Hope for Tomorrow

by Elizabeth Maddrey

  “Peacock Hill.”

  “Peacock Hill instead of a church for the ceremony. The photos and drawings you’ve sent are so lovely. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It is a pity that there aren’t actual peacocks running around on the grounds. Have you talked to the owner about that at all?”

  Azure snickered. “Deidre is firmly anti-peacock. I’m sorry. You’re right that it would be fun to have the namesake bird around, but she’s fixated on who ends up having to clean up the poop.”

  “Well yes, that would be a concern. Still. Maybe I’ll try talking to her when we come out.” Skye’s mother smiled and her gaze drifted down to Indigo. “Things are going well with you and Wingfeather?”

  Indigo’s smile was tight. “Of course. You two should come down some weekend and see the co-op market.”

  Morgan tilted his head and studied Indigo. Something was off there. Did her siblings and parents not notice it? He pushed the concern away. It wasn’t his burden to carry. He’d just met the woman. It wasn’t like he could guarantee he was reading her correctly.

  “Oh, I’d like that. I’ll call you later and we’ll work out details. Skye, give your brother my love.”

  “Which one?” Royal poked his head around so he was visible to the camera and grinned.

  “Cyan, of course. You already know you’re my favorite.” Skye’s mother winked. “I need to go see what your father’s doing—there’s banging and that’s never good.”

  The woman disappeared, and the box where she’d been displayed winked out. Azure and Indigo followed quickly. Skye let out a heavy breath and handed the tablet to Royal. “I guess that went as well as it was ever going to.”

  Royal arched an eyebrow. “You think? Especially when you throw in that you’re a Jesus freak now too?”

  Skye crossed her arms. “What have I done that lands me in freak territory?”

  “All right. That’s true.” Royal frowned. “You should have told me.”

  “So you could start calling me names sooner?”

  “No. Because maybe I have questions and I’d like someone to talk to about them.”

  Skye blinked.

  Morgan clapped Royal on the shoulder. “If you’d rather talk to a guy, my door’s always open.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Hundred percent. We should get to the main house if we’re expecting to eat. It’s probably bad form to be the ones holding up a wedding reception.”

  Skye jolted. “Oh gosh. What must they think?”

  “I don’t think we’re that late. They were having some pictures taken by one of the women at Betsy’s—grandma’s—church. It’s still weird.”

  Skye looked over at her brother as they walked. “What is?”

  “The whole grandma and grandpa thing. They’re not what Dad said they were.”

  “No. They really aren’t.”

  Royal nodded. “So if he was wrong about that, maybe he was wrong about the God thing, too.”

  Morgan wove his fingers through Skye’s as they walked. It was good to see God tangibly answering the many prayers Betsy and Wayne had said for their grandchildren. It gave him hope that God would answer his own prayers for Skye’s health the same way.

  13

  Skye looked over at Royal. He was fussing with the camera again. They’d both gotten an email the night before letting them know their DNA testing kit results were in. She’d wanted to open them right away, then do the video later, but Royal insisted they do it all on camera the first time. Which meant waiting for better natural light. Once her brother dug in on something, there was no budging him.

  Actually, they were all kind of that way.

  “Aren’t you ready yet?” Skye shifted on the rock where she sat and drummed on the screen of her phone.

  “Nearly. Just . . . give it a second. You’re sure it’s okay for me to tag along with you tomorrow on your road trip?”

  “Okay? Yes. More than. I’m almost looking forward to it now.”

  “I thought you’d be over the moon to have your appointment at Mayo finally.” Royal leaned away from the camera, glanced between Skye and the screen a few times, then nodded and came to sit beside her on the rock. “It’s been what, a month?”

