by Joanna Sims
Liam tried to stop moving his leg up in down while they waited, but finally gave up. He wanted to be on the back end of this; he wanted Callie to be his daughter, legally and forever. When their case was called, all four of them moved to the table. Liam poured himself a glass of water, drank it and then poured another.
“Relax, Dad.” Kate was now the one who appeared to be more at peace.
Judge Ackredge, a heavyset man with thick jowls, rounded nose and thick glasses, addressed the court, “We’ll go on the record. This is docket 841-FA-029. Counsel.”
When the judge wasn’t in his robes, Charlie Ackredge was one of Liam’s father’s hunting and fishing buddies; it was nice to have a familiar face on the bench during the adoption hearing.
Brad stood for a second to address the judge. “Thank you, Your Honor. Brad Williams representing the petitioners.”
The judge swore them in so they could proceed. Under the table, Liam held on to Kate’s hand with a sweaty palm.
“Please answer the questions regarding the petition for adoption loud enough for the judge to hear.” Brad took out the petition and turned to the signature page.
“Is the signature on the petition yours?”
“Yes.”
“Were the facts in this petition true when you signed it?”
“Yes.”
“Is the adult you want to adopt named Calico Kathryn King?”
“Yes.”
The questions continued, one by one.
“Have you entered into a legal marriage with Kathryn Julia King?”
“Yes.” Liam squeezed Kate’s hand.
“Would you like there to be a name change?”
Liam looked at Callie to make sure she still wanted to become a Brand. Once Callie realized that her mother’s name was Brand, she wanted to be a Brand, as well.
“Yes. Her name is Calico Kathryn King Brand.”
It was a strong name; it was a good name.
Brad covered Liam’s employment and his ability to support Callie, as well as letting him know that if the adoption was granted, that he would have the same rights and responsibilities as a parent or legal guardian. Which was exactly what he wanted.
The attorney then questioned Kate, asking her if she approved of the adoption by her husband of her daughter.
“Yes.” Kate had tears in her eyes as she held on to his hand with both hands. “Yes, I do.”
Next the attorney turned to Callie.
“Hi, Callie.”
“Hi.”
“I asked you earlier if it was okay if I asked you a few questions. Is it still okay?”
Callie nodded.
“Please say ‘yes’ if it’s okay Callie,” Brad prompted.
“Yes.”
“Do you know why you’re here, Callie?”
“To be adopted.”
“And what does adoption mean to you?”
“I-it means that I’m going to b-be a part of the B-Brand family.”
Brad nodded. “That’s all I have, Your Honor.”
Judge Ackredge took over the proceeding while Liam had to hold back tears. The last time he had cried was the day his divorce was final. This was a much better reason to have tears in his eyes.
“I have a properly completed petition for adoption for one adult. Based on the testimony I will enter a judgment of adoption today that will establish the same relationship between the dependent adult and the parent as if they had been born to the adoptive parent. Congratulations.”
And that was that. After months of preparation and discussions and meetings with his attorney, Callie was his daughter.
“Congratulations.” Brad shook his hand and then shook Kate’s hand.
“Thank you so much,” Kate said as she wiped tears from her cheeks. “For everything.”
“It was my pleasure.” The attorney gathered his belongings. “Congratulations, Callie.”
Callie Brand ducked her head and giggled. “Thank you.”
Outside the courthouse, Liam felt like a king. He was a husband to Kate and a father to Callie. Life was just about perfect.
“Brand family hug!” Liam opened his arms wide.
Kate and Callie stepped into his arms, and they all hugged each other.
After they broke the hug, Liam addressed his daughter. He put his hands on her shoulders.
“You’re my daughter now, Callie. Forever.”
His daughter rewarded him with a wide smile.
“You can’t call me Dr. Brand anymore,” he told her. “What do you want to call me?”
“I—I don’t know.”
Kate put her arm around Callie’s shoulder. “You already have a ‘Daddy.’ How about if you call Liam ‘Dad’?”
Callie threw herself back into his arms and hugged him. “Dad.”
For the last hour, Liam had been holding back tears. When Callie called him “Dad,” he didn’t even try to hold them back any longer.
Kate wrapped her arms around both of them for a second group hug. She caught Liam’s eyes and mouthed, Thank you.
“We’re a family,” Liam said as they headed back to the truck. “Now and for the rest of our lives.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Are you all packed?” Kate stood in the doorway of her daughter’s room.
This was a day that Kate had been dreading; this was the day that she flew with Callie to San Diego. Liam had offered to travel with them, but she felt that this was something she needed to do on her own. Perhaps it didn’t seem like a monumental step for her from the outside looking in; for her, this was a rite of passage for Callie. Her daughter had never been out of state for a day, much less two weeks, without her.
“I—I’m ready to go!” Callie pulled her heavy suitcase off her bed, and it hit the ground with a thud.
“You aren’t going there forever, Callie,” Kate reminded her daughter. “You’re coming back in two weeks.”
