His Lost and Found Family

by Sarah M. Anderson

  “I want to show you the new childcare center they added last year,” Lark said in a too-bright tone. “When Grace gets stronger, you can bring her here.”

  “And I had to wear a linen pantsuit for that, huh?”

  “Come on.” Lark all but dragged her out of the car and into the TCC. Skye hadn’t really been in here. She’d come for dinners with her parents, but the TCC was an old boy’s club in every possible sense of the word. Her father was a longtime member.

  Lark led Skye into what was unmistakably a childcare center. Toy stations and rainbow colors decorated a room with pint-size tables and chairs. “Wow, when did this happen?”

  “Last year. After they started admitting women,” Lark said.

  “Wait—they admit women now? How long was I gone?”

  Lark smirked. “Pretty long. Come on.” She led Skye down a long hall. “Check this out,” she said in that too-bright tone again. She opened the door and basically shoved Skye through it.

  “Surprise!” a crowd of women all shouted together. And it was quite a crowd. Gloria Holt was there, along with Julie Kingston and a few other people Skye recognized from the hospital.

  “It’s your baby shower,” Gloria said, grinning from ear to ear as she led Skye to a chair at the front of the room. “Well, baby shower and welcome-home party.”

  Skye took in all the people. She saw Megan Maguire. “Goodness, you look wonderful, Skye! Did Jake fix your hair?”

  Skye’s cheeks colored. “He’s getting better.”

  Megan grinned. “He gets any better, and I’m going to hire him to groom dogs!”

  Julie Kingston came up to them. Skye almost didn’t recognize her, since she was wearing a nice outfit instead of scrubs. “Hi, Julie,” Skye said, putting on a nice smile.

  “Hey, you remember my name! That’s great,” Julie said. “How are you doing?”

  “Better. I’ve been able to spend some time with Grace—Lark’s still taking care of her,” Skye said. “But it turns out that I’m currently perfectly suited to lie on the floor and play with a baby.”

  Julie nodded knowingly. “I’m so glad you’ve got Lark. She’s a great nurse.” Lark blushed under the weight of the compliment.

  “We’ll have to get together soon, maybe for coffee?” That’d be good, Skye decided. She could slowly ease back into the Royal, Texas, social circle one coffee date at a time.

  Julie paused. “Oh. Well, I’m actually not sure how much longer I’m going to be here.”

  “What?” Lark asked, sounding truly shocked. “But you’re terrific at your job and...I really like working with you. I’d hate to lose your friendship.”

  Julie gave Lark a weak smile. “I know, Lark. But...well, things change. We’d still be friends, though—just because I’m somewhere else doesn’t mean we can’t keep in touch. I just don’t know how I’m going to break it to Lucas.” When Skye blinked at her, she added, “Dr. Wakefield.”

  “Well,” Lark said, “if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

  “Thanks, I will. Now if you’ll excuse me.” Julie went over to the punch bowl and seemed to study it.

  “Skye,” Lark said, leading a slender woman with brown hair over to where Skye sat, “this is Stella Daniels, our acting mayor. She’s done an amazing job getting this town back on its feet.”

  “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Skye,” Stella said, giving her a politician’s handshake. “We can’t tell you how glad we are that you’re on the road to recovery. I couldn’t help but feel that your fate and the town’s fate were intertwined. If you can come back from that storm, so can Royal!”

  A handful of other women applauded.

  “Thank you,” Skye said, feeling more than a little awkward. She tried to grin, but the noise in the room was much louder than she was used to and everyone was looking at her.

  “Let’s open the presents,” Gloria announced. She was clearly having the time of her life, showing pictures of Grace to anyone who’d stand still long enough to look at them. “Then we have cake and punch!”

  “Um...” Skye said. Presents? She realized that this must be how Lark had always felt—the focus of attention, but unsure of what to do or say.

  And where was her mother? Surely Vera Taylor would come to her own daughter’s baby shower.

