Thunder Canyon Homecoming (16 page)

“I didn't think I had any bacon,” she said, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the pot.

“You didn't,” Betty agreed. “You never have much more than the bare essentials, so I brought a few things in a cooler.”

Erin opened the refrigerator to get the milk to add to her coffee and immediately realized that her mother had brought more than a few things—her fridge had never been so thoroughly stocked.

“Even out here in the wilds of Montana, there are grocery stores,” she told her mom.

Betty stacked a couple of slices of French toast on a plate, added a few slices of bacon, then passed the plate to her daughter. “Sit and eat.”

Erin sat and ate.

Usually breakfast was a bowl of cereal or some fruit and yogurt. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had French toast. And as much as she loved bacon—she took another bite of the deliciously salty meat—she never took the time to cook it for herself.

She picked up the bottle of maple syrup, poured some more onto her plate and swirled a piece of toast in it. “There are probably a gazillion calories in this breakfast.”

“Calories don't count when food is prepared with love,” Betty said.

“You always say that,” Erin noted, dropping her gaze to her plate again so her mom wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

“And you look like you could use a good meal—honestly, Erin, you're little more than skin and bones now.”

She smiled at that because she knew it was far from the truth. She weighed exactly the same as always, but if Betty
wasn't personally feeding her daughter, she had a tendency to assume that Erin wasn't eating.

“Where's Dad?” she asked, as much to shift the conversation as because she wanted to know.

“He had his breakfast already and went out for a walk—he was curious to check out the resort property.” Betty carried her own mug of coffee to the table. “If you had to leave San Diego for a while, you couldn't have picked a prettier spot.”

The front door opened and heavy footsteps pounded on the mat. “Brr, I think I've got ice on my glasses,” Jack called out.

Erin smiled. “It is a little colder here than in California, though.”

“A little?” Betty wrapped her cardigan more closely around herself.

“There's my girls,” Jack said, coming into the kitchen. He pressed his cold cheek to his daughter's, then to his wife's.

Betty yelped. “Goodness, Jack. You're freezing.”

“The air is brisk out there,” he said. “But it sure does get the blood flowing.”

Erin pushed her now-empty plate aside, smiling as she watched her dad make his way around her kitchen, finding the mug he'd obviously used earlier and refilling it with fresh coffee.

She'd missed these casual morning conversations with her parents, but she had different routines now—daily rituals that were her own. And maybe that was all part of growing up. Before she'd come to Thunder Canyon, she'd only occasionally thought about moving out of their home. Sure, she'd realized that she would have to make her own way eventually, but she'd had no real complaints about liv
ing under their roof, and the advantages had certainly outweighed the disadvantages.

But now that she had been living on her own for several months, she understood that it was what she'd needed—to be completely independent, to be responsible for herself, to make her own decisions. There was one decision in particular that she'd wrestled with late into the night—when to tell them what she'd learned about the events surrounding her birth at Thunder Canyon General Hospital. And she knew that she couldn't delay any longer.

“Mom. Dad.” She took a deep breath, looked at each of them in turn and sent up a silent but fervent prayer that she was doing the right thing. “There's something I have to tell you.”

“D
o you remember last June, when I went to visit Aunt Erma?” Erin asked them.

“She had asked to see you,” Jack recalled.

“It was just before she passed away,” Betty added.

Erin nodded. “Well, she wanted to talk to me because she had some information that led her to believe that I had family in Thunder Canyon.”

Betty looked to Jack, as if he might know something she didn't.

He shook his head. “If Erma had any relatives here, I didn't know about it.”

“She didn't mean that she had family here, but that
I
did,” Erin clarified.

“I don't understand,” her mother said.

“I didn't understand either,” Erin admitted. “She gave me some bits and pieces of information, but I never got a chance to ask her to explain.”

She was making a mess of this, trying to break the news gently rather than blurting out ‘I'm not your daughter.' But even if she could have spoken those words, she realized they weren't true. Corey was right—even if Betty Castro had not given birth to her, she would always be her mother.

“Is that why you came to Thunder Canyon?”

“Partly,” Erin said, then realized her response was yet an other half-truth and that she needed to be completely honest. “No, I left San Diego partly for the reasons I told you—because I was feeling stifled at the hotel and with Trevor. But I chose Thunder Canyon because of the questions I had.”

“Because of Erma,” Betty said, annoyance in her tone.

Jack laid his hand over his wife's. “What kind of questions?” he asked.

So Erin summarized, as best she could, her final conversation with her father's aunt and the information she'd uncovered since coming to Thunder Canyon, including the sense of recognition she'd felt when she saw the photo of Grant's sister at Erika and Dillon's wedding and the revelations from her recent conversation with Delores Beckett.

Her parents listened, silently absorbing what she was telling them, but she could tell that they were both confused and distressed by the implications.

