Chapter Twenty-Seven

T hirty-seven minutes.

That was how long it took Reynolds to drive home after Ford promised to return CPS and sign the relinquishment papers.

Quite honestly, Reynolds didn’t remember a damned thing until he pulled into the driveway and turned off the ignition.

A quick swipe of a fast-food napkin dried his face.

For a moment, it didn’t seem real, but as it sank in, the smile on his face stretched from west to east coasts. Reynolds barreled in through the front door and slid to a stop at the doorway of the empty kitchen. “Susan!”

Odin lay next to his very empty food dish and glared as though his daily needs were not being sufficiently met.

“I’ll get to you in a minute, cat. Susan?” He checked the bedrooms. No one home.

The news threatened to fall out of his mouth to the first human he found, but the first person who should hear it was the woman who helped him make it all happen.

The woman who laid her broken, raw heart out to help him become a father.

“I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure we are a family.” A quick text later and he discovered she was at Main Street Diner. Not bothering to get in his car, he ran the two blocks, the good news sending him like a rocket ship up Court Street on a windy afternoon.

When he turned the corner, Lori screeched into a spot, parking outside the lines. A sure indication she was too excited to care. “Rey! What in the world?”

“Hey, Lori.” He hugged the breath from her.

She squeaked and pushed him away. “I was heading over to check on you and I got a call. The kid came back to CPS and relinquished custody?”

“Then he did go back? Kept his word?”

Her eyebrows disappeared under her thick bangs. “Wait. You’re not acting surprised. Rey. What did you do?”

“I talked to him.” Several people walked out of the diner, and he patiently held the door open as he shifted his weight like a runner needing to sprint.

“I said that might not be a good idea.”

“Honestly, Lori, I didn’t plan anything. It happened organically. I promise.” A sign. Grandma will be more than pleased since it’s her favorite cartoon as well. “Hold on. I’ll explain everything.”

“Can’t wait to hear it.”

When they entered, he easily found Susan. At the far end of the room, she sat at a row of tables with her siblings, their partners, and Nate.

With it being the midafternoon, the staff cleaned tables and restocked supplies. The rich smells of grilled meats and fresh bread slammed into his face, but they didn’t distract him from his focus.

Audrey squeezed a banana between her fingers and told everyone at the table about it.

Reynolds wished he had a camera so he could pass this image to his child, to his grandchildren.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lori with her phone up. “Go do it, Rey.”

Holy shit, this is going to happen. As he approached, he willed his elation to calm.

Although the adoption news would certainly help delete the worry of the baby ever leaving, it only partially repaired the wounds between Susan and him.

The uncertainty of everything working out.

The moment she made eye contact with him, Susan’s smile thinned. Then her eyebrows furrowed when her gaze darted to Lori. “Reynolds? Is it already time? To send her back?”

A great sadness momentarily swept across the table.

Reynolds took great joy in changing that. “He signed.”

“What?”

“He signed.” He planned to give it a bigger buildup, but those two words perfectly summed it up. Here are two more. “She’s ours.”

Nate jumped out of his seat. “Really? She’s staying?”

“How about that?”

Lori dropped her backpack on the floor next to an empty chair. “The father said he’s ready to relinquish, and he’s presently talking to my boss to sign everything. The next stop is setting a court date to make the termination of parental rights official. Then a date is set for the adoption to be finalized.”

“Are you serious?” Edmund clapped his hands together, then kissed Jade, his fiancée. “I’m gonna be an uncle again!”

Flo, a long-time employee of the diner, yelled from the kitchen, “That’s great news! Here, let me bring out a couple of pies for you to share. Celebrate.”

Lucy, Thomas, and Shelly each hugged Reynolds as Lori walked around, motioning for Susan to hand over the baby. “Go hug the man.”

Peter respectfully shook his brother-in-law’s hand. An air of caution still lingered between them, but the only Davidson Reynolds wanted to impress stared at him wide-eyed.

Hesitantly, Susan placed Audrey in Lori’s arms before squaring her shoulders and confidently walking into his embrace.

But Reynolds knew her strength was all a facade.

She held her heart by her fingertips and any slight slip would send it crashing into a million pieces. “Reynolds?”

A beep from Lori’s phone and she held it up. “He signed!”

He rested his forehead against hers. “She’s ours.”

