Will carried Cameron into the den and sat on the sofa.

Her dad was right behind them, concern etched into his face as he gazed down at his daughter.

“Go on back to the party, everyone,” Cameron said. “I swear I’m fine.”

“You’re sure?” Patrick asked.

“Absolutely sure. I was standing too close to the fireplace and overheated. That’s all it was. I promise.”

“Do you think we should call a doctor?” Linc asked.

“No, no,” Cameron said. “I just need a minute, and then I’ll be fine.”

Molly handed her a glass of ice water. “Cold water used to be the cure for a lot of my ailments when I was pregnant.”

“Thank you,” Cam said with a warm smile for Molly.

Over the roaring in his ears, Will could barely hear what they were saying. He was completely focused on the precious bundle he held in his arms and trying to get his heart to return to a normal beat.

“Let’s give them a minute,” Molly said, taking Patrick and Linc by the arms to lead them from the room.

Mary had a tight grip on Patrick’s hand as she followed him.

“Check out my dad and Mary,” Cam said when they were alone. “I told you something was going on with them. I need to get him alone to ask him about it.”

“Stop.” Will’s tone was harsher than he’d intended. “Just stop. I’m dying here, and you’re playing matchmaker.”

Her hand landed on his face in a tender, soothing caress. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You did more than scare me. You nearly gave me a heart attack when you dropped like that when I was across the room and couldn’t catch you. You can’t ever do that to me again.”

Cameron laughed softly. “I’ll try very hard never to faint again.”

Will ran his hands over her reverently. “You didn’t hurt yourself anywhere when you fell, did you?”

“Not that I know of. I’m really fine.”

He flattened his hand over her abdomen. “This little person is already causing us a world of trouble, between the constant puking and now the fainting. I fear we’re in for a hell-raiser.”

She smiled, her eyes sparkling with joy. “I can’t wait to meet our little hell-raiser.”

Cupping her face he held her still for a kiss. “Neither can I.”

“So much for our plan to wait a while to tell everyone.”

“I think some of them had already guessed anyway.”

Cameron rested her head on his shoulder. “Do you ever think about where you were and what you were doing a year ago?”

“All the time, and what I’m doing now—and who I’m doing it with—is so much better.”

“Who were you doing it with then?” she asked, raising her head off his shoulder.

Laughing at her indignation, Will took his index finger to her chin. “My whole life began the night I rescued you in the mud last spring. There was nothing before that. And now there’s only you and the hell-raiser.”

She smiled brightly. “Nice save, William.”

“It was rather good, wasn’t it?”

“The best.” She kissed him. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too. You have no idea how much.”

“I think I have some idea.”

“No, baby,” he said, nuzzling her soft blond hair as he settled her once again on his shoulder. “You have no idea at all. They haven’t invented a word big enough to describe it.”

She sighed with pleasure at his words and burrowed deeper into his embrace, their quiet interlude interrupted a few minutes later by raised voices coming from the kitchen.

What the hell?

“I need to see Max. Right now! Please get him for me.”

Grayson Coleman had been alone in the kitchen, sent by his aunt Molly to retrieve a chafing dish, whatever that was, when Chloe came in from the mudroom, her eyes wild and rimmed with red. Still wearing her coat, she clutched a sheaf of papers in her hand.

“Please go get him.”

“He’s at his brother’s wedding, Chloe. Maybe this could keep until tomorrow?”

“It won’t keep. I need to tell him . . . Right now. I need to or . . . Please, Grayson. Please get him for me.”

“Are you all right?”

“I will be once I speak to him.” Tears fell from her eyes, leaving tracks on top of others already on her face.

Though Grayson was almost afraid to leave her alone when she was in such a fragile condition, he said, “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He cut through the dining room to the great room where he found Max with Gray’s sisters Izzy, Vanessa and Ally, who were taking turns holding baby Caden. All around them, other guests were eating, talking, drinking and dancing.

“Max, could I have a word, please?”

“Um, sure. You guys have him?”

“We’ve got him,” Vanessa said of Caden. “And I might just keep him.”

“You can’t have him,” Max said with a teasing grin for his cousin. To Gray, he said, “What’s up?”

Grayson took him by the arm and led him to a quiet corner. “Chloe is here, and she’s really upset about something.”

Shocked, Max said, “She’s here? Now?”

“Yeah, and something’s up.”

Max took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Come with me?”

“Of course.” Grayson followed Max to the kitchen where Chloe was pacing as she continued to cry.

“Chloe?”