“It seems…unbelievable,” Jack said.

“Because it is,” Betty insisted. “And I refuse to give any credence to Erma's crazy rants or to…”

Her words trailed off when Erin slid her digital camera across the table.

On the display was a picture of Elise that she'd snapped just before leaving her party the night before. She was with Grant, laughing at something he'd said, and the angle of the shot clearly showed the birthmark on the side of her nose.

Obviously Betty noticed it, too, because her breath caught. “Who is this?”

“Her name is Elise Clifton. She was born in Thunder Canyon General Hospital on November twentieth, twenty-six years ago.”

Jack touched his wife's hand again.

“Helen Clifton's little girl.” Her mother's words confirmed that she also remembered the woman she'd met in the maternity ward that day so many years earlier. “I didn't think it was possible—I didn't want to believe it was possible. But, oh, my Lord, the birthmark, and the shape of her eyes is exactly like Jake's, and the chin is so much like Josh's…”

She trailed off again and looked at Erin, who smiled wryly. “I know. She looks a lot more like my brothers than I do.”

“But that might just be a coincidence,” Betty said now, though not very convincingly.

“And I might believe it was,” Erin said, “if not for all of the other coincidences.”

Betty sighed, her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, honey. I don't know what to say.”

While his wife and daughter fumbled, it was Jack who found the words. “I think the most important thing to remember at this point,” he said to Erin, “is that we love you. We always have and we always will, and even if it turns out that a mistake was made and you aren't ours by blood, that will never change. You are our daughter in our hearts and that's more important than anything else.”

It was probably the longest speech Erin had ever heard her father make, and though his tone was gruff, she knew that he meant every word. And because she finally understood that it was true, she fell into his arms and sobbed.

 

A while later, after all the tears had been dried, Betty asked, “What do you want to do now?”

“I want to tell Helen and Elise and Grant, Helen's son. But Corey told me that John's death hit them all hard, and I'm worried about how they'll react to finding out that their ties to one another aren't quite what they believed.”

“You've talked to Corey about this?” Jack asked.

“I had to talk to someone,” Erin told him.

“Then we'll talk about Corey later,” her father promised.

“Why?”

“Because I know what it means when a man looks at a woman the way he was looking at my little girl, and I want to know what's going on with you two.”

“Jack,” Betty chided gently, as if she hadn't tried to pry the same information from Erin the night before. “She's a grown woman now.”

“I said we'll talk about it later,” he repeated.

And Erin smiled because she realized that although her entire life had been turned upside down, some things never changed.

“Getting back to the topic at hand,” Betty said, looking pointedly at her husband before turning her attention back to her daughter. “I think you should talk to Helen first—a mom usually has a good idea about how her kids will deal with tough news.”

“And my mom always has the best ideas,” Erin said, making Betty smile. “If I could set up a meeting, would you go with me?”

“Absolutely,” her mother said, proving once again that her support was unconditional and unwavering.

 

Corey was pulling into the Super Saver Mart parking lot, thinking about Erin instead of the groceries he needed,
when he saw her walk out of the store. He recognized her Kia and pulled into a vacant spot beside it.

She looked up when he opened the door.

“Did Mother Hubbard find the cupboard was bare?” he asked lightly.

Her face was pale and her eyes looked tired, but she smiled, just a little. “I'd swear my mother brought half of the Whole Foods Market from San Diego in coolers,” she told him. “But she somehow managed to forget butter.”

“You don't have butter?” he asked curiously.

“No, I have margarine, and when my mother bakes, she does not substitute margarine for butter.”

He stroked a finger gently over the shadow beneath her eye. “Rough night?”

“I didn't sleep well,” she admitted.

“Probably because you were sleeping alone,” he said teasingly, earning another half-smile from her.

“I told my parents this morning.”

“How did they react?”

“They were shocked. Skeptical. But when they saw Elise's picture, they couldn't deny the possibility. We're going to talk to Helen before any other steps are taken.”

“Sounds reasonable,” he said.

She nodded.

“Speaking of next steps,” he said. “How about catching a movie with me tonight?”

“My parents are visiting,” she reminded him.

“They can come, too. Or are you worried that they won't approve of you dating me?”

“You know that's not the issue. And I'm not dating you.”

“Don't shut me out, Erin.”

“I'm not shutting you out,” she denied. “I just need time to figure some things out.”

“You don't have to figure everything out on your own,” he told her. “Or are you saying ‘no' to punish me for not supporting you?”

“I'm not punishing you.”

He wasn't sure he believed her, but he also couldn't blame her. He'd treated her carelessly and she had every right to be wary. But he wasn't going to give up. He would do whatever he needed to do to prove his feelings for her, to prove that they were meant to be together because he re ally believed that they were.

“Okay,” he finally said. “I'll give you some time to figure things out. But while you're doing that, there's one other piece of information you might want to consider.”

