And Then I Found You (28 page)

“There are bands and cute guys and bars,” Kate teased, poking at her sister.

“Then I’m in.” Molly picked up a cupcake, licking off the icing without taking a bite.

Nicole stepped forward then, placing her hand on Kate’s arm. “Did you get a letter?”

Kate shook her head. “No. I didn’t think I would,” she lied, not wanting to again
taste the dry-mouthed regret she’d awoken with. “There’s not much he could tell me
about his year. I was there for most of it.” She smiled, but turned away.

“Look what I’ve got,” Molly said, digging into her bag.

Kate glanced at her sister, and for the briefest moment, that moment of hope that
often came with the ding of incoming mail or a ringing phone, Kate thought her sister
might have
the
letter. Instead Molly pulled out a tiara. “I found this and I want to mail it to
Emily for her birthday. You think that would be okay?”

“Absolutely,” Kate said. “I sent her a set of oil paints. Elena said she was really
into painting these days.”

“Let’s go to Savannah,” Tara said, changing the subject and then also grabbing a cupcake.
“I have to be back before car pool.”

“Car pool.” Norah groaned. “God, my days are numbered, aren’t they?” She touched her
stomach, but smiled.

“Numbered in ways in which you have no idea,” Tara said. “If I were you, I’d go to
sleep now and not get up until you go into labor. Cause I’m telling you, you’re not
sleeping again for a long, long time.”

“Let’s go, Miss Encouragement,” Kate said. “Get out of here.”

“Hey, Katey-Latey,” Tara said. “What’s your First Thing today?”

Kate stopped and turned to her sister. “I haven’t decided. Sometimes it just shows
up and I know. You have any ideas?”

“I do,” Molly said, holding her hand over her mouth to stifle laughter. “I think you
should skydive.”

“Not happening,” Kate said. “Never. It would be a First Thing that might be my very
last thing.”

Laughing, the gathering of sisters, mom, and best friend walked to the front door
and stopped as Kate, once again, opened the iron mailbox to peek inside. Hope was
having its say.

Nothing.

Empty.

“You looking for a letter?” An impossible voice asked.

Kate looked up and into those green eyes. “Yes, I am.” She tried not to smile, but
some happiness can’t be stopped. Morning sunlight settled between them, a puddle on
whose edges they stood. A dogwood tree bloomed overhead, a green umbrella dotted white.
Time waited. It seemed as if all of nature and future held its breath with Kate, wondering
what Jack’s arrival meant.

Behind her, Kate’s mother let out a cry. “Jack.”

Norah spoke softly. “Let’s go back inside for a minute. I want another cupcake.” The
double front doors swished shut, leaving Jack and Kate on the sidewalk.

“Maybe I’m better than a letter?” he asked.

“Maybe. But those letters are pretty special.” Her toes inched toward the middle of
the sunlight puddle.

He laughed, holding out his hand. She took it and he pulled her toward him, sliding
his hand around her waist to hold her lower back. “I am so sorry, Katie. I said and
did so many stupid things in the mess of these past months. I wish I could take back
every word. Please forgive me.”

She nodded. “We were both a mess.” She paused. “But what are you doing here?” she
whispered, both wanting and scared of the answer.

“I just happened to be in town for the Sand Gnats baseball game and…”

“Yeah, right,” she laughed, “Baseball was my excuse. You have to find a new one.”

He pulled her closer, if there was a closer. “I’ve told everyone about everything.
How could I have not wanted to tell the world?”

“Told them about Luna?”

He nodded. “Of course about Luna, but also how I love you. How I’ve always loved you.”

“You told them before you told me?” She smiled.

Their bodies, so close together, allowed her to feel his laughter. “I love you,” he
said. “And I have a great idea for your First Thing today.”

“You do?”

“I do.”

“And what is it?”

“For the first time, you promise me forever. You. Me. For good and all.”

“That’s not a First Thing. I promised that a long time ago.”

“Then for the first time, let’s make it happen. We might have ended, but love didn’t.
Staying together will be
our
First Thing.”

She leaned into him then, and said only one word, one she’d said alone at night in
the dark. “Jack.”

He took her face in his warm hands and kissed her. “Guess I should’ve asked first,”
he said into their kiss.

“Ask me now,” she said.

They touched foreheads, basking in the repeated words of long ago when he’d kissed
her for the first time on the day of First Things.

“You know,” he said. “I’m so happy Luna found us.”

“Yes.” Kate slipped her hand under his shirt, as if to make sure he was real, solid
and there. “Found.”

Found.

The word held the loveliest sound—lighter than any feather; softer than a kiss; a
song in a single word.

thirty

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

March 20, 2012

When people ask how they met, Katie and Jack say they loved in retrograde, backward.
They’d both wanted to do things the way others did—to tell a story about meeting and
falling in love and having kids—but they didn’t. They met; they gave birth to a daughter;
they unraveled and then loved again.

Their wedding was a celebration of years falling away and looping back. They married
in Bluffton in a small chapel overlooking Katie’s beloved river. She wore a simple
cream silk strapless dress. Her copper hair was piled on her head, loose pieces falling
onto her bare shoulder. A ring of white peonies circled her head. It was Emily, waiting
in her pink junior bridesmaid dress at the back of the chapel, who whispered in Katie’s
ear just before she walked down the aisle. “That’s a fairy ring on your head. Anything
you wish today will come true.” And Katie had kissed her daughter and said, “Anything
I’d wish has already come true.”

After they’d moved to Birmingham, Katie had sold her part of the store back to Susan.
Lida became the full manager, her creativity taking the boutique in new directions.
Katie took over Luna Studio, filling the space with the varied works of local artisans,
from jewelry to letterpress to leather creations and more. Now exhibits and shows
with live music and food were monthly events. Luna Studio had become a gathering place
to celebrate new art and creativity of all kinds.

