Hot enough to melt the fillings right out of your teeth, the day matched Katie Sara’s mood perfectly. Mean and nasty. The quick trip to the police station to take care of the paperwork had eaten up almost two hours, and the person who’d installed the air conditioning system there deserved to be locked up.
A cool shower had helped, at least momentarily. She stepped out, wrapping a towel around her hair and drying off as best she could. In this humidity, dry was relative. Tossing on a pair of cut-offs and a white T-shirt, she decided to let her hair air-dry.
The doorbell rang.
Fear and adrenalin pumped through her, unavoidable and unstoppable, a reaction to last night. Stupid, stupid, stupid. None of those boys would bother her again.
Reiner? It could be him, and he might be even more of a problem. He had the ability to break her heart beyond repair. In truth, he’d already done so.
Could she pretend she wasn’t here? Hope he’d go away?
The buzzer rang again.
Shoot. She finger-combed her hair and skipped down the stairs. She’d be polite but firm. She’d tell him she was sorry, but he’d have to go. Katie Sara said a quick prayer that she could stick to her guns.
Steeling herself, jaw set, eyes defiant, she yanked open the door, then blinked and readjusted her gaze lower. And she knew.
A young boy stared back at her. After several eons passed, he asked, “Are you K. S. McMichaels?”
She wet her lips. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
“I’m Danny. Are you my birth mother?”
Staring into forest green eyes, eyes identical to her own, into a younger version of Reiner’s face, she couldn’t draw air. She clutched the screen door so hard it cut into her fingers.
Her son. His name was Danny, and he was beautiful.
He was here.
She couldn’t speak.
“Well, are you?” Belligerence shot through the green.
With great effort, she said, “Yes, Danny, I believe I am.” She opened the door wider. “Why don’t you come in? Please.”
So stiff, she thought. Mother and son. Strangers. As the young boy stepped past, her chin trembled, and the first tears gathered. She fought them, but still they clouded her vision.
How did he think of her? With hurt? Disdain? Hatred? But if that, would he have come here to find her? Curiosity was a potent drug. Her son had apparently caved to it. Or did he have a reason for running away? Had his adoptive parents abused him in some way?
He dropped a backpack on the floor and turned to her.
“I don’t know what to say.” She held out her hands. “I’ve dreamt of this so many times. Now you’re here, and I’m dumbstruck.”
“Why didn’t you want me?”
“Why didn’t I—” His words cut her to the bone. “Oh, no! I did!” She took his hand, and he let her. “Danny, I was very young when you were born. I didn’t think I could take care of you, give you what you needed. I gave you up for adoption, not because I didn’t love you, but because I did.”
“You didn’t hate me?”
“Hate you? Oh, honey, I loved you from the very instant I knew you existed.”
Jaw set, he stared silently at her, looking oh, so much like his father. She could almost see his mind working. Finally, he said, “Okay.”
That simple.
“What does K. S. stand for?”
“Katherine Sara. Everyone calls me Katie Sara, though.”
“Is that what I should call you? Or should I call you Ms. McMichaels?”
“Katie Sara will be fine.” Not Mom, never Mom. But she smiled and blinked again, losing the battle of the tears. “I’m sorry,” she sniffed.
“It’s okay.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “You’re a girl. They do that stuff all the time.”
She laughed through her tears. “I guess so.” She hesitated. “Do you think maybe I could hug you?” Her voice broke.
“Yeah, I guess it would be okay.” His own eyes misted.
She pulled him to her and hugged him tightly, thankful when he hugged her back. By all rights, this child should hate her with a passion. Yet here he was in her arms.
Temporarily. She had to remember that.
Drawing back, she asked, “Your mom and dad. They’re nice?”
He grinned. “They’re the greatest. My dad takes me to ballgames and fishing. Me and my mom do lots of stuff, too.”
“They’re good to you?”
“Yeah!”
“I met them, you know.”
“You did?”
“Before...before you were born. I wanted to be sure— They seemed like wonderful people.”
“They are.”
“How did you get here?”
“I took a bus. I walked here from the station.”
“A bus.”
“Yeah, I’ve been saving up for an iPod, but I bought a bus ticket instead.”
She bit her lip, thinking how frightened his parents must be right now, unsure where their child was, whether or not he was safe.
“Danny, we have to call your parents.”
“They’re gonna be mad.”
“I’m sure they will be, but they’re bound to be crazy with worry. You need to talk to them. Tell them where you are. That you’re okay. Trust me. Your mom and dad have to be frantic wondering if you’re all right.”
She gave him a glass of milk and an Oreo, then the two sat together with the phone. Slowly, he entered the number. The reality of what he’d done hit home, and he was none too anxious to face his parents.
Katie Sara was adamant. “You can’t let them suffer another minute, Danny.”
The phone was answered instantly. She figured they’d been sitting practically on top of it, praying for this call.
“Mom, it’s me.” Katie Sara heard a woman’s voice, then some crying on the other end. Danny listened, his lip trembling. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but—” He raised those big green eyes to hers.
