Review: Child of Their Vows

Child of Their Vows by Joan Kilby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 ⭐⭐⭐ - OK decent reads.
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Fourteen years ago he’d spent the summer after high school working on a dude ranch near Jackson. He hadn’t thought of the ranch in years, or of Lanni, the vivacious redhead who, with him, had had a job leading trail rides. They’d had a hot fling. The summer had ended. He and Lanni had parted, and he’d returned to Hainesville to marry Kelly, the only woman he’d ever loved.

Like Max, Lanni had only been eighteen. When she’d gotten pregnant her parents had been adamant there would be no marriage or keeping the baby.

Kelly. He’d never told her about Lanni or the baby he’d fathered.

He and Kelly had been going together for two years before that summer. He’d already asked her to marry him.

In the deepest corner of his heart, in a place not even Kelly knew about, he’d always wanted a son.

“If you weren’t so wrapped up in yourself these days, Kelly, you’d know I’m behind on all my projects, not just the Whidbey Island house. And the reason I’m behind is that I’ve had to pick up the slack for you.”

“If you would quit working or cut back your hours,” he yelled over his shoulder, “we might not have kinks in our relationship.”

The moment they heard we wanted to get married after graduation they shipped you off to that job on the dude ranch, hoping you’d forget me over the summer.”

“You’re hiding something,” Kelly stated. “You’ve been acting really weird all weekend, guilty and secretive—when you weren’t giving me a tumble, that is.” She crossed her arms. “Spill it.”

“I have a son.” She stared. She’d heard him speak, but his words had no meaning. “What did you say?” “I have a son,” he repeated.

Spinning, sinking, Kelly spiraled down through a swirling gray void. “You had an affair with another woman while you were engaged to me?”

“How can you say she’s not important?” Kelly shrilled, tugging away. “She’s the mother of your child.”

Her stomach heaved; she gripped herself tighter. “All these years you knew you had a child and you never told me.”

“What gives you the right to put a child behind you? To walk away and forget it ever existed?”

And I’m angry. I’m so furious I could kill you. While I was sewing my wedding dress, you were sleeping with another woman. While I was counting the days until we could start a family, you were making a baby without me. While I poured out my heart in long loving letters, you were already lying to me. Our whole marriage is a lie.”

“The boy, the boy. He’s the boy you always wanted.”

Lanni, the lies by omission, the secret he’d kept from her all these years. Hurt didn’t begin to describe how she felt, and forgiveness wasn’t even on the horizon.

“Randall is family, Kelly, whether you like it or not.” He paused. “Where are you going?”

“He invited Randall—that’s his son’s name—to stay with us for the summer…without even asking me!”

“Max is set on getting to know his son,” Kelly went on, ignoring that comment. “Randall’s become the most important thing in his life, more important than me and the girls.”

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