by Holly Jacobs
“So,” Mattie said. “The kids are outside and we have a few quiet minutes. I have something for you.”
She walked into the living room and he followed. Mickey tore past them with Bear behind him, and a couple clock ticks later, Abbey came through. “Wait for me,” she screamed.
All three dashed upstairs.
Zoe stormed into the living room and said, “I’m going to kill them. Did you hear that, you two? I’m going to do both of you and your stupid dog in.” She turned to Mattie. “How could you let them keep that beast?”
“What did they do?” Mattie asked.
“The dog ate my new...” Zoe glanced down at her T-shirt.
“T-shirt?” Finn asked, preparing to offer to buy her a new one.
Zoe shook her head, and Mattie supplied, “Bra. You can say the word, Zoe.”
“Yeah, well, the dog chomped on it, and now, Mickey and Abbey are aiding and abetting him.” Zoe raised her voice again. “But I’m going to find you both and that’s it...dead dog and siblings.”
“Zoe,” Mattie scolded. There was nothing harsh in how she said it, just a sense of disappointment. From Zoe’s expression he could see that it bothered her more than someone screaming at her.
Quieter now, Zoe said, “I’m not really going to kill them.”
“Still.”
“Okay.” She then called out, “In the interest of honesty, I won’t be killing anyone. That would be wrong. Very wrong. And it would disappoint Aunt Mattie. But I’m going to collect favorite toys and hold them hostage until you hand over the dog.” She turned back to Mattie. “Better?”
“No hostages,” Finn said, and hoped he was helping. “And why don’t I simply offer to replace the bra?”
Zoe blushed, but replied, “That would help.”
“In future I think it would be best if you kept your bedroom door closed unless you’re in it,” Mattie suggested.
“Even when I’m in it,” she huffed and stormed up the stairs.
“So, you’re thinking we’re going to have a quiet talk now?” Finn asked.
“I know adults can manage to talk with children present. We’re both still too new at this to have known how, but it can be done. My parents used to manage it.”
“Mine, too, now that I think of it,” he agreed. He was about to burst. He wanted to tell Mattie his idea. He thought she’d be pleased, but nothing was ever certain where Mathilda Keith was concerned.
“Maybe if we leave them here and go out to the front porch,” she offered. When Finn nodded his agreement, she hollered, “Kids, we’ll be right outside on the porch.”
They stepped into the foyer, and the closet door opened. “Is she gone?”
“She’s upstairs,” Mattie replied.
“Good.” Mickey, the dog and Abbey all tumbled out of the closet. Bear still had a training bra in his mouth.
Mickey whispered in a covert voice, “She left it on the floor. You should yell at Zoe and tell her to pick up her stuff.”
“I’ll be sure to mention it. Uncle Finn and I are going to be on the front porch for a few minutes.”
The kids nodded and tiptoed toward the kitchen.
Mattie grabbed the manila envelope on the table before following Finn outside. When they got there, she handed it to him.
He held the envelope gingerly, as if he were afraid it would bite. “What’s this?”
“I called my lawyer and dropped the case. I—”
“What?” he asked.
“I dropped it. That’s my—”
A car pulled up in front of the house and a horn beeped, interrupting her.
Mrs. Callais emerged from the vehicle and waved. “Am I interrupting?” she asked.
Here it was. Mattie had asked her lawyer to keep the fact she was giving custody to Finn quiet until this weekend. She wanted to be the one to tell him and put him in the picture. She didn’t want to do it in front of the social worker, but it looked as if she had no choice now, so she smiled at the woman. “No, Mrs. Callais, your timing is perfect. I was telling Finn that I fired my lawyer. I’m no longer planning to contest his request for guardianship.”
Both of them stared at her, and Mattie sucked in a deep breath and continued quickly, “You see, I’m moving out of Valley Ridge. I—”
“You’re what?” Finn was clearly incredulous; his expression one of instant anger. “You’re going to abandon the kids? You’re going to ignore the promise you made to my sister?”
“Look in the envelope, Finn,” she said softly. She wanted him to say yes. That home was wherever the kids were. And, she admitted to herself, home was wherever Finn was.
He wadded up the envelope in his hand, clenching it. “I don’t care what these papers say. You can’t give the kids away and you can’t leave us.”
“I’m not—”
He tossed the envelope on the porch. “Damn it, Mattie, I thought we were building something together.”
“What did you think you were building, Dr. Wallace?” Mrs. Callais asked, reminding them that they weren’t alone.
“A family,” he said, with what was surely pride in his voice. “I don’t know how it happened, but Mattie, me and the kids, we’ve become something more than my sister’s best friend, her brother and her children. All those things are true. And though she’s still there, at heart, we’re more than that now.
“We’re a family. And family doesn’t walk away from one another because they get a touch of the wanderlust.” He stepped toward Mattie. “We can take vacations. Go anywhere in the world you’ve got your heart set on seeing, but your place is here with the kids and me.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed.
