Sarah sat at the kitchen island of the Pennsylvania farmhouse drinking a cup of the best coffee she’d ever tasted and looking out at the sycamores that lined the path to the red octagonal barn between the house and the fields beyond.

Though the world seemed to be coming down around her ears, Sarah had felt at peace from the moment she’d pulled up at Harkness Farms with her sister Mandy and baby Orson in tow. The kids who lived there had convened around the car to greet them politely. And they brought the three of them in to see Mom, no questions asked.

Kate Harkness stood opposite her with Orson tucked happily in the crook of her left arm as if he had grown there - an apple on this tree of a woman.

Kate’s sun-tanned skin spoke of hours spent in the orchard. Her twinkly blue eyes, long braid, and even her floury apron gave her appearance a cozy timelessness.

Sarah could understand how generations of fostered shifter children had felt comfortable with her immediately.

Shifter.

The word felt strange to her, though she’d repeated it to herself again and again since her conversation with Derek. A conversation where after he’d stopped being a giant bear, he had explained that shifters were real, that Orson wasn’t alone. And that Derek’s foster mom, Kate, could help.

“Well, bear or no bear, he’s obviously a very special boy,” Kate said firmly.

Sarah smiled. Kate wasn’t going to find any argument with her on that point.

“May I ask if his father is a shifter?” Kate asked, turning to grab another mug from the cupboard.

Sarah was grateful for the moment’s respite to decide what to say.

On the one hand, it didn’t do much to improve her character in Kate’s eyes to admit to having had a one night stand.

On the other, this woman could help Orson. The least Sarah could offer her was honesty.

“I, um, don’t have a relationship with his father,” she offered.

As she said it, she couldn’t help the flash of memory that filled her mind…

A magical walk in the woods, a drink at a bar, a night in Max’s strong arms. His hands on her, feeling like home…

“He doesn’t even know about Orson,” she continued, the words spilling out now. “It was just one night. I went down to North Carolina to invest in some timberland, and he owned a logging outfit there—”

There was a terrific crash as Kate dropped an earthenware mug into the sink.

“Gracious, how clumsy of me,” Kate declared.

Orson chuckled.

“Everything okay?” Mandy asked, poking her head in the kitchen door.

“It’s fine,” Sarah told her sister. “I was just explaining to Kate about Orson’s dad, and I think I kind of shocked her.”

“Goodness no, child,” Kate scolded her. “Do you think I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be young?”

Sarah couldn’t help grinning.

“Now,” Kate said, “as I see it, you’ve got a very special boy here - a boy who has a heritage he may want to know more about one day.”

“That’s what I said,” Mandy agreed.

“So you’re saying I should reach out to his father?” Sarah asked.

A tingle of excitement went up her spine, even as her mind began to fret about what it always did when thinking of Max.

What if he tried to take Orson away?

Or - somehow just as horrifying - what if he didn’t even care?

“Did he seem like a good man?” Kate asked.

“Yes,” Sarah said, without thinking about it.

“Go find him,” Kate said. “Go now. Leave Orson with me, I’ll spoil him like a grandchild.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Sarah said immediately.

“Of course you can,” Mandy said. “I’ll stay too. He’ll have Kate and his auntie to spoil him.”

Sarah began to protest, but she knew they were going to prevail.

It would be easier to test the waters with Max without letting him know about Orson right away. And, once she told him, any serious conversation was sure to be more productive without a baby on her hip.

It was a risk, but her will to keep Orson all to herself was not as great as her will to do what was best for him.

If his father could help him, then she had to go to his father.