Chapter 34

Elspeth

Old Injun Joe, as he was known locally, was regaling those in the café with a story of the biggest catfish ever caught, and supposedly he’d been holding the pole. There was a general exchange of rolled eyes. People preferred to think of him as more of a storyteller than local historian. Either way, he got the attention he loved, and I continued to pour second and third cups of coffee.

Dirk was playing in his playpen and to my surprise, this had become quite a draw. Other townspeople with young toddlers would put their children in the playpen with him. While the little ones played, the parents could freely and quietly eat without squalling from the highchairs.

The café was doing well, and I was considering opening a second at a nearby location. I had finally gotten up the courage one weekend to take the old car I’d bought from the used car lot in town and drive to my mother’s house. She wasn’t there, but it didn’t take long to discover from old neighbors that Earl had gotten drunk and passed out on the railroad tracks. The 7:09 from Columbus was on time that evening, and Earl had finally hit something that was big enough to run him over.

My mother had moved to Michigan and was living with her cousin. I’d taken a long look around town and then left. As I passed the city limits, I knew I would never come back. I wasn’t even sure how to contact my mother. I’d never gotten a chance to meet that part of my family and while I thought they lived in northern Michigan, I was lost when we crossed the bridge so I was no longer sure. It didn’t matter, anyway. Mother was fine and safe, which let Dirk and I be the same. There only remained one human I’d left behind, and my heart ached every time I thought about him.

I heard the bell ding over the door, snatched up the coffee pot, and came around from the counter with a menu in hand. The sun was behind the customer, blinding me, but there was something oddly familiar in his stance. He’d come in and simply stood there, unmoving. I walked closer, assuming he wanted to be seated and was waiting for a hostess.

“No hostess on duty. You can sit anywhere you like,” I said.

“Hello, Elspeth.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew that deep, melodious voice from the nights he had held me, encouraging me to trust him, to let him keep me happy and to not worry about the future.

“Finn?” The dam broke, and a huge sob escaped me as the coffee pot slid out of my hand to the tiled floor, shattering in the pool of brown liquid.

He came toward me, and the sun lost its advantage. I’d instinctively bent to pick up the glass, crying hard as I piled shards into my hand and used the towel that was always looped over my apron to sop up the liquid.

“Here, let me,” came that voice again. It was like hearing your own heartbeat.

“No, no, you’ll cut yourself,” I cried.

Annabeth appeared—she’d been working at the café with me since I’d inherited it.

“Elspeth, sweetheart, what is going on?” she asked, noting my crying and the tall stranger with expensive clothing standing before me. She became defensive on my behalf. “Who are you?” she demanded of him.

He moved, and the sunlight left his face. She looked into his eyes and searched his face. Suddenly a smile broke out over her features and she nodded. Turning around, she walked to the playpen and lifted Dirk with a stuffed donkey clutched in his hand. She came toward us and held him out to Finn.

I rose to stand and watched as Finn took Dirk, handling him as though he was more fragile than the glass that lay all over the floor.

I looked at Annabeth, and she shrugged and grinned. “I told you… I have the second sight,” she said simply and I nodded. “Even if I didn’t, it would take a fool to miss that the child is the son of the father. Go on, you two. I’ll clean this up and take care of things. You go for a while, no?”

I nodded my thanks and untied my apron, laying it over the counter. I turned and walked out the back entrance of the café. Finn and Dirk followed.

There was a stream running at the back of the property. Next to it stood an old willow tree. We’d cut the branches short enough to form a sort of canopy under which sat chairs and a picnic table. It was the most peaceful spot in the world to me. I led him there, and he held Dirk in his lap as we sat at the table.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he began.

I nodded. That much was obvious.

“How have you been?” he asked, and I could hear nervousness in his voice.

“Fine,” I laughed and gestured at Dirk.

“He’s beautiful,” he said quietly. Annabeth was absolutely right, and I hadn’t seen it until that very moment. Dirk was a replica of his father.

“You?” I was still choked up and couldn’t manage any more words.

“I love you.”

