Always Dakota - Debbie Macomber [125]
He’s adjusting well and thriving. Enclosed is a recent photo so you can see for yourselves how well he’s doing.
Again we can’t thank you enough.
Sincerely,
Jenny and Michael Axel’s family
Bob read the letter a second time and his throat clogged with emotion. “Look,” Merrily whispered, and handed him a picture.
Bob examined the snapshot. At first all he felt was his own sense of loss. Anger filled his chest. How dared these people rip open a wound that had only half healed? How dared they invade his life, even with the best of intentions?
That feeling didn’t last, however, and was quickly replaced by a stronger one. Gratitude. Two strangers had reached across the miles to offer him and Merrily a feeling of closure to a difficult time in their lives.
“He…he’s grown so much,” Merrily said.
Not trusting his voice, Bob nodded.
“The letter was very generous. An act of kindness.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
“I wonder if Axel…” She stopped midsentence and when he glanced over, expecting her to complete her thought, Merrily shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s happy…I can see it in his eyes. It isn’t important if he remembers us. Not anymore.”
Later that night, after the restaurant had closed, Bob read the letter yet again. The snapshot was missing, and he suspected Merrily had taken it. Axel had adjusted; the photo told him as much. The boy had a good, loving home with these people—Jenny and Michael—and was obviously doing well.
“Bob,” his wife called from upstairs.
“I’ll be right there,” he called back. He refolded the letter and tucked it away. Despite everything, his heart was heavy as he climbed the stairs.
“Are you coming to bed soon?” Merrily asked, meeting him at the top.
“As soon as I shower.”
“There’s a surprise for you in the bathroom.”
“A surprise?” In his present frame of mind, Bob wasn’t especially interested in surprises.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?” Merrily asked as she wrapped her arm around his waist.
“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”
“No. I guess you’d better look and then if you want, I’ll explain.”
Deciding to humor his wife, he entered the small bathroom and saw nothing out of the ordinary. “What?” he asked, wondering if this was her clever way of telling him about a blocked drain. Frankly, he could live without a plumbing problem right now. Come morning, he’d deal with it.
“See that stick?” Merrily asked, her eyes twinkling.
“What stick?” he asked, glancing about the room.
“The one on the counter.”
Sure enough, there was a plastic stick on a bed of tissue. “What about it?”
“It’s blue.”
“And what does that mean?”
“That, my darling Buffalo Man, means we’re pregnant.” Her smile was filled with such joy it took Bob’s breath away.
“Pregnant. But—” It was too much. Stunned and delighted by turns, he collapsed on the edge of the bathtub. “You’re sure?”
“Positive, if that test can be trusted. Oh, Bob, Bob, we’re going to have a baby!”
Bob closed his eyes and threw his arms around his wife. The pain they’d suffered over the loss of Axel had been replaced with the joyful promise of a child of their own.
This ebb and flow of life. Grief mingled with pain. The happy with the sad. Lost and then found. Five years earlier, he’d rolled into Buffalo Valley, never suspecting this dead-end town would end up being home. Yet here he was, a business leader, a husband and soon to be a father. Life didn’t get much better than this.
Epilogue
Six months later
“Mom!” Calla burst through the door of Buffalo Valley Quilts, clutching a letter in her gloved hand. Beneath her thick coat and hat, all that was visible were her eyes, nose and mouth.
Sarah looked up from her designing board and was struck by the sheer joy she saw in her daughter. The sullen teenager who’d become a fixture over the past few years was gone, replaced by the daughter she’d desperately missed. Since Josh’s birth six months earlier, a great deal had changed in Sarah’s life. Her son thrived and was growing, making up for lost time. After nearly a month in the hospital,