Chapter 10 - Molly

The Three Musketeers Chat Group

Me: So, I have some news, and I know Pen’s been worried, so I figured I’d just text you both at the same time.

Meadow: Girl, you already told me last night that you were married and having twins. I know everything.

Pen: I think something BIG happened today….

Meadow: Bigger than being married without your best friends by your side and escaping a tornado to tell said husband that you’re having two babies with him?

Me: I don’t know if it’s BIGGER news than both of those things, but it’s life changing.

Me: I might have a brother.

Meadow: Well, duh! You now have two hot brothers-in-law. That happens when you get married, ya know.

Pen: Are the Stone triplets hot? I guess… they are good looking but def not my type…

Meadow: Fuck all that. Tyler is smoking hot and so are Carter and Landon! Maybe if I got together with one of them, we could be sisters!

Me: I don’t know where to begin… 1. Yes, I know I have 2 brothers-in-law now. Yes, they are hot!

Me: 2. Meadow - if you were to marry one of them, that would be awesome, but I don’t think they are the guys for you. I have an idea of who the guy for you is….

Me: 3. Pen - we all know your type is really tall with a man bun….

Me: LAST - I think I might have a real, full-blooded brother. Like he was born when my parents were in high school and put up for adoption. We’re waiting on the DNA test we took this morning to find out for sure.

My phone vibrated in my hand, and I saw that there was a request for a video conference call from Meadow that included Penelope.

“What the what?! I had to see your face to make sure you were okay, and this seems too important to say over text.” Meadow said as she pushed her oversized sunglasses up on top of her blonde hair. She was sitting on a bench in Central Park with a coffee in one hand and her phone stretched out in front of her. Behind her was a row of beautiful tulips, and you could see people jogging in the background. I also noticed her camera bag sitting next to her on the bench. “I don’t understand. How? Mimi would have told you!”

“Dominic Anderson might be your real brother?” Pen asked. “And don”t think I”m going to forget about your man-bun comment.”

“Which one is Dominic?” Meadow asked. “And how did this all happen?”

“He’s the second baseman for the Raptors,” I explained.

“OH! The short one. I can totally see some family resemblance!” Meadow exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes but laughed. “Not you, too. Just because he’s the shortest on the team…”

Pen laughed. “I bet Ty made a short joke, too, didn”t he?”

“Of course, he did,” I said with a shake of my head, but I had a smile on my face.

Meadow laughed. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it, either. I can see it in the shape of your nose, and he has freckles, right? I’ve only seen a few pictures of your parents, but he definitely favors your dad.”

“For someone who didn’t know who Dominic was a minute ago, you sure have him memorized,” Pen commented.

“I’m looking at his picture on the Raptor’s website as I talk to you,” Meadow said with a laugh.

I had to laugh, too. “You girls are crazy. To answer your question, Meadow… I don’t know why Mimi didn’t tell me. I’m trying not to feel like I’ve been lied to my whole life and upset with her until I know all the facts. And Pen, yes, it’s Dominic. I agree that I think we have the same nose, too. That was the first thing we both said.”

“How long until the test results come back?” Pen asked.

“Three to ten days.”

“Where is your hottie husband now?” Meadow asked. I had to laugh when Penelope groaned.

“I was pretty emotional when I told him everything I told you guys. I guess I fell asleep in his arms. He snuggled with me on the bed all night, and I seriously got the best sleep ever. Anyway, he left a note that he went for a run, and he’ll be back soon.” The motel door opened, and a sweaty, shirtless Tyler appeared in the doorway. I bit my bottom lip and gave him a wink. My husband really was a hottie! “Speaking of my hottie husband, he is back now. I’m going to let you girls go. Meadow, talk to you soon. Pen, see you soon.”

“Were you really just video chatting with Penelope? I just saw her on her apartment balcony as I ran by her place.”

“Well, I wanted to fill them in about Dominic, and it was just easiest to tell Pen and Meadow at the same time.”

“That’s fair,” Tyler said and leaned down to give me a kiss. “I’m gonna jump in the shower. Want to join me?”