“Oh… my god… Finn, I love you, too. I never expected to hear your voice again, and never ever those words.” I’d begun to cry again, and although he was holding on to the baby, he managed to put an arm around my shoulders.

I wiped my eyes and watched the stream rolling over the stones, smooth from their touching one another for so many years. I reached to touch Finn’s cheek, stroking it tenderly.

“Why did you leave?” he asked quietly.

I needed a minute to compose myself. Finally, I opened up. “Finn, we both know that we come from different worlds. I guess you made me feel safe, because I’d begun to have nightmares, only they were pieces of my memory coming back to me. I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t say anything. Then you left for Chicago and that night, it all came flooding back. I knew my people were the kind you’d never notice—you probably donated shoes to us when you were a kid in school. My mother wasn’t married when she had me, and a series of men passed through our doors. She needed them… to survive,” I stuttered and looked away with embarrassment.

“That doesn’t matter,” he said in that rich voice.

“I remembered finally how it was that I ended up in that shack—well, at least up to the part where I’m guessing Earl hit me with something.”

“Earl?”

“My mother’s man at the time. He was a mean one, that Earl. Drunk and abusive – wanted his way with me and I fought him off. He was driving me up to my mother’s cousin. She was staying there, and he was going to pick her up. I’m from southern Ohio, and I knew I had to go along or he’d slug her all the way home.”

Finn growled beneath his breath. “Was?”

“He’s dead. I know it sounds like a corny country song but he passed out on a railroad track – well, you get the rest. Anyway, I think he probably drove around that curve by the shack and came up from the back. I guess he was intending to knock me out or kill me or something, I don’t know. He’d been drinking, and I’m sure he was the one who started the fire. Thank god you were there, Finn.”

Dirk was restless and trying to crawl off the table, but Finn held him firmly. “Go on.”

“Well, there’s not much more. Except to say that we are light years apart, and I was holding you back. You didn’t owe me anything, and I owed it to you to clear out of your life and let you marry some nice socialite who would hostess your tea parties and holiday dinners—someone who wasn’t me. That’s when… that’s when I realized I was pregnant and that was the final straw. I had become my mother all over again, and you deserved better.”

“I had the best. I had you,” he said quietly, and I noticed how much more reserved he’d become. He was a broken man.

“I’ve been following you…on the Internet, you know,” I told him. “I see you more or less went into seclusion. Was I any reason for that?”

“What do you think?”

“Oh, crap, Finn. The lady in me wants to say politely that I hope I didn’t play a part in that, and the woman in me wants to hear that you missed me so much, business wasn’t worth it anymore.”

“The woman would be right,” he whispered and leaned forward to kiss me, hard. Dirk’s baby hand was trying to push us apart, and I realized he was jealous.

“Dirk, this is your daddy,” I said and heard an exhale of relief from Finn. I looked at him in shock. “Surely, you never thought…” I let the sentence hang there, feeling ill at what he was thinking.

“I didn’t know, Elspeth. I found the test kit you threw away. The timing… the loss of memory… I just didn’t know for sure.”

My mouth was hanging open in dismay, but I realized he had a valid point. There really was no way for him to know—I didn’t know myself until the memories came back.

“Come home with me,” he said simply.

“Well… I…”

“Will you marry me, Elspeth?” he asked. “Will you and Dirk be my family?”

I threw my arms around him as tears washed down my cheeks. I nodded against his face, and he laughed, dabbing at my tears with the back of his hand. Dirk looked at me in fear, and suddenly his face crumpled into tears as well.

“I guess this is what they call a tearful reunion,” Finn joked and we laughed.

“Finn, I’ve made a life here. I have the café and the people have become my friends…”

“Do you want me to move down here? I will, if that’s what you want.”

I thought of the lake house and of Dirk. Was this really the best place to raise him? As Finn’s son, he was heir to quite a fortune, and he needed to be prepared for that. I had to admit I missed the water there, and I’d lain in bed more than once and pictured the three of us sitting at the edge of the shore, building sand castles.

“I love you, too, Finn. Yes, we’ll come with you. I happen to know what to do with the café.”