“That was very nice of her,” Paislie said with a proud smile on her face.
It was time to get back to the subject at hand. “Emme, I’d like for you to go with me when I talk to Hannah.”
“Smart, son,” Dad said. “Best you don’t see her alone.”
Emmerson took my hand and gave me the sweetest smile. “Of course I’ll go with you.”
With a loud sigh, I looked around the room. “Looks like we’re paying Hannah a little visit tomorrow.”
Emmerson
“YOU DON’T REALLY think Jason got Hannah pregnant, do you?” I asked Landon as we drove down the street that Hannah Patterson lived on.
“You dated him, you’d know him better than me.”
I turned and faced the front window.
“I’m sorry, Emme. I didn’t mean to be short with you. I don’t really know what in the hell is going on. We just need to get it figured out.”
My GPS alerted us that we were at the right house, and we pulled into the driveway of Hannah’s address.
“Well, let’s just hope she’s home,” I said. But before we could get out of the car, my cell phone rang. “Hailey’s calling.”
“Just send it to voicemail.”
At that moment, Landon’s phone rang too. He glanced down at it. “It’s my dad.”
We both swiped our screens and answered our phones. Landon stepped out of the truck to speak to his father.
“Hey, Hail, what’s up?”
“What’s up? What’s up!? It got out, Emme!”
“What got out?” I asked in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“That you and Landon are already married. Someone leaked it to the media.”
I quickly turned to look at Landon. He was slowly shaking his head. “Is your dad telling Landon right now?”
“I’m not sure. Amy called and said someone at her job asked her if it was true that you and Landon had already secretly gotten married.”
I sighed. “It must have been someone at the courthouse who recognized us.”
“Maybe,” she replied. “The only people who knew were our folks, me, Noah, and Amy.”
A thought occurred to me. “You don’t think Amy would…” I let the rest of my sentence die off.
“No way. She is so madly in love with your brother, she’d never betray you or him. Never.”
Landon was now on my side of the truck, opening the door. “Listen, we’re at Hannah’s house,” I said to Hailey. “We’ll have to deal with this later. At least there aren’t any more secrets floating around. Now it’s all out there.”
Hailey laughed. “Yeah, unless you’re pregnant and not telling anyone.”
“Ha!” I said with a fake laugh.
“Oh. My. God. Are you fucking pregnant?”
“What? No! Hailey, I need to go.”
I quickly hung up and turned my phone on silent. It was already blowing up with texts from friends asking how I could keep yet another secret from them. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since we’d gotten married.
“It’s out,” Landon and I said at the same time.
Laughing, I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even care anymore, Landon. We might as well just embrace it and let it run its course. Hopefully people will get tired of our boring story soon and move on.”
Landon placed his hand on the small of my back and led us up the steps to the quaint, two-story brick house. It was cute, nothing over the top, but it was well maintained by someone who clearly loved plants.
“Right,” he said. “Our elopement takes backseat to this mess with Hannah Patterson.”
I nodded.
Before we could even walk up the three steps of the little front porch, the door opened.
A woman with dark hair and dark eyes about my age came to an abrupt halt. She looked at Landon and then me. She was holding a baby who looked to be about one or so.
“Hannah, do you have a few minutes to talk?” Landon asked, reaching for my hand and threading his fingers in mine.
Hannah closed her eyes and mumbled something under her breath before sighing and focusing back on me. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here.”
“Can we come in?” I asked.
She looked at me again and smiled. “Yes, of course. I was just taking Will for a little walk. Come on in, and I’ll make us some tea.”
Landon motioned for me to go first, and I stepped into the small foyer. The house was spotless and decorated in a rustic farmhouse style. The entire downstairs seemed to be open concept, with the living room leading to a small dining room that opened up into a decent-sized kitchen.
Hannah placed Will down in a walker-type thing and wound up something on top, which started playing music. The little boy squealed in delight and started playing with all the small toys attached to the contraption.
“Sweet or unsweet tea?” Hannah asked as she took two glasses out of a cabinet.
“Unsweet for both of us,” Landon said. He looked at Will and then stole a glance in my direction before he turned back to Hannah. “Hannah, I’m going to get straight to the point and ask why in the hell you’re telling people that I’m the father of your baby.”
Hannah’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Wait, what?”
Landon looked frustrated as he said, “Mary…what’s her last name?” He glanced in my direction.
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. Your aunt Mary…”
“Mary Hammie?” Hannah asked.
“If her son’s name is Jim, and he’s marrying Bea.”
Hannah nodded. “Yes, that’s my aunt.”
I cleared my throat and went on. “Well, Mary told me that you had a son by the name of William and that the father owned the restoration company in Waco. The one that Landon owns.”
Hannah groaned and dropped her head. “Good Lord, sometimes I want to smack my aunt. I didn’t say he owned the car restoration place in town. I said his daddy owned part of Restoration Hardware.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. “Restoration Hardware is owned by Phillip Reynolds and Mark Emmes.”
“Yes. I know. William’s grandfather owns half of it.”
The truth hit me like a brick wall. “Jason Emmes is Will’s father.”
Hannah nodded. “Yes, that’s why I thought you were here. Jason told me that he’s been seeing you off and on again, and that y’all might be working things out and getting back together. When I found out I was pregnant, I left the bed and breakfast. I was riddled with so much guilt for having had an affair with Jason when he was still dating you, I just had to leave. Then I saw on the news that you were engaged to Landon—congratulations, by the way.”
I held up my hand. “We’re actually married. We eloped.”
“But we’re still planning the wedding,” Landon added. “It’s a long story.”
Hannah looked at us like we’d both grown two heads before she focused on me again. “Anyway, I figured you finally found out that I was sleeping with Jason while you were together and came to confront me.”