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The next morning my eyes popped open as the tantalizing smell of bacon frying and coffee brewing wafted into my bedroom. My first thought was that I must be dreaming, but when I realized I wasn’t, I sat up with a start. When I had gone to sleep last night, I was alone in the house. From the smell of things downstairs, I wasn’t alone anymore.
Mom was still in the hospital, so who was downstairs cooking? After silently panicking for a moment, I grabbed my robe and walked quietly down the stairs, glancing into the kitchen as I reached the bottom. I brought my hairbrush along, just in case I needed a makeshift weapon, although I was aware that most intruders didn’t cook breakfast. Luckily, it wasn’t necessary. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was my father, although I was definitely confused about why he was cooking in our kitchen.
“Good morning.” He turned around and smiled when he heard me walk in. “I hope I didn’t scare you.”
He had, but I certainly wasn’t going to admit it. “Good morning. Did I forget we’d arranged to have breakfast this morning?”
“No, you didn’t forget anything. Your mom gave me the key and suggested I come over and see you. She’s doing well, by the way. Dr. Riddles says she’ll be home by tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? That’s amazing. What a relief!” My father showing up at the hospital had certainly given Mom the strength she needed to keep fighting. I was grateful to him for giving her what I couldn’t. “I’m so glad you’ve been there with her. It’s good for her, you know. Having you back in her life is just what she needed.”
“It’s good for me, too.” He smiled as he dished up eggs and bacon onto two plates, offering one to me as we sat down at the table across from each other.
“This looks delicious. What did I do to deserve you cooking breakfast for me this morning?” I still felt a bit awkward around him, but I knew that time would remedy that. I couldn’t be happier to know that this kind, generous man was my dad.
“You’re my daughter. That’s reason enough. You know, no matter how many times I say it, it still surprises me.” He chuckled softly as he shook his head and began to eat.
“I know the feeling. I went through so much of my life alone. These days, it seems I’m never alone. I think having so many people who love me will take some getting used to.” It was all a bit overwhelming, all these new relationships in my life.
“Your mom thought it would be a good idea for us to have some time alone, to talk.”
“Did you want to talk about anything specific?” I shoveled a forkful of eggs into my mouth, curious about the real reason he was here this morning. I knew there was more to it than cooking breakfast for me.
“As a matter of fact, yes. I have something important to ask you. But first, there’s something I need to show you.”
“Okay, what is it?” I was definitely curious now.
He went into the kitchen and picked up a large box I hadn’t noticed before. He carried it into the dining room and placed it on the floor in front of me.
“Open it,” he prompted.
I gently lifted the lid, and inside the box were piles of letters. I looked questioningly at my father, but he simply nodded, motioning for me to open one. I lifted the first one out of the box and slowly opened the envelope with trembling fingers. Somehow, even though I had no idea what the letters contained, I knew they were important. I began reading. It was a letter written to my mother, dated five years after I was born.
In the letter, my father wrote about his life. He shared stories; common, everyday things that weren’t of any real importance. He talked about the salmon he caught that day, what he planned to eat for dinner, and the fact that it had been a busy day at the store. It concluded with him telling my mother how much he loved her.
Curiously, I reached inside and grabbed another letter. It was very similar to the first, but was dated two years after the previous one. I began grabbing letters quickly, opening them, inspecting the dates, and skimming the written words. They were all some variation of the same thing. There was nothing groundbreaking; no earth-shattering information was found on the pages. It was just my father’s thoughts on an ordinary day in time. I didn’t understand.
“What is this?”
“You said you read the letters I sent to your mother when we were in high school, and I thought maybe you would want to see the rest of them.”
“The rest of them?”
“Yes, Hope. I started out writing a letter to your mother each year on the anniversary of the day we met. Even after our relationship ended, I never stopped loving her. Since I couldn’t tell her, I had to do something. So I wrote her letters, then I put them in this box. If you count them all, you’ll find much more than twenty-nine, even though that’s how many anniversaries there have been. You see, there was so much I wanted to tell her that I would often write more than one a year. Some years were especially hard, so you’ll find one written nearly every day.”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My father loved my mother so much that he’d continued communicating with her even after they were no longer together. The topic on which he wrote was never important; he just wanted to share his life with her in the only way he knew how. I wondered if he’d shown Mom these letters yet. The depth of their love continued to amaze me.
My father cleared his throat. “Now I have something to ask you.”
“What’s that?” I had a feeling I knew the question even before he asked it.
“How would you feel if your mother and I got married?” His voice quivered with nervousness, and I thought it was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard.
“I would feel like it’s long past due.” I smiled at my dad, who appeared relieved at my answer.
“Oh, thank goodness.” He exhaled loudly. “I was hoping that’s what you’d say!”
I cleared my throat, nervous about what I needed to say. “Now, I have something to ask you.”
“Ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
“Well, my whole life I’ve known you as Will. Now that I know the truth, calling you that just doesn’t feel right. Would you mind if I called you Dad?” I swallowed hard.
His eyes brimmed with tears. “I would be honored. I don’t think there’s anything I’d like to hear more.”
