An Offering of Hope

by Greenwood Muir, Diane

  "But I just got here," Polly whined. "I was hoping for more compelling conversation."

  "You can beguile us with your conversational skills while we hang ghosts from the ceiling," Beryl said, already out of the booth. She snagged Lydia's mug and waggled her index finger at Andy. "Give it up, sweetie-pie. Time for us to bring the spirits to life."

  Andy took one last drink from her mug, handed it over and slid across the bench. She reached back for her coat and tote bag. "Len is bringing Brandon to help today."

  "The boy with all the muscles?" Lydia clapped her hands. "How did we get so lucky?"

  Beryl sidled up to Andy. "What did you have to do for him last night to make this happen?"

  "You know I don't kiss and tell," Andy said, a twinkle in her eye. "What happens in the Specek house, stays in the Specek house."

  "What if it happens in the driveway of the Specek house?" Polly asked.

  Andy looked at her in shock. "What did you see?"

  Polly laughed out loud. "I saw nothing, Andy. What did you do?"

  "Nothing that I'm telling any of you about." Andy shook her head back and forth.

  "Methinks you have a story of your own," Beryl said. She took Polly's elbow. "We'll wheedle it out of her on the drive to Sycamore House."

  "Promise?"

  "Oh, yeah, baby. This has good stuff written all over it." Beryl put the mugs into the dish pan at the end of the counter. "We'll see you there with stories to tell."

  Camille handed two boxes over the top of the bakery case to Polly. "Have a good morning."

  "Thanks, Camille. I'll probably see you later."

  "Every day," Camille said with a laugh.

  "She's right, it is every day," Polly muttered to herself as she headed for the front door. "If I didn't love this place, I'd be embarrassed."

  "Embarrassed about what?"

  She looked up as Sal came to stand in front of her. "What are you doing here and where did you come from?"

  Sal nodded toward the side door. "I knew you weren't paying attention, but I can't believe you didn't even notice me."

  "Sorry. This is early for you."

  "It's the only time Mark has available this week. We're meeting Henry."

  "My Henry?"

  "Is there another Henry we'd be meeting at Sweet Beans?"

  "I guess not. What's going on?"

  "We want to talk to him about houses."

  "Are you going to buy the house next door to us?"

  "It's a possibility. Mark thinks he'd like something out in the country so he can have his horses and more dogs. He said something about chickens. I hate to admit that I …"

  Polly interrupted. "You are not going to get chickens. I can see a lot of different people doing that, but not you."

  "Hell, no," Sal said. "My first reaction was that I wanted to hit him upside the back of the head. But that's inappropriate in front of the children."

  "In front of the children?"

  "Well, okay. It’s inappropriate any time. I've never hit anyone in my life, but his comment drew a visceral reaction from me."

  "What if your kids want farm animals?"

  Sal closed her eyes and took in a slow breath. "Alexander loves going out with his daddy. Those stupid farmers treat him like a little prince. They show him their cows and their pigs, and he falls in love with every single animal he meets."

  "The property by us is two lots and it backs right up to farmland. There's plenty of space for a couple of small barns. Maybe you could get a llama or an alpaca. Or goats. That would be fun. Get goats. Alexander and Theodore would have a great time with them. When they get too cold, you could bring them into the house or dress them in cute sweaters. You know, like the videos you see all the time."

  "Mean. That's what you are," Sal said. "You're mean. Did you forget that I’m pure city girl?"

  "Who moved to Iowa and married a large-animal veterinarian. You made your bed of hay. Now you get to lie in it."

  "Did you ever make out in a hay mow?" Sal asked.

  Polly tilted her head. "What?"

  "Just curious. You grew up in rural Iowa. Did you ever make out in a hay mow?"

  "No. I didn't." Polly chuckled. "But that wasn't because I had an aversion to it. It just never came up."

  "I've often wondered what it would be like."

  "Itchy hay in your pants? No thank you. I'm too old for that silliness."

