Page 12 of The Summer We Kept Secrets (The Destin Diaries #4)

That probably wasn’t even that much of an exaggeration.

“How does that work with them?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I guess they sort of orbit each other on that one. I don’t really know.”

“It seems pretty fundamental to a relationship,” she mused. “Dad can’t love someone who doesn’t believe.”

“Yeah, he can. Kate’s smart. Maybe she’ll make him see that there isn’t much to that stuff.”

She bristled, because she might not be a church-going, Bible-reading believer like her father, but over the years she had grown to understand his faith and had never met anyone from his church she didn’t like.

She went with him on enough Sundays to appreciate the whole thing, and to know Dad couldn’t love someone who didn’t share his beliefs or at least deeply respect them.

“If that’s true, then she isn’t right for Dad.”

Jonah shot her a look. “Don’t try to break them up, Mer,” he said, all humor gone from his voice. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to him.”

“I wouldn’t,” she said. “I just want him to have his eyes wide open.” But as soon as she said the words, she realized what a hypocrite that made her. Talk about going blind into a relationship. She’d kind of forgot to ask Trevor if he was married .

“And how about you?” Jonah asked, pulling her back to the moment.

“Me? What about me? I go to church with Dad sometimes but…”

“No, I mean…you look kind of, I don’t know, different.”

Pregnant , she thought, biting her lip. “I’m just tired,” she said. “It’s been crazy at work. In fact, I’m the one who should be checking my phone endlessly.”

“You’re right,” he said, standing up. “Let’s go back. I miss Atlas.”

Jonah proved that by talking endlessly about the baby, and when they got back to the Summer House, he practically sprinted into the entryway.

“Where’s my kid?” he called.

Kate responded from upstairs. “He’s on the deck! With your dad!”

Jonah disappeared around the corner, bolting through the kitchen to the open sliding glass doors.

Meredith wandered after him, in time to see him scoop up Atlas with a reverent kind of joy. He held him close, whispered to him, kissed his fuzzy little head. Meredith could feel the reunion ripple off him like heat from the sun.

Wow. Would she feel like that about her baby?

She stood in the doorway and watched her brother with his son, feeling the sting of tears for the four billionth time this week.

“You look tired from all that shopping,” her father said, walking up to her.

“I am, Dad,” she admitted. “I’m going to lay down until I go out with Lacey tonight.”

He inched back, a frown threatening. “I don’t think I’ve ever known you to nap.”

She managed a casual shrug. “Well, you always talk about the magic of Destin. Maybe the magic is that it slows me down.”

The sun had just dipped beneath the Gulf, streaking the horizon with apricot and gold, when Meredith reached across the table at Pompano Joe’s to steal a hush puppy from Lacey’s plate.

“And you both thought faking a relationship would be a great idea?” Meredith asked, eyes wide.

Her cousin grinned, unbothered by the hush puppy theft. “It was his idea, technically. I just…couldn’t say no.”

They sat in the corner of the deck under an umbrella they didn’t need at sunset. Around them, the beach-front restaurant thrummed with a busy dinner hour, the sound of the surf competing with laughter, chatter, and some steel-drum music on the speakers.

Meredith shook her head with a bemused smile. “Lace. It’s not like you to lie to your mother. You tell Aunt Vivien everything.”

“Well, I couldn’t. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that Tessa had a baby. She confided in me and I…did some sleuthing, used the info I had, called the hospital, and boom…”

“There he is,” Meredith finished. “All six-foot-whatever of him, wanting to be your fake boyfriend. Ack, it’s so rom-com!”

“I know, right?” Lacey picked up her half-empty wine glass, then put it down again. “But it’s real,” she added on a whisper. “And I don’t even know how I feel about that.”

Meredith gazed across the table, feeling a surge of affection for her younger cousin. Blond, blue-eyed, and full of life, she was the closest thing Meredith would ever have to a sister.

However, dear Lacey had just admitted she was terrible at keeping secrets or promises, so Meredith knew this wasn’t going to be a spill-all dinner. But Lacey did know something about another topic that intrigued Meredith very much—adoption from the child’s standpoint.

She didn’t want to drag the conversation there yet. Lacey’s totally unconventional romance was too tempting to change the subject.

“So you decided pretending he was your boyfriend was a safe and smart way for him to meet Tessa without her knowing you did this.” Meredith raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“All him,” she said. “He wanted to protect me and get to know Tessa without dropping a bomb. It was supposed to be a few days, tops. Then…”

“You caught feelings.”

“Hard,” Lacey confessed with a laugh. “Somewhere between pretending and pretending-not-to-be-pretending.”

Meredith slid her fingers up and down the condensation on her water glass, smiling at her cousin. “So what’s next? He’s in Jacksonville for a few weeks?”

She nodded. “He has to meet with his agent, do some medical stuff, some training video classes, sessions with the coaches.”

“Sounds…NFL-y.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I still can’t believe that, but anyway, I’m leaving tomorrow to meet him there. He wants me to see his house, the town, meet some of the players, check out the stadium?—”

“Where you will sit in the VIP box with the other players’ wives, all Taylor Swift-like.”

“Puh-lease.”

“That’s where it’s going,” Meredith insisted.

Lacey lifted the glass to drink. “I don’t know where it’s going, but after that, we’re going down to Satellite Beach, which is a few hours south, to meet his parents.”

Meredith launched a brow. “Please don’t make me wear sage in your wedding. It’s my least favorite color.”

Lacey nearly choked on her sip. “Stop.”

“Why? You’re meeting the parents, Lace. That’s…big.”