“Oh, Max! I needed to see you. I’m so sorry. I know it’s your brother’s wedding, but I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to tell you . . . I . . . I can’t . . .” Her stammering words were interrupted by deep, wrenching sobs that had Max looking to Grayson for help.

But Gray had no idea what to do either.

Max went to her, put his hand on her shoulder. “Chloe, take a deep breath and try to calm down. Whatever is wrong, we can figure it out.”

“No.” Shaking her head, she choked on another sob. “We can’t figure it out. I-I can’t figure it out. I can’t do this, Max. I’m . . . I’m not ready to be a mother.” She thrust the papers at him. “I signed the paper that gives you full custody.”

“Whoa!” Max said, sounding panicked. “No. No, you can’t just do that. He needs you, Chloe. I need you. I can’t do this by myself.”

Molly came into the kitchen and stopped short at the sight of Chloe and Max, locked in an odd standoff. “What’s going on?”

Grayson quickly brought his aunt up to speed.

Molly’s mouth set with displeasure as she approached Chloe. “Do you understand what you’re doing here? Do you really understand?”

Chloe’s chin quivered, but she nodded. “I can’t do it, Mrs. Abbott. I wanted to, but I can’t. I love him, but I’m not ready.”

“If you do this,” Molly said, “there’s no undoing it. There’s no coming back a year from now, two years from now and upending Max’s life and Caden’s with custody demands because you’ve decided it’s time to become a mother. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

“Yes,” Chloe said softly. “Ma’am.”

Molly looked up at her son, who wore a shell-shocked expression on his face. “Max?”

He blinked a few times and looked down at his mother.

“Take the paper from Chloe.”

“Mom, I can’t do this by myself.”

“You’ll never be by yourself. Ever. Take the paper.”

Reluctantly, or so it seemed to Gray, Max took it from Chloe’s outstretched hand.

To Grayson, Molly said, “Is there anything more that has to be done or signed to give Max full custody?”

“It’ll need to be notarized, but I can do that.”

“All right then,” Molly said. “Chloe, do you wish to see your son before you go?”

Chloe bit her lip and shook her head. “It would probably be better if I don’t. I packed up his stuff. I got as much as I could into my car.”

“Grayson, Max, go help Chloe bring in Caden’s things,” Molly said.

Since Max seemed frozen in place, Gray gave him a push to get him moving. The two men stepped into the freezing cold night without coats and went to retrieve boxes and bags of baby items from the back of Chloe’s car. They made two trips each, depositing the items in the mudroom.

Molly oversaw the operation, and when they were finished, she said to Chloe, “Is there anything else you’d like to say before you go?”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry, Max. I wish I could be someone different, but . . . I loved you, and I love him. I’m just . . . I’m sorry.”

Max’s jaw remained rigidly set as he listened to her.

“Are you able to drive safely?” Molly asked.

“Yes.”

“Then I think you ought to go now.”

Chloe turned her tearful gaze toward Max, who was now expressionless. “I’m so sorry, Max.” She turned to leave.

“Chloe.” Max went after her. “You’ll always be his mother. There’ll never be a time that I’ll turn you away if you want to see him.”

Sobbing softly, Chloe said, “That’s more than I deserve.” She reached up to kiss Max’s cheek. “Take good care of him for me.” And then she was gone, into the dark night, out of their lives, leaving Max to raise his son alone.

It was almost too much for Grayson to process. He couldn’t imagine how Max must feel.

Reeling, Max watched her go, wishing he could somehow redo the last fifteen minutes and change the outcome.

His mother’s hands on his shoulders drew him out of the shock to find her looking up at him with concern. “I know this has to be overwhelming right now, but you’re not alone. We’ll help you. We’ll all help you.”

Max knew that he needed to say something, to at least thank her for how she’d stepped in to manage the situation with Chloe, but there were simply no words as the enormity of it settled in like an elephant stepping on his chest and stealing the air from his body.

Bending at the waist, hands to knees, Max closed his eyes as he tried to breathe through the panic. He was twenty-two years old and in no way ready for any of this himself, but what choice did he have when a beautiful, helpless baby boy was relying on him for everything?

Caden . . . He needed to see his son. Standing upright, he walked through the kitchen and dining room, to the great room where the wedding reception had carried on, the guests none the wiser to the fact that his life had just been permanently altered in the scope of a few minutes. His cousin Ally was holding Caden when Max approached them.

“May I?” he asked, holding out his hands for the baby.

“Awww, Daddy ruins all our fun.” Ally kissed the baby’s forehead before she handed him off to Max.

“Thanks.” He took the baby and left the room, heading for the stairs to the room he still used whenever he was in Butler, which was going to be all the time now, he supposed. Other than his mother’s sewing machine on the desk that used to be his and the bassinet by the bed, not much had changed in this room since he moved to Burlington for college.

