A Family Name (6 page)

"Hey there, Pumpkin. Hey there, Peanut." His
dad's deep voice rumbled as he greeted the children. Will
remembered his childhood when he soaked up greetings like that.
Things change,
Will told himself fiercely.

"William."

At his dad's slow drawl, Will stilled, his
hand hovering over a fork.

"Bye, Uncle Will," Sierra called.

Will turned to wave, and saw Shane take his
thumb out of his mouth long enough to give a small wave in return.
As much as the social worker had assured him that Shane's lack of
language was merely a result of the stress from the tragedy, Will
couldn't help but worry. He would start talking when he was ready.
Will considered it a major step that Shane had smiled repeatedly
this week, and had giggled. He had never thought giggling would be
such a relief.

Steve and Gretchen had trusted him to care
for their children, at least until their grandparents arrived,
which at this point was still uncertain. On the phone earlier in
the week, Gretchen's mother had barely been able to form a coherent
sentence, so deep was her grief, and talking to Gretchen's father
had been worse. The two lived in northern Montana, almost at the
Canadian border so the travel would be tricky for them given the
blast of extended winter the region was enduring. They had promised
to come as soon as they could.

"William." His father's voice caught him off
guard.

"Still here old man?"

Will found he sounded gruff. With a
stiffening of his shoulders he finished clearing the table. The
ping of silverware against the porcelain of the sink ricocheted
around the small kitchen.

Grabbing the dish soap off the counter, Will
dumped a generous portion into the rapidly filling sink. Suds
mounded on the stack of dishes as silence between father and son
swelled to a deafening crescendo. In the absence of words Will
could hear all the things his father probably wanted to say to him,
and none of them were nice.

"William, I have something to say to you.
Turn off that fool water and hear me out."

Will slammed a fist against the faucet, and
whirled around to give his father an earful. Instead, a knock at
the front door drew both their attention away from the tense
moment.

"Who could that be?" Will muttered as he
grabbed a dish towel and quickly dried his hands.

The oak door felt heavy as he pulled it open.
Since when had he been weary of answering the door? The sensation
rolled over him making him feel dizzy. So much had happened lately,
each time he opened the door some new problem greeted him. With his
father's boots thudding across the worn wood floor, Will shook his
mental atrophy away and finished opening the door.

"Charlotte?"

The woman looking up at him was the same one
that had inhabited his dreams for the past few weeks. She had been
his only diversion from the grief and stress that threatened to
consume him daily. Her cheeks colored as if she was embarrassed
that he remembered her name. He didn't have time to dwell on the
thought, though because the young girl standing next to her took
his breath away.

"Hi, Mr. Wright. I'm Lexi. Your
daughter."

****

Charlotte actually felt sorry for Will at
that moment. She had coached Lexi on how to handle the situation on
the drive up from Rapid City, but that had all clearly gone in one
ear and out the other. Now Lexi gazed up at Will, hope radiating
out of her. Will looked like he'd just been punched in the gut. Or
maybe like he would get sick. Either way he looked awful, and as
much as Charlotte wanted to say something, knew she should say
something, to comfort him, she just couldn't.

Her mind spewed all the trite, practiced
things she could say from her training over the years, but her
heart ached at his shocked expression. She hadn't realized just how
much she had thought about him over the past few weeks. But now she
realized that every time she looked into Lexi's eyes, she thought
of Will because they shared that stunning feature. The blue was so
deep and so clear it reminded Lexi of a perfect summer day. The
cliché was not lost on her, but neither was the truth.

"Well, now, who do we have here?"

Charlotte peered into the house to see an
older man emerging from the shadows. Given the resemblance to Will
— he had those eyes too — she assumed this was his father and
Lexi's grandfather. The thought left her stunned. Lexi would get to
meet many family members today after a lifetime of not having
anyone. Charlotte's stomach clenched with nerves and self-pity. She
had never met her grandparents, and while she felt happy for Lexi,
she also felt the bitter taste of loss washing over her. These last
few weeks with Lexi had been the best Charlotte could remember, and
now…

Will blinked and seemed to recover function
of his brain. He cleared his throat. "Well, Dad, this young lady
has just informed me that she is my daughter."