“Tell her where you are,” she mouthed.
“Dad?”
Katie Sara heard a male voice now on the other end.
“Dad, I’m okay. Nobody hurt me. I left by myself. Tommy and me—”
She couldn’t make out the other side of the conversation.
“I know Tommy’s in Disneyworld. But before he left, we made some phone calls. It’s a long story, but I’m in Paradox.”
He listened. “Yeah.” He nodded. “I’m with her.” His young face twisted, torn in two. “Yeah, I’ll put her on the phone.”
Katie Sara took the phone from Danny. “Hello?”
“What the hell do you think you’re pulling? You agreed to no contact.”
“I didn’t contact—” She hesitated. “I didn’t contact your son. He showed up at my door this afternoon. I have no idea how he found me.”
“Right! Just out of the blue!”
“Yes, sir. Out of the blue.”
Danny took the phone from her. “Dad, she didn’t know anything about it. I found a letter that Mom wrote a long time ago. That’s how Tommy and I figured out where she lived. Don’t blame her.” He paused. “Please.”
She heard the man’s deep rumble again. Danny handed her the phone again.
“We’re coming to get him. We should be there inside two hours.”
Katie Sara swallowed. “We’ll be here.” She gave him directions and hung up. “Are you hungry, Danny?”
“Starving. I’m sorry. They’re really mad, aren’t they?”
“Mostly scared, I think. They’ll be okay.”
“Did I get you in trouble?”
She shook her head and went into the kitchen, Danny and Chia trailing her. While she made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Danny teased Chia with a paper streamer. Katie Sara wasn’t sure which of the two was having the better time.
A slight breeze had kicked up, cooling it off slightly.
“Inside or out?” she asked.
“Outside.”
Settled in her peaceful backyard, the scent of flowers soothing her, she asked the question that nagged at her. “How did you find me?”
“At the end of last school year, next year’s language arts teacher gave us a summer assignment. We had to write our autobiographies and bring them with us on the first day of school. I was hounding Mom for information, so she finally told me there was a box up in the attic with some stuff in it that might help.”
He took a huge bite of his sandwich and washed it down with milk. “Anyway, tucked inside an old Winnie the Pooh book she used to read to me, I found a letter addressed to K. S. McMichaels. Me and Tommy wondered why Mom never sent it, you know?”
When he looked at her, she nodded, then tore another shred from her own sandwich.
“It was a letter my mom wrote to you.”
“To me?” She straightened in surprise.
“Yeah, thanking you for me, you know. Telling you what a wonderful gift you’d given her and my dad.”
In that instance, any doubts about the parents she’d chosen for her child vanished. They cherished him, a gift not taken for granted.
“Why do you think she didn’t mail it to you?”
“She didn’t need to. It was like a diary for her.”
“Oh. Maybe Tommy and I shouldn’t have read it if it was private.”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to talk to her about that.”
“Anyway, then I had your name and Paradox, but it was a different street.”
“It would have been my mother’s address.”
He nodded. “Yeah, probably. You still lived at home then?”
“Kind of,” she said. No sense going into all that.
“Tommy and me went to the library and started looking for K. S. McMichaels in the phone book. We eliminated the guys. We called one K.S. while Tommy’s parents were at work, but she was really, really old. I asked, and she said she was sixty, not that it was any of my business. We crossed her off the list.”
Katie Sara sat in awe of this child who’d worked so hard, put so much thought into the process of finding her. An eleven-year-old so logical, so persevering. So Reiner. Genetics was indeed powerful stuff.
“We figured we’d struck out. Then I called Paradox information and they had a new listing for K. S. McMichaels, and I knew. I didn’t call. When Tommy left with his parents and his dorky little sister yesterday for Disneyworld, I decided to come find you.”
Because he looked slightly the worse for wear after the bus trip and the walk in the humid heat, Katie Sara suggested Danny take a quick shower before his folks arrived. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for her to change, either.
Ten minutes later, dressed in pale pink capris and a button-up blouse, she left her room, worrying that she had nothing to serve the Wellners if a snack seemed apropos after they arrived. What exactly was the correct etiquette for this situation? She didn’t remember ever reading about this one in Dear Abby.
From the hallway, she heard water running in the guest bath. Danny, the child she and Reiner had created, stood in that shower. Her leaden heart melted away, leaving a feather-light one in its place to dance an Irish jig. Hadn’t she prayed for this moment? Dreamed about it? However the day turned out, she’d take it and thank the gods.
She and the Wellners could deal with the situation. She and Reiner could deal with their issues later. For this moment in time, she’d enjoy Danny.
Scampering down the stairs, she hummed an upbeat melody. The sun shone through the windows as she dug through her fridge for an appropriate snack.
Head in the crisper, she suddenly knew she was being watched. Oblivious, Chia wrapped himself around her legs, hoping for something, anything to eat.
“I’m all cleaned up.”
Butt-end first. Great way to present herself to her son.
Crouched, she turned to stare into those eyes so identical to her own. Both she and Danny blinked.
He giggled. “I always wondered how come I had green eyes.”