“Hell, if you need...” He paused, her words finally registering. “It is?”
“Look in the envelope, Finn.”
He bent down, picked it up and opened the wrinkled envelope. He pulled out the neatly typed paper and stared at it, then passed it off to Mrs. Callais.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
“I’m agreeing to your demands. You can be the kids’ guardian, and take them to Buffalo. But I’m coming, too. I’m applying for the job as nanny, babysitter, whatever you’re going to call it. I want to be that person. That’s what my CV is for. I think you can see that my vast and varied job history will make me the perfect candidate for nanny to the kids. I know all about healthy eating, and I can build a castle, play games. And let’s not forget, I can make a mean cup of coffee. I’m willing to work flexible hours and be on call 24/7. I—”
“You’re willing to leave Valley Ridge, to let the kids leave?” he asked. “I thought you said you felt this was the best place for them.”
“I was wrong. The best place for the kids is with people who love them. You. Me. You’re right...we’re more than what we were. All of us, we’re together because we loved Bridget, but now...”
“Now our connection is more than Bridget?” he half asked, half stated. “Now you love...”
She interrupted, not wanting to have this part of the conversation in front of the social worker. “I have always loved the kids.”
“And me?” Finn asked quietly, obviously not willing to let it go.
“I have not always loved you,” she admitted. She remembered her crush on him when she was younger. It had been a young girl’s crush on her best friend’s older brother. She’d thought nothing could ever burn so bright, but she was wrong. What she felt for him in this moment was deep and lasting
. It was so much deeper. So much more.
“No, not always, but now?” he pressed.
She pointed at the social worker, hoping he’d take the hint; instead, he stared at her, waiting. And Mrs. Callais wore an expression of expectation.
“Do you need me to say it?” she asked.
Before Finn could answer, Mrs. Callais said, “Words have power, chérie. Words have power.” The social worker’s voice was suddenly thick with emotion.
“New Orleans?” Mattie asked, taking a stab at identifying Mrs. Callais’s particular Southern accent, because she was stalling.
Mrs. Callais nodded, then looked knowingly at her, and at Finn.
Since Finn wasn’t going to let up, and Mrs. Callais was here for the duration, Mattie finally said, “Fine. I love you, Finn. I’m not asking for anything from you. And it’s not some ploy to make you hire me. After all these years of traveling, looking for where I belong, I’ve discovered it’s right here.”
“In Valley Ridge?”
She shook her head. “We already covered that. I don’t belong in a specific place, I belong with you.”
“Me and the kids?”
She smiled. “But even without the kids, you.”
Finn whooped. It was the sort of expression he might have made in his youth. Him, Colton and Sebastian, whooping over something. But Dr. Finn Wallace wasn’t a whooper—that’s what she’d have said if asked. But apparently, she was wrong.
He held her tight, hugging her as if he never wanted to let her go.
“I wish I’d thought about doing something as dramatic as bringing you the paperwork all tied up in a bow, but...” He handed her back the envelope. “I don’t need your CV. If I were hiring a babysitter, or nanny, or whatever you’d call her, I’d hire you, credentials unseen. But I’m not taking the kids to Buffalo.”
“You’re not?” she asked.
“No. They’re staying here in Valley Ridge, where they belong.”
She felt a suspicious moistness around her eyes. “Why?”
“They need to be here. They need to be in the house they grew up in, surrounded by people who love them.”
“They need you more than a house,” she added. “Seeing you only on weekends won’t cut it.”
“I know. That’s why I’m making some changes. I’ve talked to my partners and I’m opening a satellite office between Buffalo and Valley Ridge. I’ll need to go into the city a few times a week for surgeries, but I’ll apply for privileges at the hospital we took Abbey to. I’m sure there will be kinks to work out, emergencies and such, but I’ll be here with you and the kids all the time. I’ve talked to JoAnn and I’ll have a room there until you and I see where we stand. But, for the record, I love you, too.”
Mrs. Callais beamed. “That was beautiful, chérie.” Then, in an instant, the mushy woman with the sound of New Orleans singing in her voice, was replaced with a woman who was all business and whose voice lost all but the faintest hint of her origins. “I’m pleased to see that the two of you have worked things out. Your solution satisfies the department of children’s welfare.”
She bustled down the porch stairs and before she reached her car, turned and called out, “I’ll expect an invitation to the wedding.”
The thought of a wedding—of her wedding—should terrify Mattie. She should feel claustrophobic and ready to run.
Instead, she felt a sense of rightness.
Here.
All those years of looking. Of searching. Trying city after city, job after job. And right here—with this man—was where she’d always belonged. Grateful she’d been so lucky—having two families who loved her. And as she stepped into Finn’s open arms, she truly felt as special as her parents always claimed she was.
“Eww,” came a drawn-out noise from Mickey at the dining room window. “That’s gross. Don’t kiss her, Uncle Finn. Ugh.”