“I—I know. I—I need to have options.”
That made Kate laugh. “Fair enough, kiddo.”
Callie had certainly packed options; Kate had been with her daughter to make sure she had packed all essentials, while her fashionista daughter had focused on her wardrobe. Wherever Callie had gotten her sense of style, it hadn’t come from Kate.
Callie happily wheeled her suitcase out of the room, past her mother and stopped at the door.
“All right.” Kate grabbed her keys off the counter. “Let’s go before I lose my nerve.”
They would be flying to San Diego with one stop in Salt Lake City. It would take them nearly four hours of fly time and six hours total. Callie didn’t like to fly, which hadn’t dampened her enthusiasm for the trip...yet. It would, though. Liam insisted on buying first-class seats in order to make the trip easier on the both of them. She resisted in the beginning, but couldn’t deny his logic after a couple rounds of discussions between them. Having the extra room, having Callie close to a bathroom, would make the trip go much more smoothly overall.
“Are you all checked in?” Liam asked her when she called him from the airport.
“All checked in,” she confirmed. “Callie’s anxiety has already started to crack through her excitement.”
“Just be careful. I believe in you and I believe in Callie.”
They exchanged I-love-yous, and then soon after that phone call, first class was given priority boarding onto the plane. Normally Kate liked to be one of the last on the plane—she wasn’t a fan of flying either. But today she took advantage of the perk and used the extra time to get Callie settled in the seat next to the window.
By the time all passengers had boarded, Callie had a ginger ale, called Tony before Kate showed her how to put her phone in airplane mode, and accepted a pillow and blanket from the steward. Callie was snuggled beneath her blank
et, looking out the window, when the cabin door was slammed shut. Her daughter jumped, her face registering that familiar panic.
Kate reached for her daughter’s hand. “We’re going to push back from the gate, Callie. First we’ll get in line at the runway for takeoff.”
“And then we take off.”
“Just close your eyes and hold on to my hand, kiddo. Think about how happy you’ll be when you see Tony at the airport.”
This garnered a small, nervous smile from Callie. “I—I can do it, Mommy.”
“Calico, I know you can.”
* * *
We are here.
Kate sent a text to Liam the moment they landed in San Diego. She had to admit to herself that she had underestimated her daughter. Callie was growing up, and she was highly motivated to see Tony, and this new maturity and motivation made the trip go much easier than Kate had imagined.
“Do you see them?” Callie had asked this question several times as they deplaned.
“Are we at baggage claim yet?”
“No.”
“Where are they going to pick us up?”
“B-baggage claim.”
“So, what do you think?”
Callie giggled at herself. “They’re at b-baggage claim!”
And they were at baggage claim; Tony, his mother and his father were all awaiting their arrival. Tony was armed with balloons, flowers and a large stuffed bear.
“Hi,” Kate greeted Tony’s parents while Callie hugged her boyfriend.
Tottie ignored her offered hand and hugged her; she smelled sweet, like candy. Tony Sr. refrained from hugging her, for which she was grateful.
“Callie!” Kate called out to her daughter who was kissing Tony right there in baggage claim. “You need to come and watch out for your bag.”
“Young love,” Tottie said, her body language saying that she was just as uncomfortable as she was about the kissing in public.
Kate was lucky to get a flight back to Bozeman within a couple hours of landing. The Salvianos took her out for an early dinner, which gave her an opportunity to go over Callie’s health concerns and diet restrictions. Tony and Callie sat at a separate table; every now and again, Kate would watch her daughter sitting with her boyfriend. It was hard to admit, it was hard to process, but she could easily see that Tony was smitten with Callie.
The return trip was a tiring, long and lonely event for Kate. She had never left her daughter in another state with virtual strangers. Every fiber of her being railed against it. Yet it’s what she had to do. She had to let Callie go. All her life, she had told Callie that she could do anything, be anything. Now those chickens had come home to roost, because her daughter was putting those words into action.
She had a heavy heart when she landed in Bozeman, feeling so worn down that she thought about taking a nap in her truck before making the trip home. Kate sent Liam a text the moment the plane landed; he answered back that he would see her when she got home.
“Hello, Mrs. Brand.”
Kate was startled when she heard her husband’s voice where she hadn’t expected to hear it. There, leaning against a pillar just outside the airport entrance, was Liam.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, but didn’t wait for him to answer before she threw her arms around him and buried her head in his chest.
“Waiting for my lovely wife.” He ran his hand gently over her hair, holding her tight.
Unbidden, tears that she had been holding back for hours, days, weeks, poured out of her eyes and onto his shirt.
“It’s okay,” Liam said quietly. “Everything is going to be okay. Let’s go home.”
Liam had gotten his brother to drop him off at the airport so he could drive her back to the Triple K. It was, by far, the sweetest, and to her, the most romantic gesture a man had ever made to her.
In the passenger seat, Kate leaned back, closed her eyes and periodically wiped the tears off her cheeks.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
“I knew this was going to be a tough one for you.” Liam shifted into gear and started the journey home.