  Wouldn’t she?

  Skye took a breath, hoping the throbbing in her head would ease. Maybe her mother was just...running late or something. And in the meantime, Skye was here with all these wonderful women who’d gone to so much trouble to throw her a party. She could do this. And once she did it, she could go home. So she dug deep for her old-fashioned manners. “Thank you so much, everyone,” she said. “This is such a thoughtful gesture. We can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for us.”

  The guests beamed, so she figured that was the right thing to say. Lark started piling beautifully wrapped presents onto her lap and Gloria sat next to her, dutifully recording every gift and giver in order.

  And once Skye got going, it was actually fun. She hadn’t done a single thing to get ready for Grace. The cute little onesies, the adorable blankets—even the diaper cake was new and precious. Skye let herself get swept up in the excitement, oohing and aahing over every darling outfit.

  This was what she’d wanted. The little swimmer diapers? She wanted to take Grace to a pool this summer and splash in the water with her. The adorable sun hats and sunglasses? Perfect for playing in the yard. And the stroller? Walking would be good for both of them. She could see it now—Grace bundled up in the cute dresses, strapped into the stroller with her hat on, Jake and Skye taking turns pushing her as they walked.

  There was so much she wanted to do with her baby—things that she had forgotten, along with everything else. But for the first time, it began to feel like it was possible.

  A couple of times, the door opened and an older man would stick his head in, see the mass of women and baby things, and back out of the room pretty quickly. “Some of the older members haven’t adjusted to women being allowed into the club,” Stella explained.

  “When’s that going to change?” Megan wanted to know.

  “Well,” Stella said, standing. “This is as good a time as any to announce that I’ve just been asked to be a member of the TCC.” The group burst into applause. “I’ll be inducted along with Colby Richardson. He’s already a member of the Dallas branch but this makes his Royal membership official.” She positively beamed. “Aaron—that’s Aaron Nichols, my fiancé,” she explained to Skye. “Aaron and I will be staying in Royal. He’s going to open a branch office of his company.”

  “How wonderful, Stella!” Gloria said. “Does that mean you’ll stay on as mayor?”

  Stella grinned. “At least until the next election!”

  Everyone laughed in a good-natured way. But then Paige Richardson said, “Actually, I think Colby will be returning to Dallas soon.”

  Megan gasped. “Oh, Paige—really?”

  Paige dropped her gaze. “He’s been such a big help,” she admitted. “But...he’s got a business to run...”

  Skye was confused. Was Paige talking about her husband leaving town? No, wait—had there been two Richardson boys? They’d been older than she was. She couldn’t remember.

  Then Gloria cut the cake and Lark passed out slices and the group fell back into easy conversation. As exhausted as she was, Skye was glad she’d come. Yes, she was tired and yes, she couldn’t wait to burn this pantsuit, but this was a community of people who were there when you needed them. She and Jake had left this behind and had been on their own for years, which had been exhilarating but also...scary. There’d been no one to fall back on when the going got rough.

  This was better. Warm, comfortable. Maybe she and Jake would stay. This was the kind of place to raise
a family—and raise them right. No more Taylor/Holt feuding.

  The moment the thought crossed her mind, the door opened again.

  “What is this?” a voice boomed and Tyrone Taylor walked into the room, his wife trailing behind him.

  The room fell silent. “Ladies, this is the Texas Cattleman’s Club, not a...”

  Then he saw Skye, a plate of cake balanced on her knee and baby things in a pile next to her. “Oh,” Tyrone said, all the wind taken right out of his sails. “There’s my girl,” he added in an even louder voice.

  “Mom! Dad! I didn’t think...” Lark went to greet her parents. She seemed to realize that the whole room was listening.

  “Yes,” Vera said, giving Lark air kisses on her cheeks. “We just finished dinner and...thought we’d drop by.” She leaned back and appraised Lark’s outfit, then sighed wearily. “I suppose that’s better than those horrid scrubs you wear...” she said with a dismissive flick of her wrist.