  "Never too old," Sal said. "Never too old." She pointed at the front door. "Go tell him you're not too old."

  Polly turned and smiled at her husband. The thing was, if he ever wanted to make out in a hay mow, she'd do it. Fortunately, that wasn't on his top ten list of places to have sex. But then, they'd never really discussed it.

  "Where do you want to have sex?" she asked him when he got closer.

  "Wha- what?" he asked.

  Sal laughed. "Have you ever made out in a hay mow?"

  "I don't think so. Why are we discussing this?"

  "Polly told me to lie down in my bed of hay."

  He frowned at the two of them. "I'm very confused."

  "Talk them into buying the Anderson house," Polly said, reaching up to kiss his cheek. "I need to go to work. Lexi's making dinner tonight. Will you be home on time?"

  Henry nodded. "Should be. Are we having sex in strange places soon?"

  Sal stepped back. "Henry Sturtz. Shouldn't you save this conversation for the bedroom?"

  "I apologize. Once you put those thoughts in my head, I had trouble stopping them."

  "Don't hurt him too much, Sal," Polly said. "He's still an innocent. I'll see you two later." She touched Henry's hand and walked out the door with a smile on her face.

  She was waiting to cross the highway when her phone rang. Looking back and forth, she sighed at the number of cars. They needed to put a stoplight in here. Polly pressed the button in her Suburban to answer the call and realized it was Tab.

  "Good morning, Tab. How's the life of crime treating you?"

  "Why aren't you at work?"

  "How do you know I'm not at work?"

  "I recognize the sound of you in your car. Have you been drinking coffee at Sweet Beans? No, don't tell me. It will just depress me."

  "I don't want you to be depressed. What's up? Do you have any new information on the child that Rebecca saw at the hospital yesterday?"

  "We don't know for certain if it's Lexi's baby, but they identified the person who delivered the infant to them as Austin Wheeler."

  "It has to be her baby. Did the couple have contact information for the Mortens or whoever it was that set this whole thing up?"

  "They had a different name — Adams. Morten is a fake name. We can't find any trace of them in any database. The phone numbers they had stopped working two days before the couple received the baby. They thought they’d lost everything until Austin called."

  "I know this is a stupid question, but you spoke to the police in Ankeny? They didn't recognize the couple either?"

  "No, but that city is one of the fastest growing in the state. People move in and out all the time. Unless the couple had been in trouble with the police, they'd have no idea."

  "And the couple with the baby don't remember what the car was, so you could do like an APB, maybe?"

  Tab laughed. "We do have a description of their car, but they met last summer. They paid thirty-five thousand dollars to adopt this baby. The thing is, they don't have legal paperwork. We’ve done DNA testing on the infant and I need to get permission from Lexi to test her DNA."

  "For a match," Polly said. "I should go home and get her, shouldn't I."

  "I could come up to Bellingwood."

  "We didn't tell her anything about what Rebecca saw last night. I didn't want her to get her hopes up if it was nothing."

  "We've got the child in custody. But I have to tell you, the people who thought they were adopting that child are good folks. They feel awful that they were caught up in something so malicious. They're cooperating with us
."

  "This is all such a mess," Polly said. "All Lexi wanted to do was find a good home for her child, but I don't know if she'll give it …" She paused. "Is it a girl or a boy?"

  "It's a little girl. They named her Sarah Ryanne."

  "That’s sweet. I need to run to Sycamore House and tell people where I'm going, then I'll bring Lexi to Boone."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Lexi closed her eyes and took in a long breath. "I almost wish they hadn't brought her to the hospital."

  The day had been long and arduous. From the DNA test to speaking with a social worker and then just before they left to come home, she saw pictures of her daughter.

  "I understand that," Polly said.

  "When I made the decision to give my baby up for adoption, I spent days and weeks going over the pros and cons. I even went to see a counselor at the University because I wanted to be sure I’d made the best decision for both of us. Now, I feel like that has been thrown back in my face and I don't know what to do."

