The Chesapeake Diaries Series 7-Book Bundle: Coming HOme, Home Again, Almost Home, Hometown Girl, Home for the Summer, The Long Way Home, At the River's Edge (118 page)

“I was saying, that I came back east to visit Archer from time to time. I was by then quite the hot young thing. I’d made several movies by this time—I’d just turned twenty—and I was very much in demand.” Berry averted her eyes from everyone. “And then I found out I was pregnant.”

“Oh, my.” Dallas sat back in her chair. “That is … news.”

“It certainly would have been, back then. It was a different time. An unmarried woman having a child was simply not done. Not in Hollywood, and certainly not in St. Dennis.”

“What did you do, Berry? Did you have the baby?” Dallas asked.

“Oh, of course I did. There was never any question but that I would. But I had quite the dilemma. I had a career that was just taking off, and I had a man I loved who’d have none of that life. I had to choose. I told myself that if he really loved me, he’d come with me. So, for better or for worse, I chose my career.”

“And the baby was Archer’s?” Wade asked.

Berry nodded. “I never told him. He thought I just left him because I didn’t love him, when of course, that wasn’t the case at all. He’d already made it clear
enough that he never intended to move to California, and I’d made it clear that I was not about to give up my films to live here while he played country lawyer.”

“If you’d have told me then what you’ve told me this week, I would have come to you,” Archer told her. “I never would have let you go through all that alone.”

“Berry, you never told him until this week?” Dallas’s jaw dropped.

“I know, dear. It was terrible of me. Just one more terrible and wrong decision on my part. But I was very young and I’d had amazing success in a very short period of time. It’s a very heady feeling, at so young an age, to feel like the center of the universe.” She shook her head. “I see these young girls today and I wish I could take them all aside and tell them to be mindful of the choices they make. I know exactly who they are, because I was them, once. But that’s a story for another time.”

“Berry, what happened to your baby?” Dallas asked softly.

“He was born in California. A beautiful, healthy little boy.” She cleared her throat. “And I gave him to someone else to raise.”

“Oh, Berry.” Dallas’s eyes filled with tears. “Did you ever see him when he was growing up? Did you ever know him?”

Berry lifted a hand and smoothed Dallas’s hair. “Of course I did, dear. I’d given him to my sister, Sylvie, and her husband, to raise as theirs. And they did.”

For a moment Wade thought he hadn’t heard her clearly.

“But our dad was the only boy they …” he began,
and then the import of her words struck home. “Dad was your son, Berry? You were Dad’s
mother
?”

Berry nodded, then started to cry again. Archer sat next to her and put his arms around her, and she buried her face in his chest.

“How did you pull that off?” he asked. “I mean, didn’t people around here notice that your sister wasn’t pregnant?”

“I had several months between films, and I stuck close to my house for that time. I had Sylvie come out to stay with me in California for a while,” Berry explained. “When she returned to St. Dennis, she brought Ned with her. Everyone assumed she’d been pregnant when she left here. As far as I know, no one was ever the wiser.”

“Berry, that makes you …” Dallas said.

“Yes, dear. Your grandmother.”

“Which makes Archer …” Wade was still trying to grasp the concept.

“… your grandfather,” Archer finished the sentence.

“Holy shit.” Wade sank onto a chair.

“That’s a lovely reaction, dear.” Berry looked up at Archer. “I told you he was most articulate, did I not?”

“Sorry, Berry, I’m just so overwhelmed.” Wade frowned. “Did Dad know about this? Did you ever tell him?”

“I told him, yes,” Berry replied, “but not until he was grown. And he never knew Archer. By then, Archer was married and had children and, from all appearances, was enjoying a very happy life. Both Ned and I agreed that there was no need for Archer to know.”

“Another mistake on your part, Berry,” Archer said.

“Archer, we’ve been going around and around about this for the past two days. What good would it have done for me to have shown up on your doorstep with Ned? What would the news have done to your family?” Archer started to say something but she cut him off. “I know you like to think you’d have acknowledged him as your son, but it was asking too much of your wife. I know you must have loved her to have married her. I wouldn’t have put her through that pain. It was too late by then to change things—I’d made my bed, you see—and Ned didn’t feel right about contacting you to introduce himself. We both agreed to let it go for a while. I thought maybe the time might come, that when he got a bit older, perhaps he’d change his mind.” Her eyes filled up again. “But then, of course, Ned died so young and so suddenly.”