  Then she headed for Skye. “Did you have a lovely party, dear?” She stroked Skye’s hair. “Where is your ring? I assumed you’d married that Holt boy.”

  “I did. We are married,” Skye said, her cheeks getting hot. That Holt boy? “His name is Jake.”

  “Mom, Skye lost the ring in the storm,” Lark said quickly.

  “And he hasn’t gotten you another one?” Vera tsked several times. “I see you at least had the good sense to wear that pantsuit.” The room was quieter than church on Sunday. “Next week, we’ll go shopping for some proper things,” Vera went on. She leaned down, her voice dropping to an almost whisper. “I’m sure we can find something that suits your figure somewhere.”

  “That’s quite enough of that, Vera,” Gloria said, bustling up. “Cake?” she asked, thrusting out a plate of cake with pink frosting.

  “Heavens, no. Don’t you know what that will do to a figure? Well,” Vera simpered, giving Gloria a cutting look, “I guess you would.”

  The silence was so sharp it could have cut glass.

  “Ah,” Tyrone said. “We’ll let you get back to your little party. You take care, sweetie.” He winked at Skye.

  Humiliation burned her cheeks. Too little, too late, she thought. “Yeah, okay. Thanks for stopping in,” she forced herself to say as if the plan all along had been for her parents to show up and belittle the entire baby shower.

  After they showed themselves out, the women stood around in awkward silence. There were no more gifts to open, and no one seemed to be in the mood for seconds of cake.

  “Well,” Lark announced, “I think I need to get Skye home.”

  That was enough to get Julie and the nurses talking about how Skye needed to be sure not to overdo it in these first days home. Soon enough, Skye was back in Lark’s car, a plate of cake for Jake in her lap. Gloria had promised to load up all the baby things, wash everything and deliver it all tomorrow afternoon, along with the typed list of gifts. Skye gathered that was part of making sure she didn’t overdo it.

  When they were safely in the car, Skye asked, “Were Mom and Dad always that bad?”

  Lark sighed. “No, not to you. To me, yeah.”

  “God, and I never caught on.” Skye felt stupid.

  Lark shook her head. “Mom can be very subtle when she wants. When we were growing up, I think you looked so much like she used to that at first she liked you better, but then...” She shrugged. “Sometimes it feels like she’s competing with you. She doesn’t do that with me. But I guess it’s because she thinks I’m such a lost cause it’s no competition to begin with.”

  Skye gaped at her sister. “Really? That—that makes a lot of sense, actually.” It would explain that victorious grin at seeing Skye in this stupid pantsuit. “I thought—when you made me put this thing on—I thought we were going out to dinner with them.”

  “They...they had plans, Skye. But they were able to stop by.”

  “You’re making excuses for them,” she told Lark. “Don’t do that. They were horrible tonight and we both know it. What I want to know is, did they come see me when I was in the hospital? Gloria said she read to me.”

  “She did. But Mom and Dad...they came once. I think it upset Dad to see you like that, so they stayed away.”

  They hadn’t come. They hadn’t sat by her bedside and talked to her or read her books or done a single thing that might have made her feel better. “What about Grace? Gloria and David had all these pictures of her. Did Mom and Dad see her? Did they hold her?”

  “They...” Lark sighed. “Okay, I don’t want to upset you, but when we had Grace tested and the results showed she was Jake’s daughter, they...they didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with her.”

  “With me,” Skye added. She supposed this wasn’t a shock, none of it. Vera had never been the warm, loving kind of woman who held fun baby showers and went out of her way to get groceries. And Tyrone refused to have anything to do with the Holts.

  Still, Skye was their daughter. And Grace? Their only granddaughter—at least for now.

  Maybe her family never would accept her, not as long as she was married to Jake.

  Which reminded her. “Lark, do you have any of my jewelry?”