  "What's changed?"

  Lexi looked at her and sighed. "Nothing. And everything. I'm not in school right now. I could make time to care for her. Both of us have been through a lot. I feel more responsible for her now that she's here and needs someone."

  Polly smiled and reached over to take Lexi's hand as they sat together in Polly's office. She'd called Henry and Cat and asked them to handle dinner tonight. She wasn't putting Lexi in front of the rest of the family while she worked through this. "You don't have to make a decision tonight."

  "But I can't let her stay there alone. She needs a mother. I'm the person who gave birth to her. I'm the one who should do this."

  "She's being cared for by nurses who are trained for this," Polly says. "She needs to be in the hospital. And when she's ready to leave, Mrs. Tally assured us both that she'd go to a loving home. I trust that woman implicitly."

  Marian Tally worked for Child Protective Services out of Boone and had been with Polly through the adoption and guardianship of every young person in her home. They were still in constant contact while Caleb, JaRon, and Cassidy waited for their adoption to occur.

  "What will people say if I don't want to keep my daughter?" Lexi asked.

  "Who, specifically, are you worried about?"

  "I don't know. Everybody. People in Bellingwood know about me, don't they? I wouldn't be surprised if there are as many busybodies in this town as where I grew up. Those little old ladies thought they knew what was best for everyone else."

  Polly chuckled. "We do have a few of those. There are still people out there gossiping about when Henry and I are going to have a baby. But it's none of their business, is it?"

  "But every day they see me on the street, they'll think I'm a horrible person because I didn't want to take responsibility for my baby."

  "Let's just assume for a minute that you had decided to abort this baby."

  Lexi looked at her in shock. "I would never do that."

  "But assume with me that you had. None of this would have happened to you. You wouldn't have been kidnapped, you wouldn't have ended up in front of Sycamore House and then in the hospital. You could have done it all in secret and no one would have known anything about you, whether here in Bellingwood or in your hometown. Right? In fact, you could probably have kept it from everyone you know."

  "But I couldn't."

  "You made a choice to give your child life and then to offer a family who can't have children the opportunity to make an incredible life for that child. That’s nothing to be ashamed of."

  "But then everything happened."

  "In all of this, Lexi, I haven't heard you tell me how much you want to love and raise that little girl."

  Lexi looked at the floor. "I've spent nine months knowing she wasn't going to be mine. My only role was as an incubator. She always belonged to someone else." Tears sprang to her eyes when she looked at Polly. "When I first met Cat, she was totally different. Everything she does, every move she makes, even when she's uncomfortable is filled with love for that child she's carrying. It's present in the way she and Hayden are with each other. I don't think she even realizes that she smiles every time she touches her stomach. It's like she's already nurturing the baby as part of their family."

  "Cat is going to make a wonderful mother. You will too if that's what you want to do."

  "When Mrs. Tally offered to let me meet the baby tomorrow, I didn't know what to say. If they think I should meet her, I will. Do you think I should?"

  "Think about what you'd feel like in twenty-five years when she comes looking for her birth mother. What do you want to tell her?"

  Lexi backed away and her shoulders rose to her ears. "I don't know. Do you think she will?"

  "I think kids want to know where they came from, no matter how old they are. I still feel a loss because I don't know my mother's family. Rebecca will always feel a little disjointed because she doesn't know her father, even though her mother gave her so much love. When my little ones get older, they're going to ask questions about their parents. I wouldn't be at all surprised if JaRon and Caleb ask to meet their mother again, even though she will spend her life in prison. I'll make that happen for them. If Noah and Elijah want to return to Chicago to see their roots, we'll give them the freedom to go. We'll go with them if they need us to. We want to know where we've come from, whether we’re adopted or not."

  "I want her to know that I gave her the best possible life."

  "And you don't think that life should be with you?"

  Lexi shrugged.

