His Mother's Eyes

Chapter Three

"Ryan, come in," Landon said without the same excitement he had when he first met him.

Landon turned and Ryan was forced to follow or be left in the doorway.

That was his first clue that something wasn't right.

"Have a seat," Landon said, motioning to a comfy couch in the sitting room. "Do you need a drink or...?"

"Not yet..." Ryan watched Landon nod his head then sit across from him. His brother had yet to make eye contact with him. Something was very wrong...

"She told you, didn't she?" Ryan asked softly.

Landon nodded then sprang to his feet to retrieve a drink for himself at the small side bar.

"I didn't know she was married," Ryan breathed out. "I'm sorry."

Landon shook his head, pouring a drink quickly.

"I know. You sure you don't want anything?"

"Whatever you're having," Ryan said, thinking Landon just wanted to keep moving. His brother was obviously struggling to keep it together.

Landon poured the second drink just as quickly then came back to sit, passing Ryan his.

Ryan immediately took a sip. He didn't know what to do or say. That was the reason he wanted to talk to Hope. Her leaving yesterday without any word of explanation had done nothing but make him question her motives even more. If she had just taken one moment to talk about their son, he would feel a lot better about this conversation with Landon. But she ran away from him.

He glanced around. Even now, she still seemed to be running. Was she going to hide away all during dinner too? Would they even be having dinner?

"She's out back with him," Landon said, seeing Ryan look around the room. "I wanted to talk to you first."

So. She wasn't running away this time. And even though she hadn't spoken to him about it, she had spoken to Landon. That was something at least.

"Well, you opened the door and didn't try to kill me, so that's a promising start," Ryan said with dry humor. He wasn't laughing though, not about any of this.

"Like you said, you didn't know she was married," Landon said. "And you definitely didn't know she was married to me. You aren't responsible for what happened. I'd never try to kill you for that. I did consider not opening the door though."

More dry humor.

Ryan appreciated it. Neither of them found the situation amusing but they were trying to make the best of it.

"You're doing pretty well," Ryan said. "Considering..." Considering his wife just told him their child wasn't his.

"I've known what she did since the day she found out she was pregnant," Landon said tightly.

"Oh," was all Ryan could say. At least she hadn't lied for the past five years. He was actually most relieved about that. Something told him the situation would be very different if Landon had spent all that time believing the boy was his.

"It was my fault," Landon pushed the words out. "I couldn't give her what she wanted more than anything. But you could."

Bitterness flashed across his face as Ryan watched.

He tried to follow. He was missing something.

"You know," Landon laughed sharply to himself, "when I met you last week, that was the first time I actually believed he was mine."