  “About that. And I am glad, but it’s not like there’s a guarantee they’ll know what it is. What if they don’t? What if I spend all this time and there’s still nothing they can do for me? Or, worse, what if it’s something terrible?” These were the questions that had circled her mind since they’d called with her appointment time the day after Cyan’s wedding. In that month, she’d watched the wildflowers bloom in the meadows, hiked and ridden horses with her brothers, her grandparents and, whenever possible, Morgan. She’d taken over some of the camp scheduling and liaison duties for her grandparents as well. With leaving for Mayo and the uncertainty of that looming, Skye hadn’t felt like getting a job in town was the best plan, so her grandparents had handed over some work to keep her busy.

  She’d loved it.

  And it had seemed like—just maybe—it was helping them take some of the load off their shoulders.

  “I don’t have answers to any of that.” Royal stared off toward the mountains looming in the distance. “Have you been praying about it?”

  “What’s that now?”

  “Praying. But I think you heard me.”

  “I did. I’m just . . .”

  “Stunned? Amazed? Surprised?”

  Skye looked at her twin brother and smiled. “Pick one.”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve been talking to Morgan. And Cyan. And Granddad. I mean, really, it’s not like you have to look far to find someone who wants to talk to you about Jesus around here.”

  She fought to stifle a chuckle. It was true. The people at Hope Ranch seemed to ooze Jesus. Nothing about their faith was put on or stilted. It was simply an expression of how they lived and their love for Him seemed to be reflected in everything. It was beautiful and scary at the same time, because Skye wasn’t sure she’d ever reach a point where openness about her faith was as easy as her grandparents made it look. “And?”

  “And it makes sense. No one here is anything like the weirdoes on TV shaking their fingers at people who don’t measure up. And I haven’t found in the Bible Morgan gave me any indication that that’s how we’re supposed to be.”

  We’re. She bumped her brother’s shoulder and grinned. “When?”

  “Last week.” His cheeks flamed red. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”

  Skye nodded. “I get that. Look how long it took me. But don’t be like me, okay? We’re not supposed to hide our light.”

  “Granddad said something like that the other day.” Royal looked at the video camera. “I’m still thinking about how that’s going to translate to my channel. I don’t want to lose all my viewers. And sponsors. But some of them probably have to go. It’s a lot to process.”

  “You don’t have to do it overnight.” Skye rubbed his arm. “I’ll help however I can. Now. Let’s get this done. I’m dying to see the results.”

  Royal grinned and hit the remote to start the camera. He did an intro before glancing at Skye. “You haven’t peeked?”

  “Scout’s honor.” Skye raised her hand.

  Royal snorted. “You were never a Scout, but I’ll take it. It’s a pretty straightforward website. So we log in and look. You want to do ancestry first?”

  Skye tapped on her phone and nodded. “Sure. Oh cool.”

  Royal leaned so he could see before pulling up the website on his phone and turning it around to the camera. “They have a color coded map. That is cool. Are ours the same?”

  They spent the next several minutes going through categories and comparing the results. Since she and her brother were, obviously, fraternal twins, Skye hadn’t anticipated that everything would be identical, but there were plenty of surprises.

  She frowned as a red notification dot appeared. Skye elbowed Royal and pointed. “What’s that?”

&n
bsp; “Dunno. Tap it and see.”

  When she’d filled out the form to register her kit, Skye had opted in to everything they asked about without paying a ton of attention. Now, she realized she’d agreed to let the website show relative matches. “It’s a match to someone else who’s done a kit. But who?”

  “No clue. I asked everyone before we did this if they had. What’s it say?”

  Skye read the notice. Then went back and read it again. “It’s gotta be a glitch of some kind. Does that happen?”

  Royal jumped up and ran to the camera. He fiddled with buttons and planted his hands on his hips. “I’m editing that last thing off. You can’t accuse my biggest sponsor right now of a glitch. Seriously, Skye, I’m glad we weren’t live.”

  She winced. He’d talked about doing the reveal live. Skye wasn’t sure why he changed his mind, but she was grateful now. She handed him her phone. “Don’t you have the same notice?”

