The Secret She Kept by Amy Knupp Page A

AKE DIDN’T speak until they were on the highway from Layton to Lone Oak.
    “I don’t get it,” she finally said. “You can’t wait to tell Allie you’re her dad, but you wouldn’t breathe a word of it to your dad.”
    “It doesn’t concern him.”
    “What do you mean it doesn’t concern him? He won’t be here much longer, Jake. Allie’s his granddaughter. I would’ve thought that after he apologized to you, you might give something in return.”
    “You’ve got the give-and-take element right, but my giving was visiting him in the first place. You don’t know our history, so how can you lecture me on what I should and shouldn’t tell my dad before he dies?”
    “I have an idea of a lot of your history. At least the part from the night we were together.”
    That one night…So many aspects of their lives had been hugely affected by their decisions and actions of less than twelve hours. She couldn’t regret any part of conceiving Allie, but what about Jake’s estrangement from his family?
    “I’m sorry, Jake. I realize tonight wasn’t easy for you.”
    “Yeah. Can we not talk about this anymore? It’ll just piss me off again.”
    Savannah nodded, ready to be done with this crazy night and the spectrum of feelings it had evoked. The first half of the evening had triggered fear and humiliation, all twisted together. The second…If she’d known walking into Mr. Barnes’s hospital room would throw her so deep into the middle of a family war, she would’ve waited in the car, never mind the hall. The visit had been heart-wrenching, from seeing how frail and weak Jake’s dad was, to witnessing Jake’s internal battle between anger and forgiveness. She could only imagine the thoughts going through his head, the emotions pulling him in different directions.
    She didn’t want to be so involved with Jake and his family or their problems. Didn’t want to care how any of it affected him. But she couldn’t deny that she was involved and she did care.
     
    N ORMALLY S AVANNAH GOT the kids to bed around nine, tidied up the house, then retreated to her bed and a book until she fell asleep around midnight. Tonight was anything but normal, though.
    The children were keyed up from the break in their routine, her hand throbbed in spite of the pain meds and her head spun in a non-pain-meds way. She suspected the latter was from being with Jake too much.
    She could either lie here and make herself crazy remembering everything, from how she’d embarrassed herself over a few drops of blood to the scene between Jake and his dad, or she could collapse and block it all out.
    Denial got her vote.
    She’d just turned out the lamp on her nightstand and glanced at the clock—it was 9:37—when her door squeaked open.
    “Mom?”
    “What’s up, Logan?” As tired as she was, the interruption might’ve bothered her, but tonight she was glad to have another living being in the room with her. Especially one as cuddly as her son.
    “I can’t sleep.”
    “Jump in,” she said, holding the blankets up for him on the far side of the bed. He crawled to the very center of the mattress, not quite huddled up to her but close enough that she could feel his body heat. “Is something bothering you?”
    “Nope.”
    She believed him. He’d never been the type to hold anything back from her. She listened to the quiet sounds of him—soft breaths and little fidgets—and shut her eyes, savoring the closeness. One day too soon, he’d stop curling up with her, even if he never became as antagonistic as Allie.
    “Mom?”
    She turned on her side to face him. “Yeah?”
    “Why is Jake around us a lot?”
    Savannah was momentarily stumped. That was a question she couldn’t answer honestly.
    “Does he like you or something?”
    She hesitated and thought fast. “He likes all of us, honey.”
    “But I mean like you like you. Are you his girlfriend?”
    “No.”
    Logan was quiet while he considered her curt answer. “I think he