“Did I tell you I’m going to take a permanent job at your mom’s café?” Natalie’s question startled him.
“Hope you’re not going to burn the customer’s bacon like you have today.”
She’d only slightly singed it, but he couldn’t help tease her.
Natalie slapped his arm and slid in the chair beside him.
“You don’t want to be a lawyer any longer?”
“I don’t think I ever did. It’s yet another thing I got talked into.”
Like giving up your baby.
“Well, mom can do with some help now that she’s recovering.”
“I thought…”
Natalie stopped in mid-sentence. She obviously heard it too. A creaking sound coming from what sounded like the hallway.
“You have loud mice in Montana,” she said.
“I think we might have some company.”
He sensed where exactly it was coming from, and as he walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway, his instinct was right. There descending from the ceiling was the old wooden ladder that him and Rory had built when they were kids to access their favorite hiding spot that he thought to this day no one but the two of them knew about.
Natalie grabbed his hand and squeezed it when Emily headed down the rungs. She turned and looked at them.
“You, young lady have a lot of explaining to do, but first I want to hug and kiss you.”
“Sorry Daddy, sorry Mommy.”
He glanced at Natalie. Had she heard Emily call her Mommy? She must have because tears were running down her cheek.
Flynn held open his arms, and Emily ran toward him. She put one arm around him and the other around Natalie and squeezed so tight he could hardly breathe.
She pulled away and looked up at him.
“You mad, Daddy?”
“I have mixed feelings right now. How did you know about the hiding space up there?”
“I heard you and Uncle Rory talking about it a long time ago, and I took my food and water up there, but I ran out today.”
“Honey, why did you do it? We were all so worried,” he asked lifting her chin, so she had to look directly at him.
“I knew it would bring my mommy back here.”
She looked at Natalie and then at Flynn. “I overheard you talking to Uncle Rory that morning and knew Natalie was my mom. You’d sent her away, and I wanted her back.”
She began crying and then pushed her face into Natalie’s chest. Natalie rubbed her back.
“It’s okay, honey. I’m here, and it was wrong of me not to tell you and your dad who I really was from the first time we met.”
“Don’t leave me, don’t leave me again,” she sobbed.
“Honey, I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to stay with you for as long as you want me to be your mom.”
She pulled away. “Then that’s forever.”
****
Flynn had suggested that she and Emily sit down and read Jon’s letter to Emily in private, but he was part of this story too and she couldn’t shut him out.
“Why did my birth daddy die?” asked Emily looking at the photo Natalie had handed her. She fingered Jon’s face.
“Sometimes that’s what happens in life,” said Natalie. “People get sick with things like cancer and doctors can’t cure them.”
“He has the same color hair as me.”
“That’s right, and I can see a lot of him in you. And he left you money to go to college.”
“Emily, you remember reading about the boy with Down’s that went to a special program at a university?” asked Flynn.
Emily nodded. “He was happy.”
“You think you might like to try that too when the time comes?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Well, we’ll see that the money is invested for you and then you can think about it,” said Flynn.
“Your birth dad also wrote you a letter,” said Natalie handing it to her.
She took it and opened it up. “I want you to read it to me,” she said handing it back to her.
Natalie took it and placed it on her lap.
I should start with dear something, but I don’t know your name or even if you’re my daughter or my son. One of the regrets I have is that I didn’t get to meet you. I’m sure you’re pretty or handsome. In fact, I’m certain that you are.
I want you to know that I’ve thought about you a lot. And I’ve also thought about your mom every day. You couldn’t have asked for a…
Natalie stopped and blinked away some tears.
Flynn reached out and covered the back of her hand with his, giving it a squeeze.
a better, kinder person. I’ve requested that she find you and knowing her, she’ll do just that. I hope that you’ll forgive both of us for not keeping you and raising you, but maybe when you get older you’ll understand why we couldn’t.