Lost and Found (19 page)

But wasn’t it funny how things always
worked out? Even her own father had been married before he married
her mother. Oh, it had been a short-lived marriage to a woman, a
nurse, who was also in the Army. She’d never asked him about her.
Maybe now she would.

It gave her a moment of concern
though. If her father had once remarried—and even Ed’s parents had
once divorced and remarried, and then remarried each other—was Ed
the man for her? Or was he a stepping stone in her life?

Oh, she certainly didn’t want to think
like that. Was it possible to love the first man you truly knew in
your heart was the right one? What if she’d made a mistake and
missed the transitional person? What if she’d bypassed the right
path when she bumped into him in Starbucks.

A bead of sweat trickled down her
back.

You could make your own destiny,
right? Isn’t that what her mother always told her?

And then, as if her mother had touched
her shoulder, Darcy understood that very saying.

In a moment of uncertainty, Darcy had
hired that investigator to help her find herself. He’d led her to
Tennessee, where in fact she had found herself.

Ed Keller wasn’t just something that
happened along. It was part of the destiny that Darcy was supposed
to have. She was supposed to be part of the Keller family, and she
was supposed to meet the man of her dreams while she was covered in
a coffee drink.

When the plane touched down in
Kentucky, she’d be able to actually tell her father that she had
everything she’d ever wanted and that she was happy. That’s all
he’d ever wanted for her.

The pain in her heart, from learning
she was adopted and from her mother passing, was easing. Ed Keller
would never treat her the way that man treated Regan. He hadn’t
even made a move to have sex with her. This was the kind of
gentleman her father would approve of.

It was all going to be okay. This new
life she’d made in Nashville was the life she was meant to
have.

When the plane landed in Ashland,
Darcy collected her things and headed off the plane. It was a funny
feeling, flying back. Usually when she’d walk through the airport,
there was a feeling of coming home, but that wasn’t the case this
time. Could Nashville have become her home so quickly?

When she collected her bags, she
climbed into the taxi and told him to take her to King’s Daughters
Medical Center. Oh, her father was going to be livid.

And he proved that he was the moment
she walked into his room.

“
You shouldn’t be here. Oh,
that sister of mine can’t keep her big mouth shut, can
she?”

Darcy set her suitcase on the floor
and walked to the bed where her father sat. His head was bandaged
and he had an IV in his arm, but other than that, he looked
perfectly fine.

“
It’s nice to see you too,
Daddy.”

The smile he’d tried to keep hidden
under the frown he’d worked up snuck through. “You spend all your
savings just to come home and make sure my head was still attached?
Just a few stitches, that’s all.”

“
Then why did they keep you
overnight?”

His brows narrowed. “Blood
sugar.”

Darcy nodded. That was what she
figured. “Did they say when you could go home?”

“
When someone came to get
me. But what about Carol? She was coming for me.”

“
I presume she’s on her
way. I happened to be at the airport when I heard you were here. I
jumped on another flight, and here I am.”

Her father growled. “What did your
boss think about that?”

“
He bought my
ticket.”

“
Sounds like a nice
man.”

“
That he is.” She tapped
her fingertips against her thigh and moved closer to her father’s
bed. “Maybe we should call for a nurse so we can take you
home.”

Darcy was a bit surprised when she
walked through the front door of the house she’d grown up in. There
were no more pictures on the walls, and the hallway was lined with
cardboard boxes.

“
Daddy, what’s going on in
here?” she asked as he walked ahead of her and into the
kitchen.

“
I’m moving.”

“
Were you going to discuss
this with me?”

“
Darcy, you left me.
Remember? You moved on with your life, and don’t you suppose I
should be able to do the same?”

“
Sure. I just thought maybe
you’d mention it first.”

Her father took a glass from the
cupboard and filled it with water. He then took the bottle of pills
they’d given him from his pocket, opened them, and swallowed one
back.

“
Your mother is gone. This
is no more my home any more than that hospital bed was.”

Darcy ran her hand over a stack of
papers on the kitchen table. “What are you going to do?”

“
Aunt Carol says the
community where she lives is a nice place.” He shrugged and set the
glass in the sink. “She’s the only family I have left, besides you.
I should spend the rest of my time with my family, don’t you
think?”

She was sure guilt could eat you up
and kill you quickly.

“
I could move home,” she
said, but her voice wavered.

Her father laughed. “You think I’d ask
you to do that?”

“
No.”

“
You’re right.” He walked
to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. “Sit.”

Darcy did as she was told.

Her father reached across the table
and took her hands. “I’m proud of you, Darcy Ann. It took a lot of
guts to pack up and move.”

“
Daddy…”

“
Don’t interrupt
me.”

She dropped her shoulders. Adult or
not, this man could quickly put her in her place.

“
Your job. It’s a good one,
right?”

“
Yes.”

“
Your boss. You said he’s a
nice man.”

“
Yes.”

Her father narrowed his eyes. “Did you
find your birth parents yet?”

Darcy was sure her heart had fallen
out of her chest and just been stomped into the ground. She pulled
her hands from her father’s and cupped them around her mouth to
keep the sobs that were about to escape from doing so.

