NICK LOVED WATCHING Kaylan in her element. Her family had her heart, and with her guard down, she loved with all she had. After their morning on the lake, he had noticed a subtle shift in her—less independent and more open with him, like all her walls from Haiti and his abandonment years before had finally crashed to the ground. Her eyes truly revealed her heart, and with her admission, he saw the joy, pain, and occasional fear that flared from time to time.
In true Richards’ fashion the kitchen island held a healthy spread, compliments of Marian, who watched the interaction among her four adult children with pleasure. Scott and David were taking a long lunch break, and Seth had just returned from class. Scott bantered with his sons, his arm slung around his daughter. Pap and Gran watched from the kitchen breakfast nook. The old man motioned to Nick, patting the seat next to him on the bench seats framing the bay windows.
Pap nursed sweet tea, which Nick knew from experience tended to be more sugar and lemon than tea. Gran had the brew down to a science without a recipe. He’d watched her make the tea with practiced hands many times during his stay with this family. Nick sank into the cushion, accepting a glass of tea from Gran before she went to join her daughter around the island.
“How are you doing, young man?”
Nick grinned. “I’m doing well, sir.”
Pap nodded to Kaylan. “It looks like you are keeping my granddaughter happy. Thank you.”
Nick loved the twinkle in Pap’s eye. Despite his stroke, he remained as spunky as ever. “My pleasure. She makes me happy too.”
“Am I hearing wedding bells anytime soon?”
“I guess you will need to talk to her about that.” Nick chuckled, appreciating Pap’s bluntness.
Pap shook his head. “No, sir. You’re the one that has to do the asking. So I’m asking you.”
“I’ve wanted to ask for a while. As of today, I think she’s finally ready.”
“Ah, I see.” Pap turned to look out at the lake and then back at Nick with a cheeky grin on his face. “That lake has always been a magical place to her. I guess it’s only appropriate she came to terms with her feelings out there, as well.”
“She told you what we talked about?”
“No, son, but knowing my Sugar the way I do, it didn’t take me long to figure things out. Now to business.” Pap dropped a large manila-clasped envelope on the table. It made a dull thud as it landed, telling Nick Pap had stuffed it full.
“What’s this?”
Pap folded his hands on the table and leaned closer to Nick. “I know how important it is for you to find your family. So I used some of my connections with the powers that be to find your birth parents. There aren’t many hard facts but a lot of trails. I actually found your dad, but it seems your mom wanted to stay anonymous.”
Nick opened the brackets and removed the bundle. He sorted through some of the sheets until he found what appeared to be a military record with a scanned photo paper clipped to the top. Air Force.
“That’s your father. Airman First Class Thomas Murphy. He worked ground crew at a base in Germany in the 1980s before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He hailed from Kansas City, Kansas. His family owned some cornfields, but he didn’t want to stay in Kansas his whole life. He enlisted at eighteen and accepted the position in Germany at twenty-two. I only discovered your relationship because I had some strings pulled. Perks of being a judge for so long. Friends in strategic places. It was buried in your file. I don’t think your adoptive parents even knew.”
Nick studied the photo, same strong jaw and angled nose, similar dusty blond hair. His blue eyes seemed determined to prove himself, a young kid set to conquer the world. The face staring back at him seemed as foreign as it was familiar. His dad. Biological dad.
“Do you know what happened to him?”
Pap flipped the file to another page and pointed to the bottom. Bullet wound on a day off in the city at the age of twenty-five. Robbery was expected since he was out of uniform. He was sent home to Kansas to be buried, a hero who died too young and unfairly. But death never fought fair.
Nick glanced back up at Pap, who watched him closely, and Nick allowed him a window to his quiet struggle. “I’m not sure what to think or how to feel about all this. Maybe I wasn’t expecting him to be dead. Maybe I never actually thought I would find this. I mean, we share the same blood, but he’s not my dad, you know?”
Pap nodded. “Blood binds us, but it’s not definitive. Family is also a choice, as you well know from growing up with two people who loved you with everything and didn’t share a drop of your DNA. I think it’s okay to have mixed emotions. Pray through it. Sort through it. And put the search to rest.”
“You said there was nothing on my mom? How could she be a ghost? And if my dad was in Germany, how did they meet, and how did I end up here?”
“All good questions. I couldn’t find all those answers. I did find this.” Pap reached across the table to tug another page loose. A birth certificate and a note. Nikolai Sebastian caught his eye. The same name Janus had written on the envelope mailed to his house. The name no one ever used. “You were dropped off at US Mission Berlin, which operated as a sort of embassy in West Berlin during the Cold War. You were passed off to a member of the State Department with a note declaring your father was a member of the United States Air Force. A couple of soldiers volunteered to take you home once they were released. You wound up in the California system before your parents adopted you as a baby. This is a note from a member of the State Department responsible for your relocation.”
He scanned the note.
This baby was left at our doors on May 25, 1984. The note left with the baby said only his name: Nikolai Sebastian, a squadron number, and the name Murphy, with Air Force written next to it. CPS was called, an investigation commenced, and the baby was placed with a couple within a month.
It was signed Mary Statton.
“That’s where the trail ends as far as your mother is concerned.”
Nick looked away. His eyes found Kaylan’s across the room as laughter and jokes reached his ears. He had everything he ever wanted. Yet he still hoped for answers. Maybe some of the men who served with his dad could give him insight into this mystery woman. If his dad died at twenty-five, then Nick had been conceived at least before that. His dad’s buddies would be late forties, early fifties. He could track them down.
He turned his focus back to Pap. “Thank you for taking the time to do this, sir. It means a lot.”
“You’re family now. As good as blood.” Pap winked. “And even if you didn’t make my granddaughter’s face light up, I would still help you out. You aren’t alone, son.”
Nick shook his hand and rose from the table. Joining the family, he dropped his arm around Kaylan’s shoulders, realizing he would officially belong to this family in a matter of time. No matter his own background, his kids would have parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and uncles.
“Gran’s sweet tea give you a stomachache, Hawk?” Micah punched his arm. “You’re turning kinda green.”
“That’s from your company, Bulldog. I turn green in your presence,” Nick joked.
“From jealousy. I knew you would admit it someday.”
“Mark the date, bro,” Seth said as he took a bite of chicken. “It’ll never happen again.”
“Wishful thinking, Mike,” Dave said, pounding his brother on the back.
Micah threw his arm around Dave’s neck. “You know you want to be me too. Get away from that desk job and play with guns and exploding things.”
“The fact that they let you do that just means that they need their heads examined. And I work very well at a desk.”
Micah and Seth both rolled their eyes. “I have no idea how you do that. I’m thankful God gave you the numbers brain and not me,” Seth quipped. “Although football stats are right up my alley.”
“Speaking of . . . ” Kaylan cut through her brothers’ banter. “Y’all gonna give us a good game tomorrow?”
Nick smothered a grin. Kaylan’s accent deepened at home or when she got off the phone in California after talking with her family. He never got enough of that sound.
“Heck, yes. Roll Tide!” Seth held up his glass, and the rest of the family followed suit. He glared at Nick’s silence.
Nick laughed. “I guess I better learn to be a Bama fan.”