Keagan asked Jasmyn if she wanted to adjust to the bombshell of information before going to the Casa.
The Casa. Liv and everyone. What would they think? How could she explain things? Her cottage was clean and tidy, maybe even cleared of the borrowed furniture by now. How could she ask them to start over for her? “Should I go to a motel?”
He lifted her suitcase into the back of the van, shut its door, and turned to her. His chin lowered slightly. He waited, as if the answer were obvious.
She understood. “Mama Liv would have a cow.”
“Or at least another heart attack. How about a cup of tea?”
She expected a coffee shop, but he drove them to an out-of-the-way, hole-in-the-wall restaurant not far from the airport. He suggested she bring a sweater as the air was turning cool. She dug the Seaside Village Gym jacket out of her carry-on.
They sat outdoors, the only customers on a tiny white deck, beneath heaters attached to the awning above. Bay water lapped the other side of a low wall with windbreak windows. Their table was one of only a handful. Boats moored to a nearby dock clinked softly. The waiter lit the fat candle inside a clear chimney on their table.
Keagan ordered tea and clam chowder and sourdough rolls for both of them. He winked at her. “No worries. They have to-go cartons.”
“Thanks.”
He nodded. “What can I do for you?”
“I don’t know.” She spread her arms. “This.”
He smiled and every angle on his face softened.
Jasmyn closed her eyes briefly, blocking the sight Keagan always kept under wraps.
Why had she called him and not Sam or Piper? True, they were at work, but—but Inez’s words echoed louder than any coherent thought. When we women need rescue, he always there for us. He is our knight. And she had been—she most definitely had been—in need of a rescue.
Her girlfriends, like Quinn on the phone, would have gone on and on, Oh my gosh and What if this…What if that and What are you going to do? They would not have swooped down in under five minutes and hugged her until she quieted inside and whisked her off to just what she needed, a gentle, peaceful place.
But all of that added up to overload. Not only was there the instant-family bombshell to absorb, there was the hug. The Hug. She added the capital H.
“I don’t have family either,” he said. “I was an only child. When I was twelve, my parents and I were in a car accident. They were killed. My mother’s parents raised me after that. They’ve been gone a long time. There was an uncle at some point. I think he died in upstate New York. I can’t imagine learning, out of the blue, that I have a half sibling who lives down the street.”
Add empathy to the Hug.
“I know. It’s like one of those goofy stories you read about online.”
“And don’t believe.”
“Exactly. What’s beyond discombobulated?”
He chuckled. “A dozen water balloons going splat?”
She smiled. “Right in front of me.”
“Want to tell me the whole goofy story?”
She heard Quinn’s voice again and her own constantly interrupting the words that made absolutely no sense. She needed to put it in some sort of order. The first thing Quinn had said was that Jasmyn had a sister. Jasmyn said that was impossible. Quinn said she didn’t think so. Jasmyn had actually argued with her before she heard anything else.
She looked at Keagan, trying to comprehend how she had gotten from bumping bags in the check-in line to drinking tea and watching the sky turn pink above the hilly peninsula behind Keagan’s shoulder.
“They lived there.” She pointed.
“Point Loma?”
“Yes. The grandfather was a Portuguese fisherman. He caught tuna. It was big business for decades. I read about it when Liv and I went to the Maritime Museum.” She leaned forward. “Now that I think about it, I could have actually seen a photograph of my grandfather there.”
“Your grandfather?”
She straightened. She was chasing so many rabbit trails. “This woman’s grandfather. This maybe-sister of mine, her grandfather.”
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Keagan spoke gently. “Did Quinn meet her?”
“Yes. She walked into the Flying Pig today for a late lunch. Quinn did a double take. Danno did a double take. Mrs. Benson and Mr. Anderson did double takes. Nancy Standard—she was my sixth grade teacher—said, ‘Jasmyn! Holy Moses! When did you get back in town?’ ”
“Hmm.”
“Yeah. Quinn said we could pass for identical twins. No joke. This woman wondered what in the world was going on. Quinn told her about her ‘twin’ and they got to talking. Manda Smith. That’s her name. Manda Smith.” Jasmyn repeated the name slowly, feeling the new sounds in her mouth.
“You must not favor your mom or your grandparents then?”