On the first day of spring, Jack and Katie threw a party at their Tudor house on top
of the hill overlooking downtown Birmingham. Twenty guests crowded the backyard, including
Katie’s family and nephews; Norah, Charlie, and their nine-month-old son, Chase; neighbors,
and friends. Jack and Katie were celebrating their love and also Emily’s birthday,
and although Emily wasn’t there, she’d sent a daffodil painting with a single feather
glued to the top right corner. “Happy First Day of Spring,” was scrawled in her handwriting
across the bottom of the artwork. “I Love You.”

Caleb was on the tire swing and Jack stood behind him, pushing him higher with each
holler. Claire, the woman who now ran the art studio, sat next to Katie and clinked
her champagne glass against Katie’s own. “You know,” Claire said, “there really are
easier ways to fall in love and get together, my dear.”

“Yep,” Katie said. “That’s what I hear.”

Jack caught her gaze across the yard and walked toward her. She was often stunned
into wonder when she looked at Jack—the pureness of the way she loved him without
regret or restraint. He reached her side and then touched her rounded stomach where
their child was just starting to flutter inside, a tickle at the bottom of her belly
that could have been anything, but was only one thing.

Caleb bounded across the yard and then bent down, picking something off the grass.
When he reached Katie, he held out his palm and looked up at her. “Isn’t this yours?”

Katie looked down and spied a small white feather fluttering in the bowl of Caleb’s
hand. “No, sweetie, I just like to find them.”

“Well, I think this one got lost.”

Kate plucked the feather from his hand, immersed in the beauty and sacrament of all
things lost and found.

A Reading Group Guide

  1. This novel was inspired by a true story. Is there an event in your life that
you think would make a good novel?

  2. Katie is so devoted to her work with damaged girls that she postpones her life
together with Jack. Do you think that Jack should have been more patient in waiting
for her? Or was Katie taking their relationship for granted?

  3. Katie hears a lot of “terrible stories” from the girls at The Winsome Wilderness.
How did these experiences contribute to her decision to place Luna for adoption?

  4. Kate seems to take great comfort in rituals. Have these rituals served a positive
purpose in her life—or have they held her back?

  5. Do you think Kate and Rowan’s relationship would have had a different outcome
if she had been able to confide in him about her past?

  6. Lida is much more than an employee to Kate, who seems to turn a blind eye to
the younger woman’s shortcomings. What do you think they offer each other?

  7. When he was married, Jack didn’t tell his wife about Luna. Do you think that
this compromised their marriage?

  8. Kate mentions that she “wants to love” Rowan. Can Kate—or anyone make themselves
love someone? Can you want to love enough to love?

  9. Jack says in one of his letters, “of all of the awful parts of missing their
daughter, the non-knowning was the absolute worse.” Why did Jack feel this way? Do
you agree?

10. In the opening of the novel we see that March 20
th
is a significant date for Katie Vaughn, and it remains so throughout the remainder
of the novel. Is there a date that is deeply significant to you and if so, why?

11. Thirteen-year-old Emily wonders about her “birth parents.” Do you know any adopted
children and if so, do they often wonder about their birth parents?

12. Emily is deeply loved and has a close family, but still she struggled with feeling
wanted. Why do you think this is?

13. Emily wants to know “her story”—don’t we all? Did hearing her story directly from
Jack and Kate help Emily? Do you think that hearing “your story” helps you understand
your life? Do you believe that telling “your story” helps others?

14. At one point in the novel, Emily believes that it would be nicer to live with
Katie and Jack. Can you see why she would believe this?

15. Kate has a very close family and they often talk about Luna, and yet her birth
and adoption are also a tightly held secret. Do you believe families can hold these
kinds of secrets? How do they affect the family and those who are close to them?

For more reading group suggestions, visit
www.readinggroupgold.com
.

Dear Reader,

Over two years ago, in the middle of an ordinary day, the extraordinary happened,
and my family will never be the same.

Some twenty-one years ago my little sister placed her baby for adoption. It was the
most heartrending, courageous, and difficult decision she had ever made, and we all
wept with her when she handed her baby girl to an anonymous, yet hand-chosen family.
Then … two years ago, I received a Facebook friend request from a young girl with
the same birthday as my adopted niece. It was too much to hope for, almost too miraculous
to believe. But it was true: My sister’s daughter, my niece, found us on Facebook.

Our family had often talked about my niece, using the name my sister had given her.
We remembered her whenever we saw a girl who would be her age at that time. Everytime
my parents moved into a new house, they planted a tree for her and we all prayed for
her happiness and safety. We knew nothing about her—all those years we didn’t know
where she lived or with whom. Although we knew that legally she could find us when
she turned twenty-one, there was no way for us to find her. And then finally, all
those years of unknowing and all those years of wondering culminated in a reunion
that most dream about.

My sister’s story was the inspiration for this novel,
And Then I Found You.
It is my way of exploring the way we live with unknowing. We want certainty, we want
solid ground under our feet. We want to be sure of our place in the world, and yet
we rarely, if ever, have that certainty. So then, how do we live? And what happens
when the lost become found?

Although the personal facts are left for my sister to tell, the fictional story in
And Then I Found You
explores the emotions and extraordinary change that reunions bring to a life and
to a family.

I hope this story touches your heart.

Warmly,

Patti Callahan Henry

ALSO BY PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY

Coming Up for Air

The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story

Driftwood Summer

The Art of Keeping Secrets

Between the Tides

When Light Breaks

Where the River Runs

Losing the Moon

about the author