“So what changed your mind?” He watched her closely. He had always been able to tell when something was bothering her. She got fidgety, like she was now, plucking at her skirts, restless fingers moving from her gown to her hair, hands fluttering like sturdy birds in the air.

“Martin changed it. He said…he said you should know, that it wasn’t right to keep such a thing from a man. Even when I told him that you wouldn’t care, that you didn’t even want the two you already had, he—Well, he’s a good man, and he says I must do the right thing. He left it up to me.” Her mouth twisted slightly. “He knows that I always want to live up to his high expectations of me.”

Steve was quiet now, and wary, his blue eyes narrowed and watchful as he waited, sensing before she said it what she would tell him.

“You—I—we have a son, Steve. And I knew about it before you left. I kept it from you because you had told me that you weren’t cut out for parenthood. There. I’ve said it. You’re free to hate me now for not telling you.”

Carefully, he took the unlit cigarette from his mouth and tossed it to the ground. “How does Martin feel about him?”

Apparently, it wasn’t the question she’d expected him to ask. She folded her hands in her lap, knuckles white with strain.

“He adores him. And Matthew adores his father. Martin is his father, Steve, in every way but one.”

“I’d like to see him.”

All color drained from her face, leaving it ashen. She began to shake her head, her voice a kind of moan.

“Nooo…he’s too little to understand!”

“Then it won’t hurt if I meet him. He doesn’t need to be told anything but that I’m a visitor. Christ, Beth, it’s the least you can do after not bothering to tell me about him!”

Her eyes flashed. “Not bothering? You told me you have twins, a boy and a girl, that you had never bothered to even see! Why should I think you’d feel any differently about this child?”

“You shouldn’t.” He eyed her a moment, then said, “You married Burneson because you knew you were pregnant.”

“I would have married him anyway, I think. I always knew, deep down, that you weren’t the kind of man to stay around, to make a family and a life. You only confirmed it.”