“Yes, but it turns out that one of Jackson’s other high school girlfriends also got pregnant. He has a daughter named Morgan about a month older than you.”
Alex stared. “Jeez, Mom! That’s messy.”
Kayla couldn’t help laughing at the apt description. “It is messy,” she agreed. “But we have to deal with it. The other girlfriend, Marcy, lived on the ranch next door to his parents’. They broke up and he went out with other girls, including me. Not long before your grandmother Carolyn and I left Schuyler, Jackson went back to Marcy and they got married right after graduation.”
“You mean his other girlfriend was already pregnant when he was dating you, and they got married when he found out?”
“I’m not sure why they decided to get married. I didn’t ask.”
“I bet they won’t like me suddenly showing up. I don’t think Dad’s new family likes having DeeDee and me around, either.”
Kayla learned forward, wishing she could protect her children from every hurt and disappointment. “If your dad’s new family doesn’t enjoy having you around, that’s their loss,” she said carefully. “As for Jackson’s family, I don’t know how they’ll react. He’s divorced now, but the rest of his relatives may want to meet you.”
Jumping up, Alex went to the window and gazed outside.
“How about it?” Kayla asked after a minute. “Do you want to meet your birth father?”
“I’ll think about it,” he muttered. “Not yet anyhow. I feel sort of...mixed-up.”
“Okay. I’ll let him know you aren’t ready. We’ll be in Montana for at least another week, so you have some time. If you can’t make up your mind before we leave, you can meet him later.”
“Thanks, Mom. Can you find out more stuff about him?”
“I’m planning to. Are you especially curious about anything in particular?”
Alex shrugged. “I dunno. Just stuff.”
Sighing, Kayla climbed to the attic bedroom and gave her daughter a version of the story suitable for a nine-year-old. However, it was apparent that DeeDee wasn’t shocked, and Kayla had a feeling they were overdue for a frank discussion about sex. Loneliness settled over her at the thought; it was one more thing she’d have to do alone because Curtis was a perpetual Peter Pan.
Kayla went downstairs and found her grandmother knitting on the living room couch. Elizabeth glanced at her sympathetically. “How did it go?”
Kayla groaned and dropped into a chair. “Alex isn’t ready to meet Jackson. He wants me to learn more about him, but when I asked what he’s curious about, he just said ‘stuff.’ ‘Stuff’ is a little vague.”
“He’s a teenager.”
“Too true.” Kayla yawned. “Do you have any sense of what kind of man Jackson grew up to be?”
“I don’t know much. He isn’t wild any longer. From what I’ve heard, he works hard and his ranch has a good reputation. The gossip at the beauty parlor is that he dates regularly but is resistant to getting married again, which seems to annoy several of our single women.”
Kayla didn’t know how accurate beauty-parlor gossip might be, but Jackson had already confirmed his aversion to marriage. What had he said... Too many sharks? Considering he’d been married to Marcy Lipton for eight years, she wasn’t surprised he was soured on women.
“It turns out that Morgan is only a month older than Alex,” she murmured.
Her grandmother had an apologetic glint in her eyes. “If we’d known Jackson was so good at getting girls into bed, we would have tried to stop you from seeing each other. At the very least we should have cautioned you about birth control.”
Kayla shook her head. “It wasn’t your place to step in. Jackson used condoms. I don’t why they failed, but I wasn’t ignorant. I was educated about the facts of life before Mom brought me here. She didn’t shelter me growing up.”
Elizabeth’s shoulders slumped. “I never knew what to do with her. She was always restless. We tried to find her and your father after they ran away, but it was as if they’d vanished from the face of the earth.”
“It is what it is,” Kayla said firmly. “And things might have been different if Dad hadn’t died. She can’t let go of his memory, which is probably why her other relationships haven’t worked. Anyway, don’t beat yourself up about it.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Okay. No more agonizing over past mistakes. We concentrate on being a family from now on.”
“That sounds good to me.” Kayla chuckled. “Alex calls the situation messy and he’s right, so we need each other to deal with it.”