I stood up and hugged him, the whole situation feeling a bit surreal to me. I knew this was yet another life-altering event that would take some getting used to.
“When’s the big day, Dad?” I tested out the word, which felt a bit foreign on my tongue. I knew with time I would get used to it.
“Well, I wanted to do it tomorrow, but your mother shot that idea down right away. It can’t happen soon enough for me. I’ve wanted to be Maggie’s husband since I was a kid.” Dad rattled on, talking quickly and animatedly about his upcoming nuptials. He certainly didn’t have cold feet about getting married. “But your mother wants to wait until she’s stronger and feeling more like herself, so that’s what we’ll do.”
“Whenever it happens, you both have my blessing and all of my love.” I squeezed his hand, so amazed at the little twists and turns of life.
We ate the rest of our breakfast while Dad chatted on and on about the wedding plans. When we finished, we cleaned up the mess and washed the dishes. We straightened up the rest of the house together too, knowing Mom would be home tomorrow and would expect to find it spotless. It was nice to have his help. Being able to count on another human being was something to which I was still adjusting, but it was a nice idea to get used to.
“I’m going to head back to the hospital. Your Mom will be wondering how our little talk went. She was a little bit nervous about telling you, I think.” Dad smiled sheepishly, and it was easy for me to picture the young man he once was.
“Well, you can assure her that I couldn’t be happier. Let her know I’ll swing by tonight and see her.” I hugged him good-bye and he returned to the hospital.
My parents were getting married. What a strange idea! As a romance author, I made a living writing about the concept that true love conquers all, but it was an entirely different thing to see it played out in real life with my own parents. Perhaps there was some truth to the idea that two people who were meant to be together couldn’t be kept apart. Maybe real love didn’t only live inside the pages of a romance novel.
That thought always brought me back to Sam. As a naïve girl, I’d believed that he was my true love. Even after everything that happened, a small part of me still held on to that belief. In spite of my pain and fear, I wanted the fairy-tale ending with him. But with all the problems we kept encountering, I honestly didn’t know if it would ever happen.
One thing was certain—I knew I still needed to explain my situation with Jonathan. He needed to hear the truth. If nothing else came of it, I wanted Sam to know I loved him. He was probably upset that I hadn’t told him I was married sooner. Granted, I should have. Right before we kissed in his kitchen would have been the ideal time, but I had other things on my mind then. Now, I knew I had to find a way to convince him to hear me out; he needed to know that very soon Jonathan wouldn’t be my husband anymore. Find Sam. Tell him you love him. You’ll never be free until you do. Jonathan’s parting words echoed again in my brain.
I walked next door, determined to talk to him before I lost my nerve. I knew if I waited, I would back out. Instead of Sam answering the door, though, it was June. My heart sank.
“June, hello.” I hadn’t seen her in weeks, and I’d missed her. But for the first time since I’d met her, I felt awkward. My guilty conscience gnawed at me because of the horrible thoughts I’d had toward her daughter. Learning that Annie had died in childbirth completely changed my perspective.
“Hello, Hope. Please come in.” June motioned for me to enter, but I hesitated, momentarily losing my nerve to talk to Sam. “I’m the only one who’s here at the moment, if that’s what you’re worried about. Bridget is at her friend’s house, and Sam is out on the boat.”
June always had a sixth sense when it came to saying the right thing to me. I appreciated her kindness, and I’d come to cherish her friendship. I didn’t want there to be any difficulty between us, no matter what had transpired between Sam and me.
“All right, thanks for inviting me in.” I followed her into the kitchen, and took the seat she offered at the table.
“Would you like some tea? I’ve found that when you’re a bit unsettled, there’s nothing like a cup of tea to set things right.” She smiled at me, but didn’t wait for my answer. She was already filling the teakettle. I nodded and she joined me at the table while the water heated.
“You know, this misunderstanding between you and Sam has gone on long enough. You need to find a way to fix it.” June went straight to the heart of the matter, and I was a bit surprised that she knew about Sam and me. I hadn’t ever confided in her that we were involved, and I couldn’t imagine that he had talked to his almost mother-in-law about his feelings for me. Maybe Annie had told her the story at some point.
“I’ve tried, but it seems like one thing after another always happens. You don’t understand. It’s like fate is determined to keep us apart.” I shrugged in frustration.
“Nothing can keep two people apart if they really belong together, Hope. And I just might understand more than you know.” She patted my hand in her calming way. “Sometimes in life you have to fight the hardest for the things that mean the most.”
“You know, I can’t believe you’re trying to help Sam and me get together. After all, Annie was your daughter. I know you must have loved her very much. I don’t understand why you would want him with me.”
“Hope, I love Sam like he’s my own son. He’s a good man, and a fantastic father. Why do I want you two together? Because he deserves happiness, and so does my granddaughter. You would make them both very happy. Why wouldn’t I want that?” June placed her hand over mine and looked me directly in the eyes. I was shocked when I saw nothing there but sincerity.
“I know you have a kind heart, June, but it must bother you to think of Sam with someone else. I don’t think you know the whole story.”
