Chapter Forty-Six

Hannah…

I wake the morning after the Christmas festival without feeling sick, which is a miracle, but then I’m snuggled into Roarke, and he’s pretty good medicine. So much so that I don’t want to get out of bed, but I have no choice. Today is festival cleanup, and we have to supervise a hired crew to make it all happen. With that in mind, it’s not long before Roarke and I are dressed in tees, boots, and jeans, ready for a workday, when Jessica and Jason show up, eager to talk about the festival’s massive success and worried about my encounter with my parents.

Considering they’re the only two people who know I’m pregnant, it’s good to share coffee and hear their thoughts. We talk about my parents and all that happened in the past but move on to the festival. “We don’t have the final totals,” Jessica says, “but the money we brought in tops six figures. It’s amazing. The auction was the big ticket. It was huge money.”

We’re all celebrating this news when a truck I don’t recognize pulls up in front of our house. “I’ll see who it is,” Roarke offers, giving me a kiss as he heads out of the kitchen.

Jessica launches into talk about the camp waiting list last night created, but Roarke doesn’t return quickly, which bothers me. His extended departure has me concerned there might be an emergency animal arriving. “Let me go check on him,” I say, hurrying through the house. As I step out onto the porch, I find Roarke talking to my father.

The minute my father’s eyes land on me, his expression softens. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else I can say. I’m sorry. Your mother gave me a thrashing last night and talked some sense into me. She made me see that I’m destroying you and our family. You two, you and Roarke, you’re the new generation. I forget that sometimes. I don’t want to miss out on my daughter’s life or my grandbaby’s. Please don’t let me lose you and that baby.”

I don’t miss how his voice cracks, nor do I miss how bloodshot his eyes are, but it just feels like too little, too late. He could have brought me and Roarke back together. He could have spared us years apart. “You still think Roarke was trying to trick me and use me?”

“No,” he says. “I was just angry and lashing out. Roarke explained the situation with the land. He’s a better man than me, generous. I’m stubborn. I hold grudges. You know this about me.”

“Why would you do something that would hurt the animals, Dad? Why? You know Roarke and his father needed to protect them. They had to protect them.”

He scrubs his jaw and looks away before meeting my stare, his eyes redder now. “I thought we could all become millionaires. I thought I was helping Roarke’s dad get more money to help the animals. His refusal to take the money made no sense to me at the time. I wanted to force him to take it.”

“The animals can’t just be moved,” I say, my voice lifting, “and finding a suitable place is no easy task.”

“Roarke’s father called me Thanksgiving Day,” he says. “I heard what he said. It made sense, but when I found out Roarke was buying the property—”

“For you,” I say. “He told me I could give it to you, but I’m not doing it. We need it for the animals. You have a new life. And you know what? You showed up when you got pissed, but you couldn’t show up for me when I asked you to show up.” I try to turn away.

Roarke catches my arm. “Easy, baby. It’s time to put this behind us. Let’s put it behind us.”

“How can you just let this go, Roarke?” I demand softly. “He hurt us.”

“How about inviting your mother and me in for coffee?” my father asks, and when I glance over at him, he waves behind him. “For your mother. She needs to see you. I’ll make this up to you.”

The door to my parents’ truck opens, and my mother climbs out. The next thing I know, she comes rushing forward. “Hi, honey! Hi!”

“She’s been so upset over these secrets,” my father says, his voice low, taut. “She won’t eat. I’m worried about her. She wanted this out in the open. I fought her on it, but she needs you, Hannah,” he adds. “We need you.”

“You made me think Roarke cheated,” I hiss.

“I was a fool in a desperate, angry mode,” he says. “I didn’t want you with him because of his father. I can’t undo the past, Hannah, but I’m standing here begging for another chance. I’d love to have that coffee with my daughter and her future husband.”

I glance up at Roarke, and he pulls me under his arm, next to him. “Say yes,” he says, when I’m not feeling eager to agree at all. He made me think Roarke cheated. He drove us apart for years. Roarke leans in and whispers, “Life is short, too damn short. Think about Jason’s parents. Think about my father.”

That statement hits me hard, so I do. I think about his father, and I know why Roarke wants me in that headspace. The stroke. It’s about his father’s stroke and suddenly facing reality here; how easily it could have been one of my parents. How easily it still could be one day. “You’re right,” I say to Roarke and nod with my approval. “Yes.”

Roarke’s eyes warm on me, lingering a moment, confirming, I think, that I’m really okay with this. He turns his attention to my father and says, “We’d love to have coffee.”

My mother sobs and then launches herself at me, all but dragging me from Roarke’s arms to pull me into hers.

Half an hour later, it’s not just me and Roarke with my parents but Jessica, Jason, Martha, and Ruth. Somehow, despite all the pain around the island of our kitchen, there’s healing, there’s family. My parents even volunteer to help with the festival cleanup.

Many hours later, Roarke and I stand on our porch watching the sun set on the horizon, his arm around me. “I did coffee, but I don’t know how to just put this thing with my father behind us. I don’t know how to fully forgive him.”

He turns me to face him. “Go slow. Talk to him on the phone. Invite him to the wedding.”

My heart starts racing with that idea. “You want a man who tried to destroy us at the wedding.”

“He’s the only father you will ever have,” he says. “The day you say goodbye to him forever shouldn’t be filled with regrets.”

I swallow hard. “I know. I know. I do. That’s why I let him in for coffee. I’ll get there with him, ironically because of you, the man he treated horribly.”

“We’ll get there together, Han. Together always. This is the end of the day but the beginning of a new family, our family.” He lowers his forehead to mine, and we stand there, just living in the moment, the two of us who will soon be three. And perhaps in that and the reconnection to family, we have more than the hope that deer brought me. We have a holiday miracle.