Noah grabbed on to me as we exited the house. He held my hand even after we climbed onto the golf cart. “So where do you want to go first?”
He looked up at me. “I’ve never had a grandmother before. My friends at pre-school have grandmothers and they buy them cool things. Will my grandmother buy me things too?”
He was so innocent when he asked that I knew he wasn’t being selfish. He was too little to even understand that. “Trust me when I say, that you will probably get more gifts than you will ever even ask for. My mother is goin’ to spoil you.”
“Will she love me? My friend’s grandmothers love them.”
I stopped the golf cart and looked at him. “Noah, of course she will.”
“Will you love me?”
My heart broke for him. I squeezed his hand and kissed the top of his head. Tears started forming in my eyes as I stared at my mirror image. “Buddy, I think that I loved you as soon as I saw you. I knew you were mine from that moment.”
I have no idea what she was doing all the way out here, but Sam came running out of the woods. “Cool, a dog.”
“That’s Sam, she’s our dog.” Sam came up and jumped right on our laps, crushing poor little Noah. “Calm down girl. This is Noah.”
Noah started petting her while she licked all over his face. Small giggles were coming from his little body and I couldn’t help but love how perfect his laughter sounded to me. “I get to have a real dog?”
“Yes.” I laughed.
Sam finally jumped down and raced us to the ranch house. Noah thought it was funny how she was trying to keep up with us.
I parked in front of the house and we both started walking toward it. Lucy must have seen us pulling up because she opened the door as we approached. She put her hand over her mouth and gasped, saying something in Spanish. I grabbed her on the shoulder. “Where is my Mom?”
She pointed toward the kitchen, but just stood there staring. My mother was taking a sip of her coffee as we walked into the room. She took one look at Noah and started choking. While she grabbed a napkin and cleaned herself off, she never took her eyes off of Noah. I was still holding his hand as we walked closer.
“Tell me I’m dreaming, Son?”
I crouched down to Noah’s level. “Mom, I would like you to meet my son Noah. We just met today, but he will be staying with us from now on.” There was no sugar coating things.
She kneeled down in front of Noah and started to cry as she ran her hands through his dark hair. “How is this possible? Did you know? Where is the mother? Where is Savanna? Is she okay?”
“Calm down.” That was a bunch of questions. “I had no idea until about an hour ago. You know better than to even ask that. Krista was his mother and there was a terrible accident. She and her boyfriend were killed in a car accident. She listed me on the birth certificate, but never told me about her being pregnant. This is all a shock to me too, Mom.” I patted Noah on the head. “Savanna is home with the agents assigned to his case. They are doing the necessary paperwork so that Noah can live with us from now on.”
She cupped his cheeks and looked into his eyes. “There is no denying this child Colton. My Lord, he looks exactly like you.” She reached over and kissed the top of his head, while still trying to contain her tears. “Would you like some cookies?”
“I’m not supposed to have cookies before lunch.”
Lucy was standing behind me, still in shock. My mother looked toward her. “Well then, I guess we need to feed you lunch first.”
I patted him on the back and whispered in his ear. “You ate an ice cream before lunch.”
He giggled and put his head down. “I won’t tell.”
“Me either Buddy.”
Lucy made Noah a peanut butter and jelly with no crusts. He ate every bite while I explained everything that happened to my mother and Lucy. They were still in shock, but to be honest, so was I. This morning I left the house thinking it was going to be a normal day. I had no idea that somewhere out there I had a child.
Just as I had suspected, my mother accepted Noah immediately. She ran up to her room and got old pictures from when I was his age.
Lucy started feeding him cookies while my mother pulled me to the side. “Son, how is Savanna with all of this?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a second alone with her. She says she is okay with him living with us but, not to be ignorant toward her, I just could never turn my back on my own child.”
“Of course not. I didn’t raise you to be that kind of man. I just think you need to really sit down and find out how she is handling this. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get through. A child is a huge responsibility and with everything my daughter in law had been through this past year, I would say this could be a big breaking point. Don’t get me wrong Colt, I couldn’t be happier for you, but Savanna might not be as okay as she is saying.”