“Which is?”

“That I'm in love with you.”

 

Erin stared at him, stunned, breathless, terrified.

“Yeah, that's kind of how I felt when the realization hit me,” Corey told her. “And I probably shouldn't have said those words for the first time in the middle of a parking lot, but I wanted you to know.”

It wasn't the location but the words that left her speechless. They'd broken up; he'd walked out on her. “You don't—you can't mean it.”

His brows rose. “Why can't I?”

She didn't know why, she only knew that he couldn't. It didn't make any sense. She looked away from him, trying to order her scrambled thoughts, and bought some time for herself by unlocking the doors and putting the butter inside her car.

He took her hands and linked their fingers together. “I know you're confused and probably more than a little scared because of your family situation. But although Helen may have given birth to you and genetics might make Grant
your brother, Betty and Jack Castro are still your parents—they raised you and loved you and helped you become the woman you are now. The woman
I
love.”

He sounded sincere and she wanted to believe that he meant what he said, but it wasn't that long ago that he'd dumped her. He'd walked away from her when she'd needed him and, in the process, he'd trampled all over her heart with his size thirteen boots. And now he thought he could toss those three little words out and she would welcome him back with open arms? Not likely.

But you love him, too.

The voice didn't echo in her head this time but in her heart, but she refused to listen.

“I can't do this right now,” she told him.

“I'm not asking you to do or say anything,” he told her. “I just wanted you to know because I'm going back to Texas—”

“You're leaving?” She didn't know why the thought sent her into such a panic. After all, she was the one who'd told him to go, but she'd only wanted him to give her a little space—not fifteen-hundred miles.

And now that she knew he was leaving Thunder Canyon, she suddenly wanted to cling to him and ask him to stay. Because she was afraid of being alone? Or because she was afraid that if he walked out the door he might never come back?

“Only for a while,” he promised. “And I will be coming back.”

When?

The question sprang to her lips, but this time she managed to bite back the instinctive response. She had no right to ask questions, no right to expect anything from him. And she should know better than to expect anything from a man
who could say he loved her in one breath and tell her that he was leaving in the next.

It was for the best, she decided. Because she needed to figure out her own life before she could decide where he might fit into it—or even if she wanted him to.

“When are you leaving?” she asked instead.

“Tomorrow.”

She nodded and tried to ignore the tightness that had taken hold of her chest.

“I'm giving you some time.” He tipped her chin up and pressed a brief, hard kiss to her lips. “But I'm not going to wait forever for you to decide what you want.”

He started across the parking lot.

“Corey.”

He paused, turned.

She wasn't sure what she'd intended to say, what she could say, that would erase the aching emptiness that filled her heart as she watched him walk away from her. In the end, she only said, “Have a safe trip.”

He nodded.

She watched until the automatic doors of the store had closed behind him, then she got into her car and drove home.

 

The Clifton and the Castro families spent Thanksgiving together. Bo and Holly Clifton were in attendance, and even Erin's brothers, Jake and Josh, made the trip to Thunder Canyon for the holiday. Erin knew their decision was partly motivated by a desire to reassure her that they would always be around to nag her, as big brothers are required to do, and partly motivated by curiosity about their new sister. Although they were still waiting for the DNA results to officially confirm that the babies had been incorrectly ID'd at the hospital, no one doubted that it was true. Betty shared
the information that she had with Helen and was, in turn, given one final piece of the puzzle.

When Helen first held her baby girl in her arms, she hadn't had a birthmark on the side of her nose. A few hours later, after the baby had been bathed and swaddled and returned to her, she'd questioned the nurse about the tiny brown mark that she saw on her daughter's face and that she was certain hadn't been there before. The nurse had brushed off her question, assuring her that birthmarks weren't always present at birth and often did appear hours—or even days and weeks—later.

Because of the hemorrhaging, Betty hadn't seen her baby until after her surgery, so she couldn't say for sure that her daughter had been born with a birthmark, but she remembered that the marks had been evident on each of her sons right away.

Learning that she had a second mother and a father again, after losing John so many years earlier, seemed to have completely overwhelmed Elise.

Erin could understand—she'd felt the same way when she'd come to Thunder Canyon on the impetus of only her great-aunt Erma's cryptic words. And though her suspicions about her background had continued to grow over the past few months, hearing Delores Beckett give credence to those suspicions had made her question everything she knew about her roots and her family. Elise, having never had any reason to doubt who she was or where she came from, was still reeling from the revelations. Erin hoped that in time Elise would agree that they weren't losing the families they'd known but gaining new ones, with the added bonus that sharing brothers made them honorary sisters. But she understood that the other woman needed some time to absorb the revelations that had been thrown at her. As Corey had once pointed out to her, Erin had been thinking
about the possibility of a baby mix-up for several weeks, and Elise had known the truth for only a few days.