Sitting on the bed and holding the sleeping baby tight against him, he rocked him back and forth. “I’ll take care of you. I’ll always be there for you. I promise.” Tears burned his eyes and slid down his cheeks. He buried his face in the baby’s soft blanket.

After knocking on the door, his parents entered the room. They closed the door behind them and came to the bed to sit on either side of him, putting their arms around him and Caden and making Max feel less alone.

“We’re right here with you, son,” Linc said gruffly. “We’ll do this together.”

Max wiped his face with the sleeve of his suit coat, embarrassed by the tears. “You guys have already raised ten kids.”

“So what’s one more?” Molly asked with a cheerful smile. “We love him, we love you and we’ll figure it out together one day at a time.”

The tears continued to come faster than Max could wipe them away. “I’m so sorry to do this to you.”

“You have no reason to apologize to us,” Linc said. “It’s been a little too quiet for our liking around here anyway. You two will stay here with us until you figure out what you want to do, and we’ll help you. We’ll all help you, Max.”

“Despite how it seems right now, it’s going to be okay.” Molly wiped away some of his tears. “If Chloe’s heart wasn’t in it, she did you and Caden a favor by bowing out now rather than waiting until he was old enough to know her. That would’ve been much worse.”

Leave it to his mother to find the bright side in an otherwise dismal situation. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you both so much. I’ve always known how lucky I was to be part of this family, but after the way Chloe’s family abandoned her, I’m even more aware of how fortunate I am.”

“We’re the lucky ones to have such a wonderful son and grandson to love,” Linc said.

“You guys should go back to the wedding,” Max said. “It’s Hunter’s big night, and you should be with him. I’m going to stay here with Caden for a little while longer.”

“You come down whenever you’re ready,” Molly said, kissing his cheek as she got up.

Lincoln squeezed his shoulder and then followed his wife from the room.

Long after they were gone, Max gazed down at his son, vowing to be the kind of parent to him that he’d been lucky enough to have. Nothing less would do for his son.

“What’s going on?” Charley asked her parents when they came downstairs after following Max up there earlier. Several of her other siblings stood with her, equally curious about what had happened.

“Chloe came to see Max and signed over full custody to him,” Molly said. “She brought the baby’s things.”

“So this is like permanent?” Ella asked, sounding as shocked as Charley felt.

“Yes.”

“Holy shit,” Wade muttered. “Is he okay?”

“He will be,” Molly said, “but needless to say he’s a bit shocked and overwhelmed.”

“We’ll all help,” Ella said. “Of course we will.”

“And I told him that,” Molly said, “but I’m sure it would mean a lot for him to hear it from you guys, too.”

“We’ll tell him,” Charley said as the others nodded in agreement.

“What we all need to do now is get back to this joyous celebration,” Molly said, forcing a smile, “because, as Max said, it’s Hunter’s big night.”

Charley took a look around the big room for Hunter, who was blissfully oblivious to the drama playing out behind the scenes as he and Megan visited with friends and drank champagne.

Tyler approached carrying two glasses of champagne. He handed one to her and drew her away from the others. “Everything okay?”

“Um, well, Caden’s mother showed up and signed over full custody to Max, and I guess he’s kind of freaking out.”

“This just happened?”

“Uh-huh. She came here and brought the baby’s stuff.” Charley’s stomach ached when she thought of the challenge her brother now faced in raising his son alone—or as alone as anyone ever was in the big Abbott family.

“God, Max has got to be reeling.”

“I think he is, but we’ll support him. We’ll help. It’ll be okay.”

Tyler put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Still, it’s rather upsetting, to say the least.”

“Yeah. I mean who does that to their own kid?”

“Let’s dance.” He took their glasses, put them on a nearby table and led her to the area that had been designated for dancing, sweeping her into his arms and making her forget all about the anxiety she felt on her brother’s behalf. When he held her this way, she could only think of him.

Grayson poured three fingers of his uncle’s best scotch and took a seat in the corner, away from the wedding fray. The first sip traveled through him like liquid fire, heating him from the inside and giving him something to think about other than the rage that Chloe’s decision had resurrected in him.

It had been twenty long years since his father walked away from his wife and children, leaving Grayson and his mom to pick up the pieces for the others. Until then, he’d loved being the oldest in his family and had wallowed in the privileges that went along with being the eldest. Until he became the man of the family almost overnight, responsible for his distraught mother and seven younger siblings who were looking to him to make sense of something that still didn’t make sense all these years later.

