Natalie finished filling out one form from the stack of papers and set it facedown beside her. This was her least favorite aspect of the job. The paper trail. No clients had come in yet this morning, but the incessant ringing of the phone had her nerves jangling. She was glad Amanda was at the front desk taking all the calls; otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten a thing done. Even worse was that she had trouble concentrating; she was already getting excited about the baby. She was starting to wonder if it was a boy or a girl and what he or she would be like.
The phone rang again, and she heard Amanda answer.
“Miss C, call on line one,” Amanda called from the front room.
“Thanks.” She picked up the phone and punched the lit button. “This is Miss C.”
“Its me, Natalie.”
It was only three words, but the tone spoke volumes. “Linn, what’s wrong?”
“Dad kicked me out last night.”
“What? Because you told him about the baby?”
She gave a wry laugh. “Yeah, I told him, but he, like, didn’t take it so good.”
“Where are you? Are you OK?”
“I’m at Kayley’s house, one of the other waitresses at Bubba’s, but I gotta get out of here because her mom’s coming home from work in an hour, and she’d pitch a fit because Kayley’s grounded.”
Natalie ran her fingers through her hair. Linn had said her dad would go ballistic, but Natalie had hoped she was wrong.
“I’m scared, Natalie. I don’t have anywhere to stay, and I only have enough money to spend one night in a hotel. They’re so expensive here, and the bus line doesn’t go to Alpine, and I can’t ride my bike all the way there, since my job’s here—”
“Calm down, Linn. It’s going to be all right.” She tried to inject the same calm assurance that had settled many of her nervous clients down. Could she offer Linn a place to stay? Did she have any choice?
“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to come and pick you up and take you to my house. You can stay there until we figure something else out, OK?”
She heard Linn sniffle, then a round of silence.
“Linn, did you hear me?”
Another sniffle. “Why are you being so nice to me? First you agree to raise my baby for me, now you’re giving me a place to stay. I don’t get it. I don’t have anything to offer you.”
Bless her heart. Natalie’s insides went as soft as freshly baked bread. “Honey, I care about you because God cares about you. I don’t want anything from you. I just want to help you.”
“But why?”
She looked at her watch. “I’d love to explain it to you, but let’s do it later, OK? We need to get you out of there so we don’t get Kayley in trouble. What’s the address?”
Linn told her she was just north of Miller Park, but that she could ride her bike over. “But don’t you have your things, your clothes and everything?”
She said she did, and Natalie insisted on picking her up. She left the center and made the short trip to Kayley’s house. It was a beaten-up shack of a house, with missing shutters and grass growing through the cracks in the sidewalk. Linn came through the door with a giant Shopping bag and a book bag slung on one shoulder. Natalie got out of the car and grabbed the bike off the porch. She patted Linn’s shoulder as they piled the things inside the SUV.
Once they hopped in, Natalie took a good look at Linn. Her face was devoid of makeup, and her hair needed a good washing. Natalie had the urge to take her home and pamper her all day. But that couldn’t happen today. “I’ll take you to the house, but I have to get back to work because I have a client coming in to see me at ten-thirty.”
“I appreciate this. I’m hoping I can find a couple roommates to share someplace cheap with. I’ll start asking around tomorrow at work.”
“We’ll just take one day at a time. I have an extra bedroom, and you won’t be in the way.”
Linn turned her face to the side window, but Natalie could see her lashes blinking rapidly. She pretended not to notice.
They pulled up Rodeo Drive and curved around and up the butte. She depressed the gas to give it enough juice to make it up the incline. After they pulled into the drive, she helped Linn into the house with her meager belongings.
“Help yourself to the fridge and TV, whatever. You can reach me at the center if you need anything. I’ll be home around six-thirty with the boys. You don’t work tonight?”
“No.”
“Good, it’ll give us a chance to talk.” She hugged Linn, noticing the girl hugged back for the first time. Her lips tilted as her heart warmed. “Everything’s going to be OK.”
“Thanks, Natalie. I don’t know how I can ever pay you back.”
Natalie pulled back. “You can take good care of yourself and that baby. Deal?”
Linn nodded.
Throughout the day, Linn was constantly on her mind. When she picked up the boys from her mom’s, she explained that Linn was temporarily staying at her house. The boys were excited, but she saw the concern in her mother’s eyes. Perhaps it wasn’t the ideal situation, but it was necessary, at least for the time being. She could hardly let Linn live on the streets.
When she arrived home and opened the door, a slight aroma of garlic assailed her. She walked through to the kitchen, following Taylor and Alex, who were calling Linn’s name.
