~30~

"Do you know why Sheridan didn't call off the wedding, Luis?"

They were outside, the children's cheerful laughter swirling around them with the snowflakes.

Luis buried his hands in his pockets, hunching his shoulders against the sharp hint of winter in the air, and wished he'd made allowances for the weather before he'd agreed to come out here. "It doesn't matter," he shrugged. "She still chose him, no matter what her reasons."

The bitterness of his misunderstanding made Katherine's heart ache, and she silently asked her daughter's forgiveness for what she found it necessary to reveal to him. "You're wrong, Luis. She didn't choose Chris. She chose the baby."

"James wasn't a baby, and he wasn't her son," Luis whirled on her, daring her to pretend otherwise.

"Not James, Luis," Katherine didn't back down. "The baby she carried—Chris's baby." When he said nothing in response, she pressed on. "She was so worried of failing him like she'd failed Marty…"

Luis cut in, his words insistent and at direct odds with the claims he himself had made in the past, "She didn't fail Marty, at least not on her own. I'm just as responsible, just as much to blame."

If Katherine was surprised, she hid it well, clasping her gloved hands together and holding them in front of her. "She chose the baby, Luis, and a life with Chris and James even though her heart wanted something different. Even though," she held Luis's gaze with hers, "her heart wanted you and the son you'd brought home to her. She felt it was the only choice she could make."

The echoes of Maria's and Little Ethan's happy squeals welcoming Martin, Sam, and Noah back drifted to them on the wind, and the conversation stuttered to a brief stop before Luis picked it back up with an emotion-laden response.

"It wasn't her only choice."

Stepping in close to him and looking deeply into his glittering dark eyes, Katherine softly implored him to see things through her daughter's eyes, to understand. "She couldn't burden you with the irrevocable evidence of her weakness."

"It was a baby," Luis's jaw tightened. "Her baby. I would have…" he broke off, closing his eyes tightly before continuing in a low, passionate whisper that rang of truth, "I would have loved that baby just because it was hers."

"Even while you wished it were yours too?" Katherine smiled sadly.

Luis shook his head, putting some distance back between them and turning his back on her. "You can't fault me for wishing Chris had never happened." The comment hung heavily in the air between them, the realization that he'd just wished an innocent child's existence away shaking Luis to his very core and making his throat grow tight with regret for the way he'd let his own hurt feelings blind him to Sheridan's pain. He held on to the hand Katherine offered him, shivering at her cool kiss to his cheek.

"There's still time," she whispered, opening his palm and placing a piece of paper into his hand. "Don't waste it."

The soft crunch of her boots in the snow gradually faded away, replaced by the forlorn little voice he'd sought to hear the entire day.

"Papa? What's that in your hand?" Marty's blue eyes were big and round and expectant. "Papa?" Marty repeated worriedly when still his father didn't answer.

"Give this to your abuela," Luis tucked the paper into Marty's red mittens and pressed a kiss to the little boy's furrowed brow.

"Luis, can you give us a hand? Luis?" Paloma jumped out of her brother's way as he swept past her, Jessica, and Kay and their mountains of shopping bags, digging the keys to his jeep out of his pants pocket without a backwards glance to them. "Luis!" Turning to Marty, Paloma wondered aloud what was behind her brother's strange behavior while Kay carefully took the piece of paper from Marty's hands. "Marty? What was that all about? Where's your Papa going in such a hurry? Kay, por favor, what does the paper say?"

Kay frowned, trying to make sense of the numbers she read. "It looks like…"

"Let me see that," Jessica snatched the paper from her sister's hands. "It's a flight number."

"Why would Luis be going to the airport?" the scowl directed at Jessica froze on Kay's face, to be quickly replaced with an expression much like the one of dawning comprehension on Paloma's own.

"Sheridan."

Think Luis's eyes are open now?

Will he make it in time?

Keep reading to see, and keep those comments coming.

They make my day. :D

Thanks so much for reading!