"You don't say?" Bill said.

Will leaned against the door frame and
crossed his arms over his chest. He shook his head. "She looks just
like Mary."

The three adults stood looking back and forth
at each, between Will and Lexi. Charlotte caught Will's puzzled
gaze. She could see the frown tugging the corners of his mouth, the
furrowing of his eyebrows, and the clenching of his jaw. What was
going on in that head of his? None of this could be easy to
swallow.

Nerves rattled Charlotte as Will's gaze
continued to hold steady on her. She felt like he might see
straight into her soul, past her carefully built walls and
booby-trapped defenses. If he saw her weakness, then she would
surely lose Lexi in a heartbeat. There was no doubt in Charlotte's
mind that he was the girl's father. No one else in the world had
those unique eyes, well no one but members of the Wright
family.

Finally Will exhaled a long, shaky breath. He
broke eye contact. "She looks just like Mary." He paused, a faraway
look entering his eyes.

"That's funny," Charlotte said, surprised
that she had found her voice. "I was just thinking how much she
looks like you."

Their eyes met again, and Charlotte felt her
breath hitch. Forcing her eyes away from Will's she looked over at
Lexi. The girl's mouth was twisted into a tentative smile. She
seemed to be encouraged by the conversation, and if Charlotte was
fair, she would have been too in any other circumstances, but
standing there on Will's front porch, things already felt too
complicated for their own good.

"Why are you here?"

All eyes swung back to Will, and Charlotte
balked at the tone of his voice. He sounded almost angry but also
bewildered. The look on his face confirmed that the man was
confused, his brows knit together as he stared hard at her.

Charlotte swallowed against the dryness in
her throat. "Lexi wanted to meet you, so here we are?"

Lexi looked at her, and reached out to take
Charlotte's hand. That's when she felt the girl shaking. Cursing
herself, Charlotte squeezed Lexi's hand in a show of reassurance.
She had been so busy thinking about Will and how she didn't want to
lose Lexi that she had not been paying proper attention to how Lexi
was dealing with this meeting.

"Yes, but where's Mary? I just don't
understand how this could be happening. Mary would have told me if
she was pregnant when we split up."

Charlotte glanced at Lexi and saw that the
girl's eyes were bright, and she guessed that crying in front of
Will was not something Lexi wanted. Taking a deep breath, Charlotte
tilted her chin up.

"Can we come in? Hopefully we can sort
everything out, but it's pretty chilly out here."

"Of course, come in. Come in," Will's father
said, stepping back from the doorway.

Will stepped back as they passed. Charlotte's
head began to throb from the implications of this meeting. Soon she
wouldn't have to wonder if she'd get to keep Lexi, not if she kept
up with these very unsanctioned visits. The agency would simply let
her go. No one else would want to hire her either. She'd be labeled
a renegade. While those thoughts danced through her head, Charlotte
felt Lexi grab her hand. Everything else melted away as Lexi laid
her head on Charlotte's shoulder. This was all for a hurting
thirteen-year-old. If someone had given her a chance to meet her
parents again, even after all the horrible things they had done,
she would have been there in a heartbeat.

Never mind that she had a crush on Will that
made her feel like a high schooler, and that she was so far out in
left field career-wise right now that she couldn't even see the
infield. Lexi mattered. A relationship with her mother was out of
the picture for the time being, but they still had hope with Will.
Charlotte only hoped he didn't kill it in the next few minutes.

Somehow, though, she knew he wouldn't. It had
to be those eyes. Kind eyes.

Once they were all seated on leather sofas in
the rustic feeling living room, Will repeated, "Where's Mary?"

"Mary couldn't come today. I brought Lexi
without Mary knowing." Charlotte ran a hand over the smooth
cushion, hoping the motion would calm her.