“No, not at all. They were tall and blond. Mom was beautiful. Gramma called her a loser magnet. It’s not nice to say, but she was.” She scrunched her nose at the memory of the losers her mother dated. It was obvious why Jasmyn had always shied away from men and why she assumed her father was not a man she cared to meet. “I always figured I looked like my dad.” The tears stung again. “Manda said he died last year. It shouldn’t matter. It’s not like I met him or even have a clue if he was my dad.”
Keagan reached across the table and touched her hand briefly. “It matters and you do have clues. Quinn told you more, right?”
She nodded. “He grew up out here, on the water. His grandparents came over from Portugal to fish.” She stopped again. “Keagan, the first time I saw the ocean, I felt like I was home. Like something inside of me got settled.”
He tilted his head, as if he disagreed.
“I know. It’s one of those things no one could believe.”
“It’s not that. I had a friend who went to Scotland once, where her ancestors had come from. She basically said the same thing.”
“Really? Then maybe it’s not my imagination?”
He shrugged.
“Sorry. Another rabbit trail. I can’t focus.”
“It’s okay. What put Manda’s dad in proximity of your mother?”
She took a deep breath. “He was an over-the-road driver. He had his own trucking firm. For a time, he hauled things between here and Chicago. Manda’s a driver too. She and her husband run the company now. They cover the West Coast, but she had always wanted to follow her dad’s old route someday. He kept a detailed log of every town, restaurant, park, and rest stop he was at. So that’s what she was doing in Valley Oaks.”
“It’s in writing that he was in Valley Oaks?”
She shook her head. “He wrote the name of the truck stop on I-80, twenty miles from Valley Oaks. My mom worked there thirty-six years ago. Manda took the exit, but the place is gone. She got back on the interstate, saw the billboard advertising the Flying Pig, and took that exit. I guess she was hungry.”
“And she met Quinn and Danno.”
“Right.”
“Hmm.”
They sat in silence a few moments. Jasmyn picked apart a roll. Keagan dipped his spoon into his bowl of chowder.
“The guy stopped at the place your mother worked. We’re not quite into convincing evidence yet.”
“You never met my mother.”
He eyed her over his spoon.
She was glad not to see judgment. “Mom was eighteen and already had a reputation. It wasn’t a nice one. She pretty much kept it going until she died. People weren’t always accepting of us.”
He lowered his spoon. “I’m sorry.”
“The only thing she ever told me about him was that he was handsome and just passing through town. I should get over it.”
He winced.
“So I did. Old news. Anyway, Quinn and I agree that this guy stopping by where she worked could easily mean she got pregnant with me.”
“Did Quinn tell Manda all of this?”
“No. Goodness, no. She just showed Manda my picture and said she was sure I’d like to meet her. Quinn told her I was in Seaside Village and there was a coffee shop. Manda knew it and agreed to see me there on Friday. She didn’t want to exchange any contact information. At first she was all friendly and jabbered with Quinn about why she was there and where she was from. But the more they talked, she became a little standoffish. Although she gushed over Danno’s sauce.” Jasmyn couldn’t help but smile.
“Maybe you could make it for us sometime.”
“No way. He’s never given the correct recipe to anyone.”
“From what you’ve said, I think you’re special to him. I bet when he retires, he’ll give it to you. What did he think about all this?”
“Quinn said he ducked out while they were still talking and didn’t come back until after Manda had left.” She picked at her roll, shredding it to crumbs on a plate. “She could back out. Not show up at Jitters.”
“Or you could.”
Jasmyn looked at him. “No, I couldn’t. She’s my sister.”
“She’s a set of coincidences.”
Jasmyn shook her head. “Danno went looking for her semi. They don’t exactly fit in our lot. He found it, on a side road, on the edge of town. The road I used to take to the farm.” She wondered now if God had directed where the woman had parked. It was a silly thing. Another coincidence, that thing Liv said rarely happened.
Keagan took her hand, turned it over, and brushed crumbs from the palm. “And Danno saw the name of the trucking firm.”
“Yes. Anibal Cargo, El Cajon, California. A-N-I-B-A-L. He looked it up online. Nice website, he said. It gave the history, how Carlos Anibal got started by delivering his father’s tuna.”
“Then Manda’s story is true.”
“Yeah. The thing is, my mom said she never even knew the guy’s name or where he was from. She said she just picked ‘Annabelle’ out of a name book. She thought it was pretty.”
“Annabelle?”
“My middle name. Coincidence?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”