I had to laugh, “As tempting as that is, I saw how tiny the showers are here. I don’t think there is any way we’d both fit. When I talk to the contractor, I am going to see how much extra it would cost to get an extra large shower and soaker bathtub.”

Tyler laughed along with me and said, “Speaking of showers, we need to discuss our bet from the other day. Who would have thought it would have been Alec and Ivan?”

“I know, right?!”

“The Raptors leave for an away game in two days. Maybe we could sneak into the stadium then.”

“Do you not have to go with them?” I asked.

“Nope. They want me as the face of the tornado relief, so they’ll want to do some clips of the cleanup and show how everything is going here. Oh! But guess what?”

“What?” I asked.

“Snyder is going to fill in for Mack while he’s with his son and asked if I might help by being the pitching coach for home games while I’m here!”

“Have you ever even pitched before? Wouldn’t you be a better hitting coach?”

“I did try my hand at pitching a few times in high school, but I wasn’t very good. As a catcher, though, it’s my responsibility to know all the pitchers’ strengths and weaknesses. Snyder and Collins, the pitching coach for the Lightning, both rely on me to recognize if the pitcher is having any issues or if they are good to continue pitching. So I’m basically like an assistant coach out there already.”

“That’s awesome. Maybe someday you’ll be a manager of your own team,” I said, thinking of all the possibilities.

“Ivan, Hayden, and I actually talked about that during our run. That’s actually a future goal of mine now. Once my career of playing baseball is over I would love to be a manager or a coach.”

“But after you have a good major league career,” I added with a grin.

“What the fuck did I do to get so lucky?” he asked as he pulled me into a big hug. “Most wives would want you to quit playing and get into coaching now. Not my wife. She encourages me to keep moving up.”

“Of course! It’s your dream, and I’ll be with you every step of the way!” I said, then felt his sweaty back under my arms as I hugged him and pushed away from him. “Ew! You need to go take a shower!”

“This is your last chance to join me!” Tyler said with a laugh as he made his way to the bathroom.

I was about to change my mind and go join him in the shower when I heard a text notification. I picked up my phone from the nightstand.

Dominic: My mom just texted that she’s about an hour away from her motel. She’s actually staying in Roseford since all the local motels are booked solid because of the tornado.

Me: I’ve never even heard of Roseford. How far away is it?

Dominic: It’s about 45 minutes away to the North. I was wondering if you minded driving over there to meet up with her? We could leave in half an hour, if that works for you.

Me: Yeah, I don’t mind driving at all. Ty is in the shower now, but we’ll be ready to go in half an hour.

Dominic: Sounds good. So, I had an idea….

Me: What’s up?

Dominic: We’re going to be less than an hour away from Cincinnati. What would you think about visiting Mack and Nico after we see my mom?

Me: I LOVE that idea, and I know Ty will, too. Great idea, Dominic!

“Oh my god!” A tall woman in her late fifties with chin-length, dark brown hair exclaimed, approaching my car as we got out. “You have to be Molly. You’re the spitting image of your mom. You’re so beautiful!”

“Mom, this is Molly Stone, as you guessed, and her husband and my former teammate, Tyler Stone. Guys, this is my mom, Jessica Anderson.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Anderson.” I said, not sure how to greet my possible brother’s mom. Did I shake her hand or go in for a hug? She answered my internal question by reaching down and giving me a big hug.

“Please, call me Jess. Let’s go inside and have a seat in the hotel lobby,” Jessica said. “Dom, please, don’t kill me.”

“What did you do?” Dominic asked as we walked into the hotel.

“Your brother and sister insisted on coming with me. They wanted to meet Molly and see you.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother and a sister,” I said. I guess they would have no relation to me, but maybe they would welcome me as a sister.

“Wow! Emma and Braden are here?” Dominic asked, and then he turned to me. “Yeah, sorry, we didn’t get to talk about that yet. They were adopted, too.”

“When Dominic was three, we decided to try to adopt another baby. Our adoption agency called us a week after we put in our application to let us know that a little girl had just been born and was available for adoption. Her single mom had passed away during childbirth. The big catch was that they wanted us to take her two-year-old brother as well. Suddenly, we had three kids under three. It was a wild and challenging time, but we embraced it.”

