over in Fixby Hills, at the sawmill. Stopping to hang out on the common with his family had been organized by his mom, her idea of a fun weekend thing.