Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (23 page)

Logan
retu
rned with Goldie as the server
brought our food
. It gave me time to mentally replay
our con
versation while
we ate
.

Thelma stretched her arm across the table and grasped my hand
.
“Reach out to your grandparents. G
ive
’em
a chance.”

My fingers
itched to rub
Goldie
’s fur
.
But
Logan
sat on the end and she’d settled
on th
e floor next to him. “How can the barriers
be broken after all this time?”

“Hon
, barriers are made to be broken. They’re your f
amily. Pray. God
loves to
be in the det
ails of our lives, when we invite
Him to.
I’d offer to
talk to
John
,
but he’s
such a private person I’d be worried it would make the situation worse.
”

The waitress returned with the credit card slip for
Logan
’s autograph.

In the parking lot
,
Thelma
wrapped her arms around me
. “I’ll be praying for God to give you strength
.”
I
waited
until she got into her car before I
climbed into the SUV
.

Logan had already settled Goldie into the back seat.
“Not
much help
?”

“
Not much. The mystery keeps getting
deeper
, like it’s
mire
d in quicksand.” I filled him in on the highlights of the
convers
ation
.
“
If
Anne
couldn’t get through to
John
,
he’s certainly not going to listen to me.
I’m not
even
sure if
I can legally
go on their property.
”

“
I can
look at the pa
pers, but it’
d be prefer
able if you cal
led Jones.”

“
That’s what I though I’d do,
check
with him
.”
I pulled
the seatbelt around me, snapping
it into place.
He squinted at the glare coming
throug
h the wi
ndshield, and reached for his sunglasses before reversing
out of the parking space.

The doors ke
pt closing. I ro
lled my eyes upward
, wondering when a window would open
.
A part of me wanted
to go home and pretend I’d never learned the truth about be
ing adopted. Only
,
my heart told
me I need
ed
to try and
to
reach
out to
John
and Elizabeth.
Maybe more for
Anne
than
myself.

Chapter Sixteen

After calling
the
inn and
order
ing a picnic for two,
I
shifted
my focus
to
John
.
There had
to be a way to bridge the gap between
John
and his granddaughter.
In answer to my text, Alec
sauntered into my office.

“
I’m paying
John
a
nother
visit
.” I grabbed
my cap
from the edge of my desk
.
“Want to tag along?”

Alec click
ed
his
seatbelt
and
I
maneuvered the truck onto the street.
“
Sam
and I talked
with Thelma.
She agrees that
John’s harshness created a fallout of pain
.
”
I
looped
onto Shoreview Drive
.

“
I don’t get it—a
dad
rejecting
his daughter and now his
granddaughter.”

I shook my head. “It’s difficult to understand.”

Alec
started his quirky habit of tapping his
fingers on hi
s knee. It was on the tip of my tongue to say something about it when we reached the turnoff
.

We pulled into
the
driveway
,
and
the
guardian
gurus
were still on duty, advising
us
to stay put
. W
e lowered the win
dows partway and waited
.

“Didn’t
we
settle this mess the other day?
”
John
hollered from his porch.
“Barkley, Herman. That’s enough.” The hounds moseyed over
and plopped down on
a
clump of grass near the house
.

I
stepped out
of the truck
. “I need to talk to you,
John
.”
Alec
eased
around from
the passenger side
.

W
ith a wave of his arm
,
he motioned us on up
. “
Hope you’re not expectin’
me to offer you
coffee.”

We trotted up the steps and
each chose a chair from the ones scattered on the porch
and dragged them near his. “I see you still keep chickens.”
John had farmed his land until well into his seventies. I missed the sight of him plow
ing his fields
, the
land now
empty of crops and overgrown with weeds. Chickens
were the only livestock in sight
.

“You here
to buy eggs?”
His face bore the c
r
eases from years of farming. He eased his frail body onto the rocker
,
where the cushion had conformed to his shape. Wisps of white hair scattered on his scalp, speckled with age spots.
He wrapped his
bony
fingers around the curve of the rocker’s arms.

Alec sat back folding his arms across his chest
.
I pushed forward.
“I want
to talk
about
Anne
.”

“Y
ou
wa
s
ted a trip out here.” He lifted halfway out
of his seat
.

“
John
, come on man, g
ive us a
few minutes.” I leaned back and stret
ched my legs out in front of me
, ankles crossed.

He dropped
back
onto the chair
. “Ask your questions.”
His voiced reeked of stubbornness.

I ambushed him
. “Do you know who fathered
Anne
’s baby?”

“Got
a hunch.”

“Who was she dating
?”

“Roger Monroe.”

“Is Roger the father?”

“
Not according to
Anne
.
” He shrugged.
“
S
he ne
ver told me the father’s name
.” He pulled his handkerchief
from his pocket
and
tapped
the corners of his eyes.
“If she had
,
I could have forced
him to do the right thing
.”

I reached across
,
putting
my hand on his knee
. “Tell me
.
Who
do
you think it was?
Your granddaughter has a right to know.”

“Liz needs me.” He shuffled
into the house,
and t
he lock click
ed
into place.

We began the trek back to the station. I glanced
over at
Alec
.
“You think Elizabeth knows
?
”

“
Maybe
Anne
never told
anyone his name
. Her silence would
en
sure
John
would
n’t
find out.
”

“
Except w
e bot
h know
,
in our line of work
there are
g
enerally clues
. P
eople find at least one other person to confide in.”

“The gossip
heated up after
Anne
’s death
,
but
I haven’t heard
anyone
speculate on who the father was. If I didn’t know better
,
I’d think he never existed.”

The truck bounced over the speed bump as I pulled
in
next to the side entrance of the station
.

“
You h
eading out?”
Alec
opened the passenger door.

“Sorta have a date with
Sam
tonight.”

His laugh
boomerang
ed
through the cab. “How do yo
u sorta have a date, boss? B
oth
of you
eating
dinner in the same restaurant?”

“Wise guy.
”
H
e slammed the door
,
still cracking up at
his own joke.
I shook
my head
and
headed to the
i
nn
. When I invited Sam to dinner, she suggested a picnic at the beach and I knew the perfect spot.

The food
filled two baskets.
“You have a fabulous evening.
” Abby
threw me a sly grin.
“
Oh, I included
a plate for Goldie
.
” Her smile bright
ened as she
wink
ed
.

“How
did you know…
never
mind.” I erased it with
a wave
of my hand.
I
secured
the hampers
in the backseat of the extended ca
b and
made the fifteen
-minute drive in much less.
There she stood
,
waiting
with Goldie. The sledge returned.

She let Goldie hop in and settled into the passenger seat.
“I thought about bringing dessert, figured you had it covered.”

With the sweetness of that
smile—who needed dessert?
“Maggie mentioned you wanted to see
Villa
d
el
Sueños.
”

She crinkled her face. “What is a
Villa
…
?”

I took advantage of a stoplight to
slowly repeat the name and
give her more details
.
“My grandparents
’
home
.
Villa
d
el
Sueños
means House of Dreams
.
The story goes, when my great-grandpa
rents home was destroyed by
floodwaters, my
great-grandfather rebuilt
it on the bluff
to prevent it from ever happening again. My great-grandmother christened the new house
Villa
d
el
Sueños.
”
The signal turned green
and we were underway, again.