“So you never met our dad?” Wade turned to Archer.

“Not really. Oh, I saw him around St. Dennis from time to time, but I assumed, as did everyone else, that he was Duncan and Sylvie’s son. Sylvie and Berry were twins, you know, so it wasn’t odd that the boy looked like her. I just assumed he took after Sylvie.”

“So there you have it. My deepest, darkest secret. If you want to disown me now for all these years of deceit, I’ll understand.” Berry looked first at Dallas, then at Wade. “Just please don’t hate me. I couldn’t bear it.”

“How could you think for one minute that we could hate you.” Dallas put her arms around her. “I
am so very sorry that you had to carry this secret all these years. And I’m sorry you weren’t able to acknowledge your son. I’m sorry for a lot of things, but this isn’t about Wade and me, Berry. It’s about you. And Archer, of course.”

“Dallas is right, Berry. This is between you and Archer,” Wade said. “And as much of a shock as this has been, it doesn’t change the way we feel about you. You’re our Berry. We love you.”

“That’s more generous than I had a right to expect from either of you.” Berry reached a hand out to both. “Words cannot express how dear you both are to me. Thank you.”

Berry turned to look at Archer. “I did tell you, did I not, that my boy and my girl are exceptional? That you’d be proud of them?”

“You did.” Archer nodded. “And I am.”

Wade sat and stared at Archer for a long moment. How odd to meet your grandfather for the first time.

“I don’t have many memories of Grampa Duncan,” Wade said. “Do you?” he asked Dallas.

“Not really. It seems whenever we visited St. Dennis, we stayed here, not with him and Gramma Sylvie.” She turned to Berry. “I guess she really wasn’t gramma, though, was she?”

Berry shook her head.

“Which explains so many things.” Dallas got up and went to the stove. She picked up the teakettle and filled it with water.

“Like what, dear?” Berry asked.

“Like how I always had the feeling she liked the other grandkids better. Like how her affection always seemed forced.”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” Wade agreed. “I always felt the same way.”

“I’m so sorry,” Berry told them both. “I hadn’t realized …”

“It’s okay, Berry.” Dallas sat the kettle on the burner and turned it on. “I never spent much time with them. We always wanted to stay here with you anyway. You were always much more fun.”

“Looking back, I guess it makes sense that Dad always brought us here to stay. We never stayed at our grandparents’ house,” Wade noted.

“I’m afraid I didn’t always appreciate how difficult I made things for my poor sister and her husband. Two mothers in the same family is an absolute recipe for disaster. I can’t even begin to understand the amount of chaos I must have caused in that family. Always taking Ned places but never his sisters. I’m embarrassed by my thoughtlessness and how unkind I was to those two girls.”

“I thought you said they were twits,” Dallas reminded her.

“Well, they were, dear, but I didn’t have to be unkind to them.”

Dallas laughed. “There’s the Berry we know and love.”

“Archer, I can’t help but wonder how you feel about all this.” Wade leaned on the back of one of the chairs.

“I’m adjusting to it, Wade. Finding out that you had a son you never knew—and knowing that you can’t get to know him now because he’s gone …” He shook his head. “It isn’t something that you process in a day or so. I’m sorry I never knew your father. I’m
sorry that … well, I have a lot of regrets. I imagine it’s pretty near impossible to live as long as I have and not look back and wonder how things might have been.”

“Are you going to discuss this with your children?” Wade asked. “Not that it’s any of my business …”

“To be perfectly honest, I haven’t decided yet.” Archer’s face showed his conflict. “On the one hand, I want my children to know Berry, and to know you and your sister. I want all my grandchildren to know one another. On the other … well, I feel I need to get to know you both a little myself first.”

Wade nodded his understanding. He turned to Berry and asked, “Berry, I have to ask—why now?”

“Oh, well, with Dallas and Grant getting married and hopefully having a family, I thought they should know. I saw something on television last week or so about a young girl who was being treated for some very serious condition—I forget what it was. The doctors had difficulty in diagnosing her because whatever it was, it’s only transmitted genetically, but no one in her or her husband’s family had it. Which is how the girl’s parents came to tell her that she was adopted and helped her to search for her birth parents. And it got me thinking that perhaps Dallas needed to know since she’s getting married soon and hopefully will be adding to her family.”