“I know all of it, every last sordid detail. I know things about my daughter that no mother should ever have to know. But I’ve learned to come to terms with it all, in time.” June had a faraway look, and I wondered if she was picturing her daughter.
She took a deep breath and continued speaking. “Annie was a wild girl. I knew that better than anyone. When she told me she was pregnant, I honestly wasn’t surprised. I did my best with her, but she had a mind of her own from the beginning. I was glad to learn that Sam was the father, though. When I met him, I knew right away that he was a good boy, and I knew he would someday grow into a good man. I was right about that.”
“Yes, there’s no one else like him.” I spoke quietly.
“Right before Annie went into labor she told me the whole story, the real story. She said that she’d made a terrible mistake and wanted to fix it. She broke down in tears and confided in me that the night she and Sam were together, well, this is hard for a mother to say about her daughter....” She stopped and appeared to be wrestling with whether or not she should continue.
“Go on, June, please go on.” I grabbed her hand.
“After you and Sam fought at the beach that night, he went into town. Annie said she and her friend came up with a plan to make you angry with him in the hopes that you would break up with him. Apparently, it worked. Annie followed him to the grocery store, and she said that his eyes were red and swollen. She said she could tell that he’d been crying. As you well know, Annie had had a crush on Sam for years, and she saw this as her big chance. She asked him if he wanted to talk about it, and he was so upset that he said yes. Maybe he thought if he could get another girl’s perspective on the argument he would have a better chance to win you back. I don’t know his reason for going with her that night.”
My stomach tightened with nervousness. I’d never heard this story before, and I’d always wondered exactly what happened. “What then?”
“Well, somehow Annie got her hands on some alcohol that night and they went to the beach together. Long story short, they got drunk and Annie took advantage of that fact. I’m not saying that he didn’t know what he was doing, but I do believe he wasn’t in his right mind when he did it. A few weeks later, she found out she was pregnant. I think you know the rest.” June finished her story with a sigh.
My mind reeled with all the new information it was attempting to process. Since that horrible night, I’d envisioned every possible scenario of what might have happened between Sam and Annie. I’d pictured each sordid image in my mind over and over again; I’d tortured myself with the thoughts. But in my wildest imagination, I never thought of this one. Sam had been drunk, or at the very least, impaired, when he slept with Annie.
If he was upset enough to confide in Annie after our fight, he was probably distraught enough to drink with her. It didn’t change the fact that they slept together, but somehow it made the situation easier for me to take. It was a relief in some ways to know that he didn’t make a sober, conscious decision, which was what I’d always believed.
“I didn’t know any of that. I imagined it all quite differently, to be honest.” I began to understand that nothing seemed to be the way I thought it was.
“I’m aware that you didn’t know. I’ve always believed that the only reason Annie told me the truth when she went into labor was that she knew she wasn’t going to make it through.” June looked me in the eye as she spoke the next words. “I think she understood that she was going to die, Hope. And she wanted to do the right thing, finally.”
June’s words chilled me to the bone. Had Annie known that she was going to die giving birth to Bridget? It seemed a bit far-fetched, but stranger things have happened. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“Yes, I know it is. But there’s more, and this is the part I really want you to hear.”
I swallowed nervously, wondering what revelations could possibly be left.
June continued. “Right before she died, Annie made me promise that I would find a way to get you and Sam back together. She knew how much Sam loved you, and she also knew she’d acted underhandedly to get what she wanted. She hoped to make amends somehow. I promised her I’d try, but I didn’t even know who you were back then. I only learned about you when Sam and Bridget moved back here and I met your mother. When you came back to Woodridge, I knew that was my chance to honor my daughter’s wishes. I didn’t know how I was going to go about it, but then you and Bridget took to each other right away. It all fell into place without me lifting a finger.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The Annie I knew never thought of anyone other than herself. Why would she care if Sam and I were happy? Had pregnancy really changed her that much?
“June, are you telling me that Annie’s dying wish was that Sam and I would end up together? That seems a bit melodramatic, don’t you think?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Hope. You can call it whatever you want to. Annie told me that Bridget needed a mother, and the only person she wanted in that role was you. She said Bridget was the child you and Sam might have had together, and she was sorry she got in the way of that. She wanted you to be Bridget’s mother if she couldn’t be.” June was crying now and my heart went out to her. It must have been so difficult for her to dredge up all those painful memories about her daughter.
“I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do, June.” I was crying myself at that point, and grabbed a napkin off the table to wipe the tears away.
“I know exactly what you need to do. You and Sam belong together. You know it, he knows it, and Annie knew it. I think Bridget knew it too, from the first time she met you. It’s up to you to make it happen. Remember, when two people are meant to be together, nothing on earth can keep them apart. Find Sam. Tell him you love him.” June’s words mirrored Jonathan’s, and I realized I needed to listen to them.
“You’re right. It all makes sense to me now.” I jumped up from the chair, and wrapped my arms around her. “I need to find Sam. Where is he?”
“He went out on the boat early this morning. He should be coming in to port soon.” She gripped my hand tightly in hers. “Go to him, Hope. Help me make Annie’s wish come true.”
“I will. Thank you.”