“I can’t even imagine,” I said, and before I could say anything else, I heard a loud squeal, and one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen jumped into Dominic’s arms.

“Dom Dom!” she cried. “I missed you, bro!”

“Emmagination!” Dom said with a chuckle.

Emma had dark brown hair that was straight down her back and had dark, tan skin. Her large eyes were beautiful and a deep chocolate brown. She had beautiful curves in all the right places.

“Is this her?” Emma asked as she turned those brown eyes on me.

“Emma, this is my other sister, Molly.”

I felt my heart beat faster as Dominic called me his sister for the first time out loud to someone else. It made it feel even more real.

“You’re adorable and so little! I’m 5’4”, and I always thought I was short!” Emma said as she hugged me, just as her mom had.

“You and Dom are both short,” another male voice said. I looked up and could definitely tell that Emma and Braden were biological siblings. He had the same dark hair, eyes, and tan skin. Only he was just as tall as Tyler, if not taller. His brown hair was longer on the top and fell over his forehead, and he swung his chin up to get the hair out of his eyes.

“Hey, Bray,” Dom said.

“Hey, Dom!” They gave each other a big guy hug, and then he gave me and Tyler head nods. “Nice to meet you guys.”

Tyler shook hands with Braden, and we all went and sat down in the hotel lobby.

“So, I’m sure you have lots of questions. I don’t know how much you know, and I’ll try to help answer whatever I can,” Jessica said from her seat next to Dominic.

“I don’t know anything. I had no idea I had a brother. I hate to say it, but I’m really upset with my grandparents for not telling me. I will be honest and say my feelings are all over the place.”

“That also comes with pregnancy,” Dom’s mom commented. “Let me tell you the whole story.”

“Very true,” Tyler said with a squeeze of my hand. “What do you know about Molly and Dominic’s parents?”

Jessica began to tell us how she and Dominic’s dad, Jeff, had tried for years to have a baby without any luck. They had two failed rounds of in vitro fertilization before beginning the adoption process. It took them two years and many interviews, but they finally met a young high school-aged couple from New York named Nicholas Green and Jennifer Sawyer. She said Jennie was eight months pregnant, but they would have never been able to tell with the baggy clothes she had been wearing. They had been together since their freshman year but had already been accepted to college. They didn’t feel they were ready to be parents yet. They wanted the best for their baby and immediately felt a connection with Jessica and Jeff.

“Did they say anything about my grandparents?” I had to ask. “Jennie’s mom and dad?”

“Yes.” At my small gasp, Tyler pulled me closer to him and kissed my temple. I was so glad he was here for all this. He was my rock. “Jennie was afraid of disappointing her parents. They were so proud of her getting a full-ride scholarship into college for graphic arts, so she couldn’t bring herself to tell them. She commented that she was glad it was winter for the end of her pregnancy so she could wear Jeff’s hoodies and conceal her baby bump.” Jessica paused in her story and smiled sweetly over at her oldest son. “They found out they were having a baby boy but decided not to name him so they wouldn’t get attached and change their mind. Jeff and I were able to name him. We thought about doing all J names, but that seems to be done all the time. We decided on naming him Dominic since his bio dad’s name was Nick. When we told her that Dominic’s middle name would be Thomas after my dad, your mom got very emotional because Thomas was her dad’s name, too.”

“Papaw would have loved that his grandson had his name as a middle name. Thomas Sawyer was an amazing man.”

“I wish I could have met him,” Dominic said as he patted my shoulder with a smile on his face. “That’s pretty cool about how I got my name. I figured my middle name came from Grandpa Tom, but I just figured you liked the name Dominic.”

“So my grandparents had no idea about my brother?” I asked quietly.

“They had no idea, Molly,” Jessica said with confidence.

I felt the tears begin to roll down my cheeks at the relief that my grandparents had no idea. They hadn’t lied to me. I would never know if my parents would have told me that I had a brother when I got older, but I was now at peace.