“I’m in here,” Linn called.
They entered the dining room, where Linn had covered the table with a tablecloth and set the table.
“Its ready, if you’re hungry,” Linn said.
“Linn. You didn’t have to do all this.”
“I didn’t have anything else to do, and I want to be helpful. I cooked at home all the time. I’m, like, not such a great cook, though.”
Natalie slid her purse off her shoulder and walked into the kitchen. A pot of spaghetti sauce bubbled on the stovetop.
“Yummy, spaghetti!” Alex said.
“Go wash your hands, boys.” Natalie lifted the pot from the stove and poured it over the top of the cooked pasta while Linn removed a pan of garlic toast from the oven. “It smells wonderful.”
As they ate, the conversation was lively, and Linn seemed to bask in the praise from Natalie and the boys. She didn’t know how long Linn would be staying, but it was good to see Linn intended to be helpful while she was here.
After dinner, Linn insisted on loading the dishwasher while Natalie helped Alex with his Lego house. By the time she was finished, she was a whole hour ahead of her usual evening routine. She was glad, since she had a lot to talk about with Linn. There was the housing issue, the health insurance dilemma, and the problem of Kyle. Natalie knew she needed him to be her attorney, but Linn wouldn’t be one bit happy about it.
After she shooed the boys out to the backyard to play hide-and-seek, she poured Linn a glass of root beer and joined her in the living room. Linn’s eyes were glued to the Jeopardy game on TV.
“Thanks,” Linn said when Natalie handed her the soda.
Natalie settled on the opposite end of the couch. “I sent the boys outside so we’d have a few minutes to talk. I’m sorry your dad reacted the way he did.”
Linn shrugged. “I knew he’d get all mad. I just didn’t think he’d toss me out right that minute, though, you know? I thought he’d at least let me work something out.”
Linn went quiet then, and Natalie thought the pain of her father’s act must be hitting home. She tried to put herself in Linn’s place and imagine what it would feel like to have her father wash her hands of her so easily.
“He wanted me to get an abortion.” The words were barely above a whisper. “He would’ve let me stay if I had an abortion.” Linn looked at her then, tears shining in her dark eyes.
Natalie’s stomach clenched. “How did that make you feel?”
Linn’s eyes fixed on Jeopardy again. “I’ve never felt he cared for me. Especially after Jilly’s death. But when he insisted I kill my baby … what’s worse than that? And then to throw me out of the house, pregnant and all.” Linn caught her lip in her teeth as she blinked back tears.
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow, Linn. You can’t change your dad, but you can focus on taking care of yourself and the baby. You’re doing the right thing.”
She nodded. “I know. And I don’t need him anyway. I think it’s better to be away from him.”
It was a sad thing for a girl to feel about her father, but Natalie suspected she might be right. Under the right conditions, she felt Linn could blossom into something special. Her father only filled her with self-doubt and insecurities.
They talked about doctors and health insurance for a while, and Natalie insisted Linn make an appointment with a doctor the next day. They decided to use the obstetrician Natalie had used for Taylor and Alex.
When the medical details were covered, Natalie knew she had to address the other issue. And this one was not going to be easy.
“I wanted to talk to you about the adoption process.” Natalie took a sip from her soda, more to stall than anything else. “I have a book you can read if you want. It cleared up a lot of details for me.”
When Linn expressed an interest, Natalie pulled it from the bookshelf and handed it to Linn. “The first thing I need to do is select an adoption attorney. Unfortunately, I’ve found there’s only one in Jackson Hole.”
Linn flipped through the pages.
“The nearest adoption attorney other than that one is hours away.”
“So use the one here.”
Natalie cleared her throat. “Well, that’s what I was thinking. I really couldn’t drive four hours away every time I had an appointment. I’d miss an entire workday.”
Linn didn’t seem to see the problem. Surely she knew her brother-in-law was an adoption attorney. She was too busy reading snippets from the book to put it together.
“Hey, listen to this,” Linn said. She read a fact about birth mothers that Natalie remembered reading weeks ago.
“There’s all kinds of interesting details in there,” Natalie said. She had to tell Linn about Kyle, and she wished she hadn’t handed Linn that book yet.
“Linn, here’s the thing. That adoption attorney, the only one in Jackson is, well, he’s Kyle Keaton. Your brother-in-law.”
Linn’s head shot up then. “What? You’re not, like, going to use him, are you?”