When Katie Sara heard the car pull up out front, her hands grew sweaty. She’d only met the Wellners once, twelve years ago. At the time, they’d been introduced to her as Barbara and Bryce, she to them as Katie Sara. No last names were exchanged.
Her mother had a snit fit over it, but because Katie Sara had turned eighteen before the baby’d been born she no longer needed her mother’s permission. Since it had been a private adoption, she’d been able to meet the prospective parents.
Because they’d wanted the baby so badly, the Wellners had agreed. On Katie Sara’s part, she’d agreed never to contact her son. She did give permission, however, for him to find her when he was of-age if he wanted.
Apparently, he’d wanted to—and hadn’t wanted to wait.
Danny answered the door. He threw himself into his mom’s arms, gave her a hug and a kiss, then turned to hug his dad.
Katie Sara’s own eyes misted as she watched their tears of happiness.
“Okay, son, get your backpack. We’re going home.” Danny’s father stood with only one foot inside the house.
“But don’t you want to meet Katie Sara?” Danny asked.
“We’ve already met.” Mr. Wellner’s voice was brusque.
“Bryce, we discussed this on the way here.” Barbara Wellner stepped around her husband and extended her hand. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Katie Sara took it in her own. “Yes, it is. I want to thank you. For everything.”
“I think we’re the ones who should be doing the thanking,” Barbara said. “Bryce, come in and close the door.”
Turning back to Katie Sara, she asked, “May we sit down?”
“Yes, of course. You had a long trip. Would you like something to drink? Some coffee? Iced tea?”
“Iced tea would be great.” Barbara looked at her husband. “For both of us.”
“Why don’t you come back to the family room? I think we’ll be more comfortable there.”
“I don’t—”
“Bryce.”
Danny curled up in a rocker, Chia on his lap, purring at top volume, as the adults arranged themselves around the room. He explained to his parents how he’d found the letter his real mom had written, and how he and Tommy had tracked Katie Sara to Paradox and Wedgewood Way.
Barbara smiled. “The letter. I wrote that so long ago. Danny’s made our life so much richer, more complete. I can’t imagine it without him.”
Thoughtfully, she sipped her tea. “We’ve always been right up-front with him about the fact that he was adopted. That we chose him. Obviously, this is something he needed to do. I love him, and I know he loves me. If he feels a need to know you, then we shouldn’t stop it.”
She turned toward her husband and reached for his hand. He nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry I was such a bear when we got here. I was so worried. So—”
“I don’t blame you,” Katie Sara said. “You had every right to be. You had to have been half out of your mind.”
They chatted some more, shared stories about Danny, with him chiming in to embellish or disavow, depending on the situation.
Katie Sara couldn’t have been happier. Danny’s adopted family was everything she had hoped for when she’d signed the papers. Right then and there, she thanked both God for the gift her child had been given and the two wonderful people who had taken her son into their home and made him their own.
Danny’s parents stared at each other in that special form of non-verbal communication married people seem so good at.
“We’ve decided to stay overnight in Paradox,” Bryce said. “It’s late to start back now, and we noticed a motel on the outskirts of town.”
“The Hilltop,” Katie Sara said.
He nodded. “Barbara and I are going to go have dinner. Danny, you can come with us, or you can stay here for another hour or so with Katie Sara. Either way is fine with us.”
“You sure?” Danny looked from his mother to his father and received nods from both. “Then I’d like to stay here.”
Katie Sara’s heart sang too loudly for her to dwell on the hint of regret that flitted across Mr. Wellner’s face. But before she could take them up on this wonderful offer, she had one more confession to make. One more favor to ask.
“Danny, I wonder if you’d feed Chia? His bowl is by the sink. The food’s in the pantry. He probably needs fresh water, too.”
“Cool.” The two were off in a flash.
Danny might not have recognized the ploy, but the Wellners did.
“What’s up?” Bryce asked, the moment Danny was out of earshot.
Katie Sara fidgeted, knitting and unknitting her fingers. “I have to tell you something. Something I should have told you twelve years ago.”
She saw fear on their faces and held up a hand. “Wait. Please. I lied about Danny’s dad. When I said I didn’t know who his father was.” Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips. “I lied because I didn’t tell him. I want you to know Danny was conceived in love, that it wasn’t some tawdry backseat thing.”
“After we met you, we were almost certain that was the case,” Bryce said.
Katie Sara’s gaze flew to his. “Thank you.” She played with her fingers some more. “The thing is, Danny’s father is in Paradox now.” She blew out her breath. “Should he meet him?”
“Have you told him yet he has a son?” Bryce asked.
She shook her head.
“And you’d be willing to do that?” he asked.
“Yes. I think if meeting me meant so much to Danny, he’ll always wonder about his dad.”
Barbara and Bryce, holding hands, looked at each other, then both nodded. “I think you’re right,” Barbara said. “He’d still have a puzzle piece missing.”
“What’s his father’s name?” Bryce asked.
“Reiner Broderick.”
Bryce’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “The quarterback?”