by DC Renee
“My baby girl,” my mom whispered, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I missed you so much,” she said as she practically sprinted across the room and enveloped Noah and me in a hug. She held on tight until Noah squirmed between us, and then she moved away, but not without taking him from me. “Hi, Noah, I’m your grandma.”
I turned to see Nolan and Neal embracing just as my dad stepped in and wrapped me in a hug. I was overwhelmed and confused but also incredibly overjoyed.
Neal and I hugged next, and then all three grandparents spent the better part of ten minutes fussing with Noah before we finally got the story from Neal.
“It took me all of two minutes once I returned after you off,” he said, looking at Nolan, “to realize I couldn’t live with my family living away from me, my grandson never knowing who I was. So, I decided to ‘spiral’ just like you did, Nolan. I just had to bide my time so it wouldn’t look odd. The family bought it. I mean, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, right? It took me almost a year to settle everything and make it believable. I also lived in a different state for a few months first to throw any scent off you guys just in case. Better safe than sorry, I figured.”
“Meanwhile,” my dad interjected, “Neal had come to us and told us everything, including his new plan.”
“We were furious at first,” my mom told us. “You can bet you both are very, very lucky that we had all this time to really think things through, or we would have taken you both over our knees and spanked you, adults or not.” I smiled because I knew my mom was serious, but it was still funny. “But we were so happy everyone was alive, that it took us no more than five minutes—”
“Of yelling at me,” Neal cut in with a smile, letting us know he was teasing, even if it was the truth.
“Can you blame us?” my dad asked him.
“No,” Neal admitted. “I would have done worse.”
“Well, as I was saying before I was interrupted,” my mom said. “We were so happy to know you were alive and well, and with our grandbaby, no less, that we decided there was no more room for anger.”
“That’s when we concocted our own plan,” my dad informed us. “We told anyone that would listen that it was too hard to stay where we were because we kept seeing you everywhere, missing you everywhere. At first, it was comforting, which explained why we hadn’t moved right away. But, now it was just too much for us. We basically made it known we were looking to move away, and then just a couple of months later, we sold their house and moved out of state. No one questioned it, but like Neal, we hadn’t wanted to lead anyone to us just in case someone still kept tabs on us.”
“But we’d had a secret agreement,” Neal told us, “that we would be there for Noah’s first birthday.”
“And here you are,” I said with a happy smile as tears of joy threatening to spill from my eyes.
“And we’re staying,” they announced collectively just as the doorbell rang, announcing the start of the party.
As I watched our friends filter through the door, my parents and Neal smiling proudly to the side, Noah in my arms and Nolan by my side, I couldn’t have been happier. Even after everything, after the lies, the pain, the deception—oh the deception, on too many counts—I was truly happy. I’d take it all and live it again, if it got me to this point. I had good friends, I had my family, I had Nolan, and I had Noah. I couldn’t ask for more.
It was more.
It was perfect.
It was love.
And it was all mine.
~The End~
I’d literally be just a ball of crazy ideas with nowhere to go if it weren’t for my amazing support system. I’ve been very lucky that said support system hasn’t changed book after book!
Always, always thanks to my family! They are forever my number-one fans (and critics, of course. Ha!) That includes my hubby, my baby girl and baby boy, my sister (she’s my co-conspirator), my parents, my in-laws, and my nieces & nephews.
Without these special gals, I’d have a bunch of loose pages: thank you to my editor and feedback guru, Jenny Sims at Editing4Indies, to my genius cover girl (like that play on words? Hehe), Rebecca Pau at The Full Wrap, my insanely talented formatter, Elaine York, at Allusion Graphics, and my patient and wonderful PA, Kristin Youngblood.
Thank you to my friends that the book world led me toward: Rebecca Bennett, Janett Gomez, Jen Wilder, Monica Perez, Brianna Maddox, Heather Cicio, Suleika Santana, Cat Gray, Tiffany West, Christina Gragg, Shelly Wygant, Emily Goodman, Kacie Spiros, Stephanie Caldwell, ChaShiree Mixon.
Thank you to my Diamonds! You are one of my biggest reasons to write!
Last, but certainly not least!! Thank you to all the blogs, bloggers, groups, fellow authors, and readers that have helped me with this book and over all the years! And for helping to promo/spread the word/read Love’s Deception!!
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