Kate opened her eyes, put her hand on his leg. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, baby. This is part of my job.”
* * *
It had been only two days since he had picked Kate up from the airport, and now he was back to pick up his daughter Sarah. It took some doing, some negotiating with her mother, but eventually his ex approved the unscheduled trip. Liam suspected that his teenage daughter, who took after the Brand side of her family, was making her mother’s life hell.
“Hi, Dad.” Sarah had her bangs in her eyes and a mopey look on her face.
“Hi.” He hugged her tightly even though she tried to resist. “I’m glad to see you.”
They gathered her bags and headed out. Liam tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to pry some sort of conversation out of his daughter. There was one subject she did want to talk to him about.
“I want to stay at Sugar Creek.”
“We’ll visit.” He told her the same thing he told her on the phone. “But I don’t live there anymore, Sarah. I live at Triple K Ranch. With my wife.”
That stopped all communication until he turned into the long winding drive that led to the Triple K homestead.
“Look at this place, Sarah. As far as the eye can see. You can ride for miles and never find a fence.”
Sarah stared out the passenger window. “It’s not as pretty as Sugar Creek.”
“Sugar Creek is God’s country,” Liam agreed. “But so is Triple K.”
* * *
“She hates me,” Kate whispered while they were brushing their teeth. It was her idea to bring Sarah on their stay-at-home honeymoon, but it was a suggestion that she seriously regretted. From the moment Sarah arrived at the Triple K, the teenager was a nonstop stream of complaints, “remember when Mom and you did” comments and negativity aimed at everything Triple K Ranch.
Liam didn’t deny it because he couldn’t deny it.
Her husband spit toothpaste into the sink, and turned on the water to rinse out his mouth and wash the toothpaste down the drain.
“She acts like she hates you. But I don’t think she does. Not really.”
Sarah was bunking in Callie’s room; already she had complaints about the mattress and the low ceilings and the fact that there wasn’t a bathroom attached.
“No,” she argued. “She really hates me. It’s like she’s been waiting for you to get back together with her mom, even though her mom is remarried, and I’ve come along and screwed everything up!”
Kate yanked back the covers, frustrated. She punched her pillows with her fist, then got into bed, kicking her feet to loosen the sheets tucked in tightly at the end of the mattress.
Liam joined her in bed. It was the first time since they had married that they were disagreeing. It didn’t feel good.
“I’m telling you, I know Sarah. She doesn’t hate you. She’s angry with me, she’s angry with her mother...”
“And I’m an easy target,” Kate snapped. “Does she even know that I’m the reason she’s here? That I wanted her to be with us on our honeymoon?”
“I’ve told her, baby.” Liam turned off the light to signal he was ready to go to bed.
Still sitting upright, and annoyed Liam was shutting her down by shutting off the light, Kate stared into the darkened room.
“Hey...” Her husband touched her arm. “Come on. Lay down. She’s only been here for one night.”
Kate looked at Liam. She was tired, he was tired. Maybe she should just drop the conversation and see what the next day would bring.
She scooted down in bed, flipped away from him so her back was to him and pulled the covers over her shoulder.
“Hey...” Liam leaned over for his good-night kiss. “Where are you.”
“I’m right here.” Kate turned her head enough to accept the kiss.
Liam gave her a quick kiss and then lay back down. “Good night, baby. I love you.”
“Good night.”
Then, after a minute of silence, she added, “I love you, too.”
* * *
The Triple K was a big enough ranch for both of them. This was what Kate thought after she left the house after breakfast, with a still moody and unhappy Sarah sitting at the kitchen table. The only thing she could do, the only thing she had control over, was work. There were horses to train, so she decided to get to it.
A beautiful Friesian, a muscular, coal black horse with feathered hooves, had been delivered to the Triple K for training. Kate had been itching to take him for a ride, but first she wanted to earn his respect on the ground.
“Come on, Solomon.” Kate led the powerful gelding out of his stall.
She started working with Solomon in the round pen, without a halter or bridle. Kate stood in the center of the ring, putting the Friesian through his paces. First she had him walk, then trot, and then canter to the left and then to the right.
“Good boy.” She walked up beside him, gave him a treat from her pocket and then moved him forward by swinging the rope in the direction of his hindquarters.
“Who’s this?” Liam asked, hanging over the top rail of the round pen.
“Solomon,” Kate said, not taking her eyes off the gelding trotting around the edge of the pen. “Isn’t he spectacular?”
“He certainly is,” her husband agreed. “I’ve got to run into town, get a couple of things from the store. Sarah doesn’t want to come with me. Is it okay with you if she stays here?”
Honestly, she wished Sarah would go with her father. But that wasn’t realistic. She had invited her stepdaughter to the ranch to get to know her—Kate was the adult, and it was her job to break through the attitude and connect with Sarah. She couldn’t do that if she was always sending her off with Liam.