  "I need you to know something. If you decide that you want your daughter, that changes nothing about how our family will treat you."

  "You'd let me stay, even if I have a baby?"

  Polly rubbed her hand up and down Lexi's forearm. "Yes. You are welcome in our home. Your daughter would be welcome in our home."

  "I don't know how to be a mother."

  "We can figure it out together if you'd like."

  Lexi sobbed as she fell into Polly's arms. "I was so afraid."

  "Of what?"

  "That I'd made the decision to let her be adopted and you thought I should stick to it. I don't want to have my little girl show up in twenty-five years and wonder why I didn't keep her. I've been trying to be as cold about this as possible because I said I would let her go. She didn't get any love from me when she was inside me because I knew they were going to take her away, so I refused to let myself even think about it."

  "Do you want to bring her home?"

  "More than anything."

  "Then we'll figure it out."

  Lexi beamed through her tears. "I thought I knew what I wanted for her, but I can't let my little girl live with anyone else but me. It will be hard, won’t it? Raising a child alone?"

  "Nothing is easy when it comes to children," Polly said, "but those clothes you're wearing? They come from a young woman who is raising an adorable daughter by herself. Except that isn't really true. She is surrounded by people who support her. You aren't alone, Lexi."

  "I can't believe this is going to happen. I feel bad about that couple that thought they were adopting her. They lost a lot of money."

  "That isn't your problem, Lexi," Polly said, shaking her head. "There are plenty of appropriate adoption agencies in this state. They chose to do something outside the law. And if you had decided to give her up, we would have found good people to help her find a wonderful home. Then, in twenty-five years, you would be able to meet her and know you’d done everything right by her."

  "I’ll bet that couple had no idea. I didn't. From everything I read, it looked like the company was on the up and up."

  "Would you have known any different?"

  "I guess not. I can't believe those horrible people are still out there. I'm worried about them trying to take my baby again. And I'm worried about those other girls."

  "So am I," Polly said.

  "Deputy Hudson kept asking me questions, trying to figure out
where we'd been staying. I don't even know how long I was in the back seat of that car. I wish I could remember anything other than the pain."

  "It's okay."

  "Polly, I feel like I've just messed everything up. If I'd never gotten pregnant. If I hadn't decided to give my baby up. If I'd fought harder to get out of that house. And then today, I should have demanded my baby. Why didn't I do any of those things right?" She winced as she brushed her arm across her breasts. "And it's been a week. The nurses showed me what to do to stop making breast milk. I won't have anything for her."

  "Don't do this to yourself now," Polly said. "You can't change decisions you've already made. You can deal with the consequences and move forward. We'll call Mrs. Tally in the morning. Your daughter is safe tonight."

  "Thank you for listening to me while I talked this out."

  "I'm good at that," Polly said with a smile. "Do you feel ready to face the troops?"

  "Can I tell them?"

  Polly nodded, wishing she had a minute to talk to Henry before this exploded all over their family. He’d support her, he always did, but these were things she liked to discuss with him. She looked at her phone. Nearly seven o'clock. This had been a long day. Dinner was over and the kids would be practicing or doing homework. At least they wouldn't all be in the same room. "Let's go home. They’ve eaten, so at least we won’t walk into that."

  "I was going to make dinner."

  "You had other things on your mind. You can cook another day." Polly shook her head. With a new baby, Lexi wouldn't have time to do much of anything. What had she done? Cat and Hayden would be bringing a baby home in a few months. She and Henry might end up moving out to the shed just to get some sleep.

  They walked outside and Lexi shivered in the brisk air. "I knew I saw horses when he brought me here. Noah told me all about them. Can I meet them someday?"

  "There is so much ahead for you in Bellingwood," Polly said.

  ~~~

  "I really am sorry I didn't get a chance to talk to you first," Polly said to Henry after he closed the bedroom door. "It all happened so fast. I thought she was going to release the baby for adoption, then everything changed."