Will ran a hand over his face. "I don't
understand. How could you bring Lexi here without Mary
knowing?"

"Charlotte's my foster mom," Lexi said. She
hugged a throw pillow close to her body as if to shield herself.
"My mom told us about you and I really wanted to meet you, so
Charlotte said we could come and…"

"Wait, I think you need to back up and tell
me the whole story here," Will said. "None of this makes any sense.
How could I have a daughter that I never knew about? Mary certainly
would have told me she was pregnant before we divorced. We weren't
right for each other but our split was amicable. And how on earth
did she end up as your foster child? Shouldn't she be with me if
her mother can't care for her?"

Charlotte drew in a quick breath at his last
question. All her fears lay bare before her eyes. She tried to put
herself into Will's shoes, and she acknowledged that she was
feeling pretty selfish at the moment. Just as she had started to
build her family, it was all going to be taken away.

"There are so many things to talk about. And
honestly some things you would need to find out from Mary, although
that might not be all that easy," Charlotte began. "Lexi and I
visited Mary the other day. She's not well."

"It was my first time meeting her, and she
didn't even want to spend time with me," Lexi said. Charlotte noted
the balled up fists digging into the throw pillow, and the false
bravado coloring Lexi's voice.

When Will raised his eyebrows in apparent
surprise, Charlotte rushed on. "Mary lost custody of Lexi when she
was two and a half. You aren't listed on the birth certificate, and
every indication in the case file seems to support that Mary
refused to name the father. I can only assume that she had a good
reason for not telling you she was pregnant. You said your marriage
ended amicably?"

Will hesitated. He rubbed a hand across his
face. "We parted as friends, but we didn't talk after the divorce.
So I suppose that stretches the definition of amicable."

"Why did you get divorced?" Lexi leaned
forward, staring intently at her father.

Charlotte held her breath waiting for his
reply. Instead Will stood and paced over to a window. He stood
staring out for awhile. Maybe he was remembering a different time
in his life. Whatever he was doing Charlotte began to feel antsy as
he stood stock still. Her eyes darted to Bill. They hadn't even
introduced themselves.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I properly
introduced myself," she said, standing and walking over to Bill.
"I'm Charlotte and this is Lexi."

"Bill Wright." The firm handshake accompanied
by a smile made Charlotte feel instantly at ease. While he studied
her, she thought about what to say, though her mind kept coming up
blank. Finally Bill said, "Lexi, would you like to come outside and
see the horses? There are a few people you might like to meet."

Lexi gave Charlotte a confused look, and
Charlotte felt the hesitation. She'd felt it before when she'd
entered new foster homes when she was a kid. The moment she got
involved with them, she would start to care, and that only spelled
trouble because what if it all ended?

Instead, Charlotte nodded firmly, giving Lexi
a confident smile. If all went well, this man was the girl's
grandfather. They had a lot of lost time to make up for. It was as
selfless as Charlotte could be at the moment.

When Lexi and Bill had left the house,
Charlotte turned her attention to Will. "You don't seem all that
surprised that she's your daughter."

Will shrugged, his shoulders slumping at the
end. He pushed away from the window and moved closer to her. "She
looks a lot like Mary but I see my family in her as well."

"It's your eyes."

"Hmmm?"

Charlotte felt the heat of embarrassment
color her cheeks. "Your eyes. The two of you, well your father too.
You all have the same blue eyes."

Despite the tense awkwardness of the moment,
the corner of Will's mouth tugged upward a bit, and he raised an
eyebrow. "We do, do we?"

Even though she couldn't bring herself to
look Will in the eye, she had to smile. "You do."

Will took a deep breath. "So what happens
now?"

"You'll get to know Lexi."

Charlotte hoped that sounded like enough of a
plan to Will because she hadn't gotten any further than showing up
on the ranch. Her heart hammered, sending blood thundering through
her veins and roaring through her ears. Each breath hitched
irritatingly in her throat until she gagged and started to
cough.

"Hey, are you okay?" Will was beside her in a
moment. "Let me get you a glass of water."