“I’m not the only one,” Dallas told her with a smile. She pointed to Wade. “You tell her.”

“I asked Steffie to marry me,” he said.

“Oh, my dear,” Berry teared up—again. “How wonderful for you. She’s a darling girl.” Berry froze
momentarily. “Please tell me she isn’t taking Scoop to Connecticut …”

“No one’s going to Connecticut.” Wade explained his recent decision.

“Perfect! We’ll have our brewery after all. Now, does this mean that Berry Beer might someday become a reality?”

Wade laughed. “It could happen.”

“Well, this has certainly been a big news day, hasn’t it? And it’s barely eleven in the morning,” Berry noted.

“Eleven?” Dallas blanched. “I have a meeting at eleven.”

“I have one in a half hour.” Wade glanced at the wall clock.

“Why don’t the two of you skedaddle? We can all catch up later. Dallas, be a dear and leave the kettle on. I think I need a nice cup of tea …”

Wade leaned down to kiss Berry and she took his hand. “Have you a ring for Steffie?”

“No. I need to do something about that, though.” Wade wasn’t sure how he’d accomplish that, since he wasn’t working and probably wouldn’t have any real income for at least a year. Good thing Berry wasn’t charging rent, he thought.

“I have several very lovely pieces that I no longer wear. You might want to take a look and see if there’s something you think she might like. I have a particular ring in mind that I think she would love, but of course, it’s up to you,” she assured him. “Looking at Dallas’s ring made me think that you might want to … that is, if you feel it’s appropriate.”

“Totally appropriate, and wonderfully generous of
you to offer, Berry.” He kissed her cheek. “I know that Stef will be thrilled and honored to wear a ring that belonged to you.”

He started toward the back door, then hesitated. Turning to Archer, he asked, “Do you have a middle name?”

“Yes,” Archer replied. “It’s Bowen. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious.” Wade shrugged. “See you folks later.”

He smiled to himself as he went through the back door and down the steps.

Archer Bowen Callahan. ABC
.

A long time ago, a smitten Berry had carved the initials of her love on one of the posts in the carriage house. Sixty-some years later, Wade—Archer’s grandson—had found them.

“Berry is your
grandmother
?” Stef’s eyes widened. “Did you say, your
grandmother
?”

“Shhhh.” Wade glanced around the dining room at Café Lola’s, where he’d met Stef for a late dinner.

“Sorry. But, wow. Just … wow.” Stef rested her forearms on the table and leaned closer. “You know, years ago there were some rumors about Ned being Berry’s son and not Sylvie’s, I remember hearing that, but I don’t know that anyone actually believed it. There was a lot of speculation about who Ned’s father might have been.”

He tasted the beer that the waiter had brought just a few minutes earlier, held the glass up, and said, “Not bad for a commercial brew. Not KenneMac quality, and I will go out on a limb here and predict that Mad Mac will be superior, but it isn’t bad.”

“Go back to Berry, if you please. Did she say who Ned’s father was? One of her handsome costars? A foreign director? A famous producer? A prince?”

“None of the above. Archer Callahan.”

“Archer … you mean … Judge Callahan?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, man. I should have guessed that. Does he know?”

“He does now.”

“How’d he take it?” she asked.

“He seemed to be taking it pretty well. They were in love a long time ago, and apparently still are. That might be influencing his reaction. He still loves her,” Wade said. “And it’s obvious that she still loves him.”

“They had a child together all those years ago.” Stef shook her head. “And yet they never married. Tell me everything. Start at the beginning.”

He did.

When he finished, Stef sighed and said, “Oh, that’s just so tragic, isn’t it? To love someone and lose them and just go on with your life?” She sighed again. “I suppose people do that every day, though. They make choices and then they have to live with the consequences.”

She took a sip of wine. “It makes me wonder, what if you hadn’t stopped in St. Dennis. What if you’d gone right to Connecticut from Texas? We wouldn’t be sitting here together. We wouldn’t have had a chance to fall in love. We wouldn’t be planning a life together. All the chances we had in the past that we never took …”

“I don’t know why it took so long for us. Maybe other things were supposed to happen. Austin, for
one. And maybe if we’d gotten together sooner, there’d be no Scoop.”