  “Maybe, but . . . that can’t be right.”

  “See?”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” Royal chewed on his lower lip and stared at Skye. “We need to go see Cyan.”

  “What? Why?” Royal was already striding in the direction of Cyan’s house. Skye stood and tried to hurry after him, but a wave of dizziness hit her and she slipped to her knees. “Hold up!”

  Royal turned and jogged back to where she knelt on the ground holding her head. “You okay?”

  “No. I know better than to stand up like that. Give me a second.” Skye swallowed and focused on her breathing. Sometimes it helped slow her pounding heart. After several minutes, she reached for Royal’s hand. “Help me up, would you?”

  “Yeah.” He took her hand and pulled as she slowly rose. “You okay?”

  “Not really, but if we’re not sprinting, I can walk. It’s not like our half-sibling is going anywhere.”

  Royal shook his head. “It’s a glitch. Or you’ve been hacked. Something.”

  “Check your account, Royal.”

  He shook his head again, a stubborn set to his mouth.

  With a sigh, Skye trailed after her brother. Arguing wasn’t going to change his mind. It was better to go along and let things take their natural course. Still, she didn’t see how it could be a mistake. This company had basically one thing they did—DNA. If they were showing a sibling match, even a partial one, then that meant she had another sibling out there somewhere.

  And that her father was a liar and a cheat.

  “What are you going to do?” Morgan set two glasses of iced tea on the banged up coffee table that took up the center of his cabin and settled next to Skye on the sofa. He slipped his arm around her shoulders.

  Skye snuggled closer and finally let go of the tension that had held her body captive since this afternoon. “I don’t know. Ignore it, I guess.”

  “What about this other person—sister you said?”

  “Half sister. Possibly. It could still be wrong.” Cyan had looked like he’d been hit with a brick when they’d barged into his house. He’d all but promised there was no way for it to be wrong. And yet . . . Skye found herself alternating between resigned acceptance and absolute denial.

  “Skye, honey.”

  She closed her eyes as his gentle voice popped the bubble of fantasy she was trying to construct. Tears burned her eyes. “I know. I do. But I don’t know how to reconcile it. This is my dad we’re talking about. He’s not a bad person. How could he do this to my mom? To us? When did he do it?”

  “Some of those answers you can find.” Morgan glanced at her phone. “Wouldn’t it tell you her age and any other details?”

  The initial screen had shown only the name and city of the match. But it had been clickable. A few web searches suggested that if Skye were to click it would show more details, including any personal message the person might have left. It would also force Skye to admit it could be real. She gave a hesitant nod.

  “So?”

  Skye bit her lip. Royal had disappeared. That was his way of dealing with news he didn’t like. Cyan had kicked them out of his cabin and buried himself in his work. Betsy and Wayne had sensed something was off, but hadn’t pushed when Skye brushed them off. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Does it let the person know that you’ve viewed the information?”

  She shook her head. At least, not according to the websites she’d read.

  “What do you have to lose?”

  “Nothing that isn’t already gone.” Like respect for her father. The knowledge that she’d come from a solid, if non-traditional family. She leaned forward to get her phone. Should she?

  “It’s going to eat at you. This, at least, is something you can control. And maybe, once you know, you can figure out how you start processing it.”

  Skye nodded, but her brain rejected the words. Processing? Like it was something she was going to be able to come to terms with? Still, it wasn’t as if knowing the details was going to make it worse. Was it?

  “I’m here. But if you decide you don’t want to—or can’t—look, that’s fine too. We can put in a DVD and call it a night.” Morgan rubbed her shoulder.

  “You’re right. I’m better off knowing. Probably. Maybe. I mean, I think I was better off before I knew there was something to know. But now . . . I might as well have the full picture.” At least she could start to unravel when her father had betrayed the family. She pulled up the website, her finger hovering over the link. She took another deep breath and slowly let it out. “Here goes.”