“It’s a little more awkward than usual,” she said. “You know—I love and work for his birth mother.”

Meredith’s stomach gave a small, unexpected flutter. “What’s the dynamic there?” she asked, taking a sip of water and wondering if Lacey noticed she hadn’t touched the wine she’d ordered.

“The dynamic with Roman and his parents?” Lacey asked. “It’s pure love. He adores them. Could not be happier he landed in their arms and is deeply grateful to Tessa for making that decision.”

The water lodged in her throat, but she managed to swallow, looking across the table. “How does he…feel about being adopted?”

She shrugged like it was kind of a dumb question. “He has no issues. He’s just glad he got Faith and Bob Matteo for parents. He really had a charmed childhood—lived on the water, in a small town, superstar in high school and college.”

And what child wouldn’t want that?

“How did…Tessa find them?” Was that a weirdly direct and stupid question? She didn’t know, but again, Lacey didn’t seem to think much of it.

“I think Tessa’s father—you’ve heard them talk about Artie? I think he handled it for her. Apparently, he was awesome and gave Roman the fishing gene. But as far as being adopted, it was the best thing that ever happened to him.”

The words settled like a stone in Meredith’s chest.

“And Tessa?”

“Oh.” Lacey leaned back. “There was drama. She was upset that I’d broken my promise to her and that she’d spent weeks getting to know him under false pretenses, but she forgave us, and all is well.”

“How did she feel about…giving up a child for adoption?”

“It must have left a hole in her heart because I actually guessed,” Lacey said.

“How?”

“I could see her expression change to wistful sadness whenever the subject of her not ever having children came up.”

Meredith shifted, eyed the untouched wine, and took another drink of water.

“Do you think,” she said carefully, “that Roman ever felt like…something was missing?”

Lacey considered that. “We’ve talked about that, obviously. He said no. That he always felt chosen, not abandoned. And now that he’s met Tessa, it just added to the good in his life. It didn’t replace anything, but he says it made his world bigger.”

“And his parents agree?”

“They’re grateful to her, too. She was twenty-five, you know, so not a scared teenager.

She could have had a baby and, knowing Tessa, who is smart and accomplished like you?

She’d have slayed motherhood. But she made what everyone thinks is a very unselfish decision, and so many people benefited from it. ”

Meredith blinked against the sudden sting in her eyes. “Sounds like he got lucky.”

“He got loved,” Lacey said. “And he’s the kind of guy who makes the most of what he’s given.”

Meredith’s chest tightened. Her fingers moved to her stomach without thinking. Still flat. Still secret. Still hers…for now.

Lacey leaned across the table, reaching toward her. “You okay, Mer?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said quickly. “It’s just…quite a story. And, hey, I’m a little jealous of that NFL box.”

“You? Jealous of me?” she scoffed. “I’ve looked up to you for so long my neck hurts. You’ve always had it together more than anyone I’ve ever known. To hear your father talk about how you run Acacia Architecture for him? Nothing’s changed.”

Oh, but everything had changed. One mistake and—poof—all changed.

“I mean, Meredith, you’ve been the gold standard forever—school, career, style, ambition…”

Meredith gave a soft laugh to cover the ache inside. She sure wasn’t going to be the gold standard when they all found out how dumb she was.

Maybe she could go somewhere, take a long trip, give the baby up for adoption, and come back and be like Tessa.

Meredith swallowed hard and looked away.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lacey pressed, a frown pulling over her big blue eyes. “’Cause you seem…off.”

“I am off,” she admitted. “Probably because I haven’t had a vacation in, well, ever, and this place feels like I’m living on vacation.

” She rooted around for a good and safe subject as she picked at what was left of her dinner.

“So, Aunt Vivien. Your mom juggling two men? Now that’s something I never thought I’d see. ”

The two of them had spent endless hours discussing Lacey’s parents’ divorce, her father’s classic mid-life crisis, and her mother’s incredible strength through the trauma of it all.

“She’s come a long way,” Lacey said with unabashed pride. “As far as Danny and Peter? I think she realized she was so fresh out of marriage, it was too soon with either one. She’s been hard at work on herself, and I just love her for it.”

“Did you have a favorite of the two?” Meredith asked.

“Oh, I’m fully on Team Peter and he’s supposedly moving to Destin, so…” She held up crossed fingers. “Maybe I’ll be the one in an ugly sage-colored dress.”

Meredith laughed, not hating the idea of someone wonderful for Aunt Vivien. They talked about Peter for a while, then the conversation moved to Grandma Maggie and the big revelation about the criminal grandfather they never knew.

It was easy to sit and gossip about the fam as the two of them had done for years, staying at the table until well after sunset.

They walked out to the car, the air sticky and warm with the coming night. Meredith paused before getting in.

“How long will you be away?” she asked Lacey.

“I’m not sure. A few days in Jax, and then he said we could stay at his parents’ house for a while. How long are you going to be in Destin? I don’t want to miss the chance to hang with you.”

“I don’t know,” Meredith said. “A few weeks, I think. I’d like to be here if and when Atlas’s grandparents show up. If Jonah needs a show of family solidarity, I’m here. I can work remote and…you know, take a…gulp, vacation.”

Lacey laughed. “Now you sound like the Meredith I know and love.”

But would she be that woman when Lacey found out the truth? Or would the news push her right off the pedestal her little cousin had put her on?

As they pulled out of the parking lot and turned toward home, Meredith’s gaze lingered on the quiet sky, and the road ahead that seemed to stretch forever.

She had no idea what she was going to do about this baby, but with each passing day, she knew she had to figure it out.