“I know why.”
Kerry’s eyes widened with surprise—and hope? “You do?”
“Yes. You’re a selfish bitch.”
Her face stiffened with shock. Her cheeks flushed with anger. “That’s not true.”
“It’s not what you want to hear, but it is the truth.”
Kerry pointed a finger in his direction. Her words shrieked across the room. “It’s fine for you to sit as judge and jury over me, but you don’t know what I went through, knowing Zoey was dying.”
Jack’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “I don’t?”
“No!” she shot back. “I was her mother.”
“In name only.”
“You don’t know what it was like for me.”
“Enlighten me.”
Kerry dropped her arm and her voice. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I was helpless and hopeless, watching her grow weaker and thinner. I felt overwhelmed, depressed, devastated.”
Jack stepped forward, bracing his legs and locking his knees to remain upright. “If that’s what it was like for you, Kerry, then I know exactly how you felt. It was the same for me. I needed you so I wouldn’t feel helpless, hopeless, scared, and overwhelmed alone. But you weren’t with me. You were with him.”
“Jack—”
“You said what you came to say. Get out.” Jack stepped back, clearing the path to his front door.
Kerry hesitated a moment before walking past him and leaving the cabin. He locked the door behind her, then sank against it. He dropped his head into his hands. He really needed Audra.
CHAPTER 20
Audra pulled her rental car into her cabin’s garage Wednesday afternoon. Her muscles tensed. Jack was waiting for her on her porch. She closed the automatic garage door, then walked through the cabin. She braced herself before letting him in.
“I didn’t know Wendell was coming.” She stepped aside so Jack could enter.
He walked past her. “I knew Kerry was coming. But I didn’t expect her to show up on my doorstep.”
Audra’s jaw dropped. She locked the front door before following Jack into her great room. “Your ex-wife came to see you?”
“Yeah. This morning was like an ex’s reunion.” Was he as calm as he sounded?
“What did she want?”
He shrugged shoulders clothed in an army green shirt. “She’s pregnant.”
Oh, my God. Jack’s announcement was a sucker punch to her gut. How had Jack reacted to seeing his ex-wife carrying another baby, after
she’d walked away from theirs?
Audra circled him to see his face. “How do you feel about that?”
Jack’s eyes looked through her. “How should I feel?”
“You’re the only one who can answer that.” Audra’s heart hurt for him, so much pain. Why had Kerry come to see him?
Jack paced past her, dragging a hand over his close-cropped hair. “Why are you always asking me how I feel? What does it matter?”