“You two keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll take care of the rug rats,” Zoe hollered. The window slammed shut, and Mattie turned to Finn. “So, where were we?”
“About to pledge our undying love to one another,” he said.
“I don’t think so. Oh, I’m sure we feel it, but I don’t think we’re the type of people to go all mushy and use terms like undying love. Now, Sophie and Colton might use words like that.”
“We’re definitely, exactly, that type of people, as well,” he assured her. “And I plan on telling you I love you every day for the rest of my life. Listen, when I started that lawsuit, it was for all the wrong reasons.”
She reached up and touched his cheek. “You started it because you loved the kids.”
“I did...I do. But I have to tell you it was something else besides that. I felt slighted by my sister. By leaving you the kids, she was saying that I wasn’t good enough. That I was inadequate.
“And I knew that I could afford more than you could. That sounds so awful to say. Though I did think what mattered most was being able to afford the best for the kids, it didn’t take me long to realize that Bridget was right, you were the best choice. Mattie, when you love, you love wholeheartedly. I’ve never met anyone like you. Anyone who would throw their own wants and life aside in order to help a friend. And I only hope that being with you helps that to rub off on me. I’m working to find more time—”
“I was wrong when I said that was the reason I was better for the kids,” she interrupted. “That I could give them time and you couldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, time matters. But maybe it’s not the quantity of time, but the quality of time with the kids that’s important.” She knew she wasn’t explaining it well. “You’re here. Every weekend. You threw everything else aside when Abbey was sick and we needed you. Your job is important, and if a surgery interrupts a party, or a game...it doesn’t take away from the kids realizing that you wanted to be there. That they’re your center, but sometimes things do happen.” She shrugged. “I think that knowing they matter, that they’re a priority, will take the sting out of you sometimes needing to put a patient’s welfare first.”
“I think you said that pretty well. And I do love you, Mathilda Keith. Don’t ever leave me. If you start to feel the urge to go waltzing, Mathilda, tell me. I’ll waltz with you.”
“I think my waltzing days are done. I’ve found where I belong.” A peace, a sense of certainty settled over her. She thought of Colton’s cowboy hat. “This is my Silver Shoe moment,” she said for Finn’s benefit, feeling he’d understand that analogy better than a cowboy hat.
“Huh?”
“I’ve tapped my heels three times, and here I am...in your arms. Like the Wizard of Oz, I’m home.”
“We’re both home,” Finn agreed. “But I thought it was ruby slippers?”
“That’s the movie, I’m talking in the book. And it was silver there. And it’s definitely a silver slipper moment for Dorothy and me.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever thought of the Oz books as love stories, but now...” He hugged her. “I’m home, too,” he proclaimed at the exact moment a horrendous shriek came from inside the house.
Mattie looked up and grinned at him. “I never said it was a quiet home.”
Arm in arm and laughing, they turned and raced each other home.
EPILOGUE
THE NEXT DAY AT CHURCH, Finn sat in the family’s pew holding Abbey on his lap, Mickey on his right, Mattie on his left, and Zoe next to her. Mattie’s parents and brothers sat in the pew in front of them. Finn realized he was truly
one of them. Somehow, in the midst of the worst kind of loss, lawsuits and wedding plans, they’d become a family. Not just Mattie, the kids and him—her family had become his, too.
He knew that he’d be having dinner at the Keiths’ house on Sundays for years to come. And that he’d probably spend most holidays with them, as well.
He knew that when he and Mattie got married, they’d do it surrounded by friends, by family, by Valley Ridge.
That knowledge warmed him.
“See you at Colton’s,” Mattie’s mother called out after the service.
They stopped to get the dog, and then took the short drive to the farm. The car crunched down the long gravel driveway, and Abbey gave a squeal of excitement. “You can’t go to Sophie’s Field, Aunt Mattie. You gotta be surprised, too.”
As she looked at Abbey, she promised, “I won’t.”
“’Cause you’re gonna be sooo surprised,” Abbey rhapsodized.
“Shh, Ab. You’re going to give it away,” Zoe warned.
Finn parked the car and the kids ran for the house. It was one of those early spring days that Finn remembered from being a kid. Everything smelled of newness. Of growth. Of potential.
Or maybe it was the fact that he was in love that was coloring his view, but either way he reveled in it.
He and Mattie had decided to play it cool until after Sophie and Colton’s wedding next month. They didn’t want their deepening relationship to take anything away from Sophie and Colton’s special day. But Finn was surprised that no one could see it. He felt as if his love for Mattie, and the family they were building, radiated off him in a totally all-encompassing way.
Gathered at his best friend’s farm, surrounded by friends and family, Finn wondered how he’d stayed away from Valley Ridge for so long.
He scanned the yard. Lily and Sebastian were near the barn having heated words, probably about Hank. He was going to have to say something to Sebastian, no matter what Lily said. Sebastian might need a friend more than a doctor’s opinion, but he was going to get both.