Natalie didn’t know what to say. Had Linn heard anything she’d just said? Surely she wouldn’t expect Natalie to drive four hours for every appointment just so Kyle wouldn’t be involved. “Linn, I know this must come as a surprise to you. But please take a minute and think about what I’m saying. Kyle is the only attorney in town suited to handle adoptions. The nearest one is—”
“I heard what you said! I don’t want him involved in this!” Linn crossed her arms over her chest, and Natalie thought she looked every bit of the teenager she was.
Her mind spun for ideas, angles that might make a nineteen-year-old pregnant girl with a grudge understand. “I know you have bitter feelings toward Kyle, but—”
“He killed my sister!” Linn’s eyes narrowed stubbornly.
Natalie sighed. This was going even worse than she’d thought. She injected her tone with a measure of patience. “If we’re going to work out all the details of this adoption, we’re going to have to communicate better than this, Linn. Will you please let me finish my thought, and then you can respond, OK?”
Linn only looked back at the TV.
Natalie took her silence as acquiescence. “First of all, I want you to consider—and this is going to be hard—but please, just consider for a moment that maybe Kyle isn’t the monster you believe he is.”
Linn stiffened but still stared at the TV.
“I know you think he killed your sister, but isn’t it possible it was just an accident? A terrible, unthinkable accident? He was driving, and he ran a light. Careless, yes. But murder?”
Linn’s jaw worked, and Natalie knew she was only making her angrier by the moment. But the girl needed to face reality. She’d needed someone to blame for Jilly’s death, and Kyle was the convenient one.
“Kyle was only distracted by the … conversation he was having with your sister. He never meant to—”
“You’ve already met with him.” The accusation was in her voice and her eyes.
“It wasn’t like that. I haven’t formally met with him, but we’ve been talking, and I really think—”
“What are you, like, dating him or something?” She had enough sass in her voice to fill a canyon. “You said you weren’t.”
She gritted her own teeth. Patience, Nat. “No, Linn. I’m not dating him.”
“’Cause he cheated on my sister, you know. He was a two-timing jerk, and I don’t care what you say. He wanted her dead so he could run off with his girlfriend!”
Natalie’s breath caught in her lungs. It wasn’t true, was it? Kyle cheating on his wife? She couldn’t reconcile that with the Kyle she was beginning to know.
“Yeah, he didn’t tell you that part, did he?”
Natalie shifted in her seat and tried to gather her thoughts. This last piece of news had shaken her more than it should. Why did she care so much if Kyle had cheated on his wife? What was it to her? Maybe an overdeveloped sense of righteous anger from a woman who’d been duped by her own husband?
But it wasn’t anger she felt. That yucky feeling curdling in her stomach felt more like supreme disappointment. And there would be only one reason for that. She shrugged off the thought. Regardless of what Kyle had done, she still had no other option for an attorney. Linn was just going to have to adjust to the idea.
“Look, I know you feel Kyle has hurt you and your family. I’m sorry about that. Truly. But I still have no other option. You won’t hardly have to see him, anyway, and he’s offered a huge discount because of the situation—”
“He knows it’s me?” Linn drilled her with a glare.
“No, I haven’t mentioned you by name. He only knows it’s a client of mine.”
Linn snapped her head back toward the TV. “Then why’s he giving you a discount?”
“I guess he supports what we’re trying to do at the center. It’s a substantial discount, and it would really help.”
“Like you need help.” She gestured around the great room. “You’re obviously loaded. You can afford any attorney you want.”
Natalie gave a wry laugh. Linn had no clue. Nothing could be further from the truth. But then she remembered the tiny shack that Linn had lived in with her father. It was only natural that she’d take one look at this place and assume Natalie had it made.
“Don’t let the house fool you. I only have it because my ex-husband owned a bank, and I got it free and clear in the divorce.”
Linn shifted, and Natalie thought she saw something flicker on the girls face. Maybe she was starting to make sense.
“I don’t earn much at the center. If this house weren’t paid off, there’s no way I’d be able to afford it. I don’t have a bunch of money sitting around, and I was really starting to wonder how I would be able to afford the adoption until Kyle offered to do it for less.”
“So, you’re saying if I don’t want you to use Kyle, you’re not going to adopt the baby?”
“Calm down, Linn, that’s not what—”
“That’s how it sounded to me. It sounds like you’re threatening to back out if I don’t go along with what you want!”
“I’m not backing out. I’m only saying we don’t have another option.”
“Well, you’re not the one who holds all the cards. Maybe I don’t want you to have this baby anymore!”
The patio door few open. “Mom, Taylor’s being a big baby!”
Taylor rushed through behind his brother, crying. “Alex is cheating!”
Natalie got up and went to mediate the sibling bickering. If only there were someone to mediate the conversation between her and Linn.