Susan choked back a sob. “But I thought he said nothing would change his mind.”

“I gave him one.”

“You did what?” Susan popped her head back. “I don’t want to hear this.”

Lori froze. “Oh geez, Reynolds. What did you do?”

He grabbed Susan’s hands before she got away from him. “Please. I did nothing illegal. I swear. It was a true common-thread moment.”

“Thread moment?” Nate settled back in his chair and Lori handed him Audrey.

Susan motioned for reluctant Peter to scoot over a couple of chairs so she and Reynolds could sit down right as Flo brought out a chocolate silk pie and a huckleberry pie along with a stack of plates.

Fellow waitress, Casey, followed with napkins, forks, a pie server, and a can of whipped cream. “Enjoy!”

Jade and Lucy quickly distributed the plates and forks as Reynolds explained how he accidentally ran into the bio father after leaving Lori’s. He told them what the conversation entailed, the family dynamics, and…

“But what was the sign?” Susan patted his forearm like an impatient child waiting for the best part of the story.

Lifting his shirtsleeve, he revealed his Dino the Dinosaur tattoo. “This.”

Nate lifted his sleeve while balancing Audrey on his lap. “This?”

“That.”

“Are you serious?” Lori rocked a slow-blinking Audrey, who still held mashed bananas between her chubby fingers. “ That’s what he needed to see?”

“I guess so. Ben also showed him the video of Audrey’s birth so that might have helped.”

Susan gasped. “That’s why Bernie recorded everything?”

“Yes. And now because of that purple dinosaur, she’s ours,” he answered without taking his eyes off Susan. He couldn’t. Her admiration damned near sent his pants two sizes too small.

Lori reached for a fork. “Hell, if I’d known he only needed to see your tattoo, I would have told you to show off your arms sooner, Reynolds.”

His thumbs brushed the backs of Susan’s hands, relishing the softness of her skin. “He said that Audrey was where she was supposed to be. He trusted Susan and me to do right by her. To take care of her.”

Although Reynolds couldn’t be sure if things were right between him and Susan, what he did know, by the time Christmas rolled around, they’d officially be parents.

That Audrey was here to stay.

One thing at a time, Reynolds.

With her fork, Lori scooped up a bit of the chocolate silk pie Lucy gave her. “Not an hour after the bio dad insisted he wanted her, he walked right back, saying he changed his mind. My boss just texted that the kid looked relieved.”

Suddenly, Susan leaped from her seat and hugged his neck. “Thank you.”

Tentatively, he rested his hands on her hips. Relishing everything about her. Her scent. Her touch. Her voice. Her love. “You’re welcome, Susan.”

“You made our family happen,” she breathed before sitting back and drying her face with a napkin.

Lucy slid a piece of chocolate silk pie over and handed Susan a fork.

“A tattoo of a purple dinosaur?” Jade shrugged before taking an extra bit of whipped cream. “Why is that a big deal?”

“It was our sister’s favorite. And apparently, it’s the father’s—” Reynolds cleared his throat. “The bio dad’s and his grandmother’s favorite as well.”

Between bites of his huckleberry pie, Nate added, “Whatever works, right?”

“Now you’re getting it, Nate.” Lori laid a blanket over Audrey as she gave in to sleep, her hands still full of mush.

Among all the celebrations, Peter shook his head. “Explain this to me. A tattoo of Dino is what fixes all this?”

Lori’s eyebrows cocked. “Peter, before you ask me nine thousand questions, most of the time, we have no idea how adoptions will play out. How emotions will narrate an outcome.”

“Explain it to me like I’m five.”

“Dude, you’re not going to enjoy this?” Edmund placed a piece of pie in front of his brother. “Maybe you need to eat.”

“I don’t want pie.” Peter pushed the plate away, but Edmund slid it back.

“Maybe you need to eat it before I shove it in your face.”

“Fine.” Peter picked up his fork, and Lori explained the complexity of the foster care system as Audrey suddenly woke and babbled.

The information appeared to appease him, but Peter asked, “So, no backsies?”

“Once the judge finalizes the adoption, no backsies.” Lori lifted an eyebrow as if challenging him to ask anything else. “We good?”

“We’re great.”

Now all Reynolds had to figure out was how to make it great between him and Susan.