“What will the biological father say?”
“He already said it. Told her to kill it. Then signed over his parental rights so his wife wouldn’t find out. All legal and documented. Daisy’s protected.”
“She tell you who he is?”
“Nope.” Ken shook his head. “Don’t care, and it doesn’t matter.”
Jon nodded. “So, what’s the problem?”
Ken had started to feel tired from all the talking a few minutes earlier. He nearly froze at the thought of revealing such a personal matter with his brother, but he really did need to talk about this. “The week of your wedding, she had a miscarriage scare. She said she wished she really had miscarried.”
Jon tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, then said, “I can understand that. She’s in ministry with specific expectations and moral standards. She teaches at her church. She runs the risk of losing all of that as soon as people know she’s pregnant out of wedlock from an adulterous affair.”
Ken stared at his ceiling and didn’t meet Jon’s eyes. “She talked about abortion, too.”
“What? Daisy Ruiz?”
Ken shrugged. “Said the ER doc tried to push an abortion flyer on her, and she thought about taking it.”
They sat in silence for about half a minute that stretched out like a long, cold night. Finally, Jon said, “She must have really been hurting to even feel that temptation.”
The words twisted Ken’s heart. He harshly cleared his throat. “I have analyzed that to death. I know I didn’t react well when she told me. But the idea that a mother could wish that…”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one in her position. Men never are the ones in that position. We can sit back and issue judgment and condemnation, but in the end, we can walk away, and no one looking at us would ever know. Women get pregnant, carry babies, have children. There are no secrets there.”
Ken glared at his brother. “Good men don’t walk away.”
Jon sat back and gestured at his surroundings. “So, what are you doing here?”
Ken pressed a fist to the bridge of his nose. What was he doing here? Building a house for a woman who would never be his? “I asked her to marry me.”
Jon’s bark of laughter had more to do with shock than amusement. “Imagine that went over well. You’re dating for a month, and suddenly you’re asking her to marry you.”
“Jon? I would have asked her to marry me the day after we went on our first date. I know who she is to me. I’m building this house for her. I’ve had a ring in my pocket for weeks now.”
Jon nodded. “I knew you loved her the first time I heard you talk about her. But she doesn’t know that. Right? She doesn’t understand that you’ve never dated, and you intentionally waited until you knew someone was right for you before you even asked her out.”
Ken shifted uncomfortably. Jon continued, “She doesn’t know how you think justall the time, and just how carefully you speak, and how much is constantly churning under the surface of that pretty face.”
Ken turned to give him a disgusted look. Jon shrugged, “We all know just how pretty you are.”
Ken could not believe that his brother would tease him at this moment, and it broke through the steel gates of his thoughts. He half-grinned, and Jon smiled in return, then gripped his shoulder and said, “What she knows is there’s this man who obviously adores her and was willing to marry her out of pity just to rescue her from social embarrassment.”
Ken chuckled. “Exactly when did you become the wise one?”
Jon smirked, “Same day you became the pretty one.”
Ken sat back and, with a perfectly deadpan delivery, said, “I’m much prettier than you are wise.”
Jon grinned. “I feel very wise. I think it’s the lack of alcohol. It’s like all of these repressed senses suddenly came fully to life. Who knows what I could have accomplished if I’d stayed out of the bottom of a bottle all this time?”
Ken nodded. “Exactly.” He pointed at his brother. “But you came to talk about you. How can I help you, oh, wise one?”
“I want to build a pool house. Nothing as extravagant as mom and dad’s, but something simple just to have a kitchenette and a bathroom right there. If I get it started, can you help with some of the heavy lifting?”
Ken imagined Jon’s property, envisioning the structure in his mind. “Your yard’s layout is perfect for it. You want it complete before Alex gets back home?”
“Actually, I want it complete for when she stops back in October. Wade has that fundraiser dinner here on a Thursday. She’ll be here for two days so she can work in a doctor’s appointment.”