Her father stood and walked to the
paper towel roll which hung by the sink. He pulled down the roll
and handed the whole thing to her. She pulled off a sheet and began
frantically wiping away her tears as he sat back down.

“
I knew that telling you
that you were adopted would lead to that. I’m not stupid, you
know.”

All Darcy could do was nod.

“
I don’t know who they
were. We didn’t deal with them directly. It was set up through the
hospital. I don’t think the father was involved.”

Darcy looked up at her father. He was
feeding her information. Would he always just have done
that?

He scratched his head, and then, as if
he’d just noticed it, he pulled the gauze strip from his arm and
wadded up the bandage. “You were born early. I think about six
weeks early. There had been some kind of accident or something, and
we were told your mother died.”

The sobs broke through, and Darcy
pulled off more of the paper towel and began to wipe at her
face.

Her father looked down at his hands.
“You were in NICU for three weeks, fighting for your life. We
figured it was just a cruel joke that the world was playing on us.
When we finally got the call that there was a baby for us, there
was a chance she was going to die.”

“
I never knew
that.”

“
There was no need for you
to know.” He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin. “If the
woman who had you was dead and you’d survived, why make you even
think about it?”

“
That’s why you didn’t tell
me?”

He shrugged. “We didn’t see any
reason.”

How could she possibly deny him that
logic.

“
I love you. I love both of
you. I should never have gone looking for my birth parents. But…”
She paused as she contemplated what she was going to say. “Had I
not tried, I’d never have fallen in love with the most wonderful
man.”

Her father clasped his hands and then
looked down at them. This was something he’d do before he got very
angry. Darcy placed her hands in her lap and waited.

And waited.

Soon her father stood from his seat
and walked out of the house. Darcy sat there for a few more
minutes, but he never returned.

Finally she walked outside where her
father was putting boxes into the back of his pickup
truck.

“
Are you moving right now?”
she asked as she walked down the front steps of the
house.

“
No. You are.”

“
Dad, how hard did you hit
your head?”

He laughed. “Not hard at all. You’re
taking my truck and all this crap your mother saved for you. She
collected dishes, linens, picture frames, and hell, I don’t know
what else. She boxed them and marked them with your name for twenty
years. They were for when you got married, so you might as well
take them.”

“
I’m not getting
married.”

“
You just told me you were
in love.”

“
Well, yes.”

“
Then I would expect if he
is a decent man, he’d be asking you to marry him.”

She moved closer to the truck. “I
would expect that he would someday, too. But this is a new
relationship.”

Her father threw the last box into the
back of the truck and looked at her. “Who is he? Who is this man
who has taken your heart?”

He was so unsentimental that when he
said that she almost burst out laughing.

“
Eduardo
Keller.”

Her father pursed his lips. “And what
does this Eduardo man do?”

Darcy cleared her throat. “He is the
Vice President of Benson, Benson, and Hart.”

Her father pushed up the tailgate and
stood there with his arms folded on it. “You’re having an affair
with your boss?”

“
No. It’s not like
that.”

“
Not how I hear
it.”

“
Daddy, I’m not like that.
You know that.”

“
Maybe Nashville has
changed you.” He walked past her and back into the
house.

This time she followed. “Do you really
think of me like that?”

“
Darcy, you always took
your own path.”

“
No, I didn’t. I did all
the things I was supposed to do. I never strayed off course—ever. I
got straight A’s. I won trophies in every sport I ever played. I
graduated from college. What more was I supposed to do?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He
walked to the living room and sat down in his recliner. “I know
it’s been a year, Darcy, but I miss your mother.”

Darcy let out a loud sigh and dropped
her shoulders. “Is this what it’s all about? Are you really just
missing her? Or are you really mad at me?”

He shook his head. “I’m proud of you.
I really am.”

“
That’s all I’ve ever tried
to do is make you proud. Daddy,” she said as she knelt down in
front of him. “I love Ed. He’s a hard-working man, and he has this
amazing family.”

“
A big family?”

“
Yes!” She laughed when she
said it. “And they are all so kind. You’re going to love
them.”

He grunted.

“
Daddy, why don’t you come
with me. If Ashland isn’t home anymore to either of us because Mom
is gone, then come with me.”

This time he laughed. “Are you kidding
me? Nashville isn’t for me. Trust me.”

“
So you’re going to move to
Florida? You’re going to go and be happy there?”

He ran his tongue over his teeth. “I’m
going to try, honey. I was happy with your mother.”

The sentiment choked her, and she
moved to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. That statement
took a lot for him to say. She knew that.

“
Well then,” she said and
then kissed him on the cheek, “how can I help you get ready for
your move?”

Darcy listened to the rumble of the
truck as she drove away from her father’s house. He waved from the
porch and then blew her a kiss.

She never would have imagined she’d be
driving away in his truck—his precious “as old as Kentucky”
truck.

When she got to the first stop light,
she dialed the now familiar number on her cell phone. Her heart
kicked up a notch when Ed answered.

“
Please tell me you’re on
your way home and everything is okay.”

Darcy laughed. “I’m on my way home and
everything is okay.”

Ed let out a breath into the phone.
“Are you flying in? Or did you get your mom’s car?”