Here he was now, a man of thirty-six, an accomplished lawyer, and the scene in his aunt Molly’s kitchen had taken him back to the long ago night that marked the official end of his childhood. He could still remember the panic, the despair, the fear, the rage . . . all of it congealing into a hot knot of anxiety in his gut that he’d carried with him for years afterward.

How anyone could walk away from their own kid, let alone eight of them, was beyond him. He actively hated Chloe, a woman he barely knew, for what she’d done to her son tonight. For someday, in the not-too-distant future, Caden would find out that his mother had rejected him, and he’d never be the same.

Grayson had never been the same. He took another deep sip of the scotch, letting the searing heat soothe him.

“What’s that stuff?” a little voice next to him asked.

He looked over at the girl with the red curls who’d sat next to him in his quiet corner that wasn’t so quiet anymore. “It’s scotch. You ever had it?”

She wrinkled her adorable nose. “Of course not. I’m a kid. Kids don’t drink scotch. My grandpa likes it, though, so that’s how I know what it is.”

“What do you drink?”

“I like apple juice, but Mommy says it has too much sugar, so it’s a special treat.”

“Your mommy is very wise.”

“She’s very pretty, too.” Pointing, the girl said, “That’s her right there.”

He followed her finger to the blonde he’d met the night before, and had to agree that Lucy’s sister, Emma, was indeed gorgeous. Her daughter took after her aunt Lucy with her red hair and pale white skin, whereas her mom was a willowy blonde with big blue eyes.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Who wants to know?” he asked, amused by the girl’s blatant matchmaking.

“I do.”

“And what’s your name?”

“Simone.”

“That’s a pretty name. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No! I’m nine. Nine-year-olds don’t have boyfriends. You’re like Colton. He knows nothing about kids.”

Grayson knew more about kids than any childless man his age, but he didn’t share that information with the girl. “What kind of stuff should I know?”

“Well, you should know that nine-year-old girls don’t drink scotch and have boyfriends.”

“I guess you don’t smoke then either, do you?”

She lost it laughing, and he lost a tiny piece of his heart to her. What a cutie. “No! I don’t smoke. Smoking is gross and it kills you.”

“That’s exactly right. Stay away from that stuff.”

“What do you want for Christmas this year?” she asked.

God, what a sweet question, and what did he want anyway? How about some peace and a whole new life? That’d be a great place to start. “I want a pair of socks. What about you?”

“Socks? Who wants socks for Christmas?”

“I do, and it’s my Christmas list, so you don’t get to make fun of it.”

“That’s true. Sorry.”

He nudged her with his elbow. “I was only kidding. You can make fun of me. Socks are a dumb thing to want for Christmas. What’s on your list?”

“I asked for a new American Girl doll, but they’re kind of expensive. Not sure that’ll happen. But it’s okay if it doesn’t. I always get lots of cool stuff.”

“I’m sure you’re spoiled rotten.”

“Not really. It’s just me and Mommy, so we have to watch our pennies. That’s what she says anyway.”

Grayson wanted to buy her the doll and any other damned thing she wanted to make up for the fact that her father wasn’t in her life. He was drawn out of that thought by the arrival of Emma, who’d come to claim her daughter.

“Are you bothering Grayson?” Emma asked.

“Your name is Grayson?” Simone asked, giggling. “What kind of name is that?”

“Simone!”

“It’s a smart, distinguished name, I’ll have you know.”

Simone covered her mouth, as if that could contain her laughter, and he was utterly beguiled by the glee in her mischievous eyes.

“I’m sorry about her,” Emma said. “The charm school wouldn’t have her, so I’m doing the best I can on my own.”

“I’d say you’re doing a pretty great job,” Gray said, looking up at her. She had a body that wouldn’t quit and absolutely stunning blue eyes.

“You should ask my mom to dance,” Simone said. “She loves to dance, and she doesn’t get to very often ’cuz of me.”

“Simone, honestly.”

For Gray, however, the thought of dancing with Simone’s sexy, embarrassed mother was far better than sitting in the corner drinking scotch alone while old memories resurfaced to prove they could still hurt him all these years later. “That’s about the best idea anyone’s had all day,” Gray said.

Simone’s expressive eyes widened with joyful pleasure. “Really?”

Gray stood and extended his hand to Emma, who blushed madly. “Really.”

“Oh, um, you don’t have to,” Emma said haltingly.

“I’d love to. Shall we?”

As she looked up at him and took hold of his hand, Grayson felt like he’d been struck by lightning or gut-punched or something equally unpleasant, except there was nothing at all unpleasant about it. In fact, it was the best feeling he’d had in longer than he could remember.