  “Oh! Yes,” Lark said, clearly relieved to have something else to talk about besides their parents. “Well, sort of. You had earrings in, but the side that hit the car—that stone is gone. So I have a diamond of yours.”

  “Not a ring?” She’d never taken it off, not once since they’d married. “Not my wedding ring?”

  “No,” Lark said apologetically. “I’m sorry. Either the wind took it or...” There she paused, so unexpectedly that Skye’s head popped up and she stared at her sister. “Well,” Lark said hastily, “there really isn’t an either/or, is there? It was lost in the tornado.”

  There it was again, that feeling that there was something that Skye should know and simply didn’t. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Nothing,” Lark answered quickly. “We’re home. Do you want to come in and say good night to Grace?”

  Skye sighed. “Yes,” she said, but she wasn’t happy that Lark was holding out on her.

  Just like she thought Jake was sometimes holding out on her, too. They both acted as if something had happened that Skye couldn’t recall and she shouldn’t be allowed to know what it was. It was infuriating.

  But—was she really mad at Lark and Jake? Or was she just mad? After all, her parents had treated her like crap tonight. Wasn’t she still mad at them? They were having dinner—alone—in the same building where the baby shower was. How were those “plans” more important than seeing their daughter?

  Okay, fine. Skye was just mad. She was probably tired, too—it’d been a long day.

  She’d go inside and kiss her daughter and have her husband take her home.

  But tomorrow, she wanted some answers.

  Ten

  “How are things going with Skye?” Keaton was standing in the doorway of the living room, a towel slung over his shoulder.

  Jake looked up at his brother from where he lay on the floor, next to Grace. The baby was on her tummy, making those weird grunting noises. Jake had been giving her pep talks on lifting her head up, but so far, no progress.

  “Fine,” he said. He was still having trouble reconciling the Keaton before him with the Keaton who’d tried to undermine him for years. “I hope she’s having fun at that baby shower.”

  “She remember anything?”

  That’s what Keaton said. What he meant was, had Skye remembered not telling Jake she was pregnant—or why?

  Jake would not fly off the handle at his brother. The man had changed, after all—caring for Jake’s daughter, building a house for Skye’s sister—definitely not anything Jake would have ever figured him for. Maybe things could be different now. Bet
ter, even.

  But Jake still didn’t know how to trust his own brother. So he said, “Not much. I’m hoping that no one says or does anything at the shower to upset her tonight. We’ve been focused on her physical rehab for now.”

  Keaton snickered. “I bet you have.”

  “Watch it,” Jake snapped.

  Keaton held his hands up in surrender. “Easy, man, easy. Whatever you’re doing, it’s working. She looks a hell of a lot better than she did in that hospital.”

  That was good. Truth be told, they were having a lot of sex—the kind of sex they’d had in the first year or so of their marriage. And it did seem to be making Skye very happy. Jake wasn’t complaining, either. “She wants Grace to come home with us,” Jake admitted.

  “Yeah?” Keaton thought about this for a while. “Home, where? You going to take them both back to Houston?”

  All in all, it was probably the most diplomatic way of asking the same question Keaton had asked when Jake had first met his daughter—you going to slip off into the night with your baby?

  And truthfully? Jake wanted to. Yeah, his parents were being great and yeah, Keaton hadn’t stabbed him in the back or anything, but that didn’t mean that Jake didn’t see the ghosts of events past everywhere he looked.

  He wanted to go back to being in charge of his own life again.

  “I’m not sure. I actually have a meeting about the next job Monday afternoon—an internet video interview. I planned on bringing Skye over here so she could play with Grace.”

  “Another year in Bahrain or wherever?” There was no missing the judgment in Keaton’s voice.

  “North America. Three weeks on, one week off. In my line of work, that’s a really cushy schedule.” He could probably do one week a month in Royal. It wouldn’t be as if he lived here, after all. It would just be...a vacation house where his wife and child lived. And Skye would be happier if she stayed here, he knew. Even she remembered wanting to come home. She just didn’t remember telling him about it.