“I also have a few pictures that your parents mailed us over the years to share with Dominic. I was so happy when they graduated college and got married. Those were the last pictures we received. I will also say that neither your parents nor the adoption agency ever told us about you. We were only notified about your parents’ deaths.” Jessica handed me a stack of pictures. Tyler and I looked at them together as my tears dropped on the photos. There were pictures from their college graduation, a small wedding ceremony I recognized as in my grandparents’ backyard, and photos of them taking selfies together. I had never seen some of these pictures. “I made copies of those pictures so that you can have those.”

“Really? Thank you so much!” I said and clutched the pictures to my chest. I pulled them back out and looked at them again.

“I think your parents are just a few years younger than we are now in this picture,” Tyler said as we looked at a picture of them lying together on a beach. Maybe they were on their honeymoon. “You look exactly like your mom!”

“She really does,” Jessica agreed.

“Can I hug you?” I looked up to see Dominic standing in front of where Tyler and I were seated. He had tears in his eyes. Tyler gave me a little nudge, and I stood up and was wrapped in the embrace of my brother.

“Hi, big brother,” I said with a watery laugh.

“Hi, little sister,” he said with a chuckle.

We sat and talked with Jessica, Emma, and Braden for a while longer. I found out Emma was a preschool teacher and was working on writing and illustrating children’s books. Braden was also very athletic like Dominic and played hockey for the AHL minor leagues. Emma told us that he was probably going to be called up to the NHL soon.

“You know they are adopted with their athletic genes because neither Jeff or I have an athletic bone in our bodies,” Jessica said with a laugh.

Jessica was a librarian at the local library and had obviously passed on her love of books to Emma. Jeff was an accountant, and even though he hated to play sports, Braden and Dominic both agreed that he never missed one of their games, if he could help it.

I felt Tyler tense next to me at the mention of supportive parents. “Hey, your dad apologized, and he’s being supportive now.”

“I know, but I wish it hadn’t taken a tornado to open his eyes.”

I nodded and agreed with him. “He asked when your first game back with the Lighting was going to be. He wants to come.”

“Seriously?” Tyler asked in awe. “Wow. That would be awesome.”

“You say that now, but when you have a whole section cheering for you when you play the Crestwood Chargers, you might change your mind.”

“I don’t live that far from Crestwood!” Emma said. “Maybe I’ll come to the game, too. When is it?”

“That would be awesome! The game is actually this weekend.”

“Dom, you need to hurry up and get moved up so you can play there, too.”

“Em, I wish I could get called up, but I’m kind of old now.”

“You’re only 26 or 27, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, he’s 27, but that’s old for pro sports,” Braden interjected. “I’m getting there, too. I don’t know if either of us will make it to the big leagues.”

“And that’s okay,” their mom said. “You both have college degrees to fall back on, and you know your dad and I are both proud of you.”

“That’s awesome you both have degrees!” I said. “What are they in?”

“Mine is in sports medicine,” Braden said. “So when I stop playing, I can still be involved in hockey.”

“My bachelors is in sports management, so I wouldn’t mind being an agent,” Dominic explained.

“Dude, I’d hire you as my agent in a heartbeat!” Tyler exclaimed. “My agent is just someone the league gave me, and I think I’ve only talked to him a handful of times.”

“Well, if I decide not to go back to the Raptors, you’ll be my first client.”

“Guys, it’s getting late, and it will take about 45 minutes to get to the hospital. Visiting hours end at eight, so if we want to visit with Mack and see Nico, we should head out,” I said.

“Can I join you guys?” Emma asked and then smiled at me. “I want to get to know my new…. Um, what are you to me? Half-sister?”

“I was wondering that, too,” I said with a laugh.

“I would just say you guys are found sisters,” Jessica said. “We’re one crazy, big, messed up family.”

“I like that, too,” I said.

“Braden, do you want to come?” Dominic asked him.

“No, thanks. I’ve got to get back home for hockey.”

“Mom, you can join us, if you want.”

“That’s ok, sweetheart. I’ll stay here and rest. You kids have fun.”

“Welcome to the Anderson Family,” Emma said with a big smile. Just a few nights ago, Mike Stone had welcomed me to the Stone Family. Now, I was being welcomed to the Anderson Family. I really was no longer all alone in the world. Mimi and Papaw would be so happy.