“Is she coming back?” asked Emily.
He didn’t want to hear anything else about Natalie, but his daughter wouldn’t let it go.
“No.”
Emily slammed her fist down on the table. “She has to because of my knitting.”
“That’s just the way it is, and maybe when your Gran feels better she can help you, okay? Now eat.”
Flynn didn’t see it coming, and the next thing he knew Emily had picked up a handful of mashed potatoes and thrown them at him.
He stood, the mixture dripping down his face and onto his jeans.
“Get into your room and stay there.”
She poked her tongue out at him and ran out of the kitchen. The door once again banged shut when she reached her bedroom.
“Shit, shit, shit,” said Flynn wiping the mess from his clothes. He looked at Rory who had his eyebrows raised and was tapping the table with his fingers.
“I’m sure you’ve got some words of advice and wisdom you’re just dying to tell me, aren’t you,” he said.
Rory shrugged his shoulders. “What do you expect when you banish someone Emily loves? And she does love her like she loves you. I might be the family’s old bachelor, but I know what love looks like.”
“She’s a liar and a…” He sat back down exhausted from fighting off his emotions he’d been toying with since his conversation with Natalie at the motel. It had been almost a month since he’d seen her, and he already missed her like crazy.
Rory leaned forward. “If you didn’t have feelings for Natalie you wouldn’t feel this strong about her not telling you that she’s Emily real mom.”
Flynn was about to give his brother a rebuttal but didn’t because he knew his big brother was right. Rory raised his eyebrows again and nodded.
“Okay, I love her is that what you want to hear?” asked Flynn.
“I already knew that and that’s why you’re stupid and stubborn to have sent her packing, banishing her from Timber Creek and your life… from her daughter’s life.”
“She wasn’t honest.”
“Okay, she probably should have owned up straight away, but she didn’t. Shit, Flynn didn’t you know that none of us are perfect?”
Rory was right. He always was, but Flynn never gave him credit for his wisdom.
“Well,” asked Rory.
“Well what?”
“What are you going to do about it?”
****
“Have you been listening to a word that’s been said?”
Natalie hadn’t realized that she’d been looking out of the conference room window until one of the senior partners spoke to her. She’d tried her best to get back to work, but her heart was no longer in law, or Orlando for that matter. She wanted to be working in Marie’s café, with her daughter and the Big Sky Country cowboy she’d fallen in love with.
“Is there something wrong?”
It wasn’t until he spoke again that Natalie realized she hadn’t answered his first question.
“I’m not sure.”
“You’ve seemed like you’re on a different planet since you got back from your vacation.”
She twisted around in the swivel chair. One that probably cost as much as every piece of furniture in Flynn’s living room. This was cold and unwelcoming. Her condo was cold and unwelcoming. Flynn’s house was home.
“I’m sorry, it’s just I think I might be coming down with something.”
“You want to go home and we can e-mail you the notes from the rest of the conference?”
“Sure, that would be great, and thanks for being so understanding.”
Natalie gathered up her papers and walked into the hallway and down a few doors to her office. What must the senior partners think of her? Not that she cared anymore. She checked her cellphone messages, hoping and praying that Flynn had realized what a big mistake he’d made and call her.
But nothing.
Only three missed messages from her mother, whom she couldn’t bring herself to visit since she’d been back and now knew what she’d done with her baby.
She needed some air, and she knew she wanted to drive. And also where she wanted to go.
Fifteen minutes later she found herself with a bunch of flowers in her hand and heading toward Jon’s grave. It looked so new, so fresh, and it was hard to believe that not so long ago he’d asked her to find their baby.
Natalie slumped down by the headstone and ran her fingers over his name.
“I did it. I found her, and she’s beautiful.”
It was true. The rest of the world might consider her imperfect, but to Natalie she was the most beautiful girl in the universe. That cute smile and the way she held her hand and squeezed it.