  Morgan leaned in and Skye angled the screen so he could also see. “You’re twenty four?”

  Skye nodded. Her half-sister—and from the image the woman had set as her profile, there was no denying the family resemblance—was twenty six. Two years older than Skye and Royal. One year older than Indigo. Two years younger than Cyan, which meant four years younger than Azure. The woman was smack in the middle of their family. “So much for the idea that this person—this sibling—was some sort of youthful indiscretion Dad made before meeting, or at least getting serious, with Mom.”

  “I’m sorry.” Morgan rubbed her arm again. The repetitive motion should have been annoying, but it was comforting. He just sat, his body giving her warmth and support, saying nothing.

  Skye continued to read. This woman, Jade Clarke, had grown up in Colorado. Her mother recently died from advanced cancer and now she was looking for family connections to see if there was a genetic history of the disease on both sides. It was as good a reason as any for the disruption she had to know was possible.

  “Why did you check the box about relatives?” His voice broke the silence and Skye jolted.

  Why had she? “I guess I thought there might be distant relations from my mom’s side of things. She’s always been so close-mouthed about her family. Not like Dad, who took every opportunity to trash his parents. Mom has always said she’s an only child, but she never mentioned her parents having siblings. For that matter, I don’t know anything about Betsy and Wayne in that respect. Are there great-aunts or great-uncles we could get to know? Why?”

  “I just wondered. My family is so loud and connected, I don’t think it would ever have occurred to me to tick that box. I know everyone there is to know. Probably have met them at least twice and still get Christmas cards and phone calls from half of them.”

  “That must be nice.”

  He smiled. “It has its moments on both ends of the scale. Then there’s Aunt Glenda, who is, if I’m remembering correctly, my Dad’s uncle’s step-sister. She’s into genealogy and will talk the ears off anyone who gets too close about everyone who ever breathed near a branch of our family tree.”

  Skye laughed and she clicked off her phone. “That sounds fun.”

  “Can be. I think she has one branch back to Charlemagne.”

  “Seriously? That’s . . . a long time.”

  “Apparently it’s easy if you can hit a royal line.” Morgan shrugged. “Doesn’t get me anything o
ther than a fun fact to throw into conversations now and then.”

  “Still.”

  Silence settled in the room for another several heartbeats before Morgan spoke again, “What will you do now?”

  Skye swallowed. It was exactly the question she didn’t want to face. Especially when she was supposed to be spending time with her parents this weekend on her way to Phoenix. Was Royal even going with her now? She’d have to track him down and find out. Right after she figured out if that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

  “I guess I’m going to have to do a lot of praying between now and when I show up at their house.”

  “Oh. Right.” He sucked in a breath and shifted to take her hand. “Why don’t we do that now?”

  Skye’s jaw dropped and she quickly snapped it shut. “You’d do that?”

  “Of course.” He leaned close and kissed her lightly. “I love you.”

  Skye swallowed and stared into his eyes, blood pounding in her ears.

  “Let’s pray.”

  She could only stare as Morgan closed his eyes and lowered his forehead to hers as he began to pray for wisdom, peace, and clarity.

  He loved her? They’d known each other six weeks. And sure, they’d been spending time together every day, but still. He said he loved her. There was nothing “of course” about that.

  And it was just one more thing she was going to figure out how to handle.

  14

  Morgan glanced in the rearview mirror at Royal. Skye’s twin brother was slouched in the back of the truck, ear buds in, scowling out the window like a petulant teenager. Royal had tried to get out of coming, but Skye had insisted he call their parents and explain why. He’d refused. Since Skye had doubled down—and hadn’t that been a fascinating experience to see just how stubborn the woman he loved could be—Royal had grown surly. But he was here.

  Morgan’s gaze darted over to Skye. He hadn’t meant to tell her he loved her last night. It just happened. It wasn’t a lie, but if she’d heard him, she hadn’t given him any indication. Did that mean she didn’t feel the same way?