“Good girl, Pippa. Just needed a little privacy, huh? Let’s go see Mama.”

Pippa darted to the door, tail wagging.

Aiden wished he felt as optimistic as the dog. He closed the garage door behind him and returned to the living room.

Sophie lifted Pippa onto the sofa. “All better now, sweetie?”

“She wasn’t too crazy about the newspaper, but she finally went.”

Sophie looked at him across the candlelit room. “Thank you.”

A long beat of silence hung between them, punctuated by the pounding of rain and the rattling of shutters. He sensed her reluctance to return to the topic at hand. She probably wouldn’t bring it up again if he didn’t.

“There’s something I never told you,” she blurted.

His gaze fastened on hers. This was going to happen then. “All right . . .”

Sophie stroked Pippa as if she needed to occupy her hands with some meaningless task. “The night you came over to tell me you were leaving . . . It was the same day my dad left us.”

Aiden reared back. “Left you?”

“When I got home from school that day, my mom was a wreck. All my dad’s stuff was gone. He left us—and he never came back.”

Aiden felt all the breath leave his body. “Oh, Sophie. I didn’t know.”

How had no one told him this? Well, it wasn’t as if he’d ever spoken to Sophie again. And once Grant had started dating Jenna, Aiden had shut him down whenever he brought up Sophie or her family. It was somehow easier if Aiden knew nothing about her life.

“He divorced your mom? When she was all but bedridden?” Craig Lawson had left his family to fend for itself at the worst possible time. Heat flushed through Aiden’s body.

“In record time.”

Aiden wished he could take back the condolences he’d offered the man last night. He thought it odd that Craig had moved on so quickly after Rose’s death, but that sometimes happened after a spouse’s long illness. Aiden wanted to throat punch the guy now. No wonder there’d been so much tension between Craig and Seth during the wedding festivities. It was a wonder Jenna had even wanted her father to walk her down the aisle.

“But if he left,” Aiden said, “who took care of your—?”

The sudden realization made his stomach harden. Reliable Sophie. Dependable Sophie. Always ready to help those she loved.

“You did.” Another realization struck. “That’s why you turned down Duke.”

She looked down at Pippa. “I don’t regret a single moment I spent with Mama. She was a great woman and a wonderful mother. I would’ve taken care of her the rest of her life if I’d had the opportunity.”

Her words barely registered because something else hit him. “Wait. Your dad left the same day we talked on the porch? The same day I told you I was leaving?”