My parents made the trip with Sydney and Riley. Although I was five months pregnant, my mother didn’t trust me to take it easy during our move to the new house, and if I was being honest with myself, neither did I. After the extreme fatigue and the up and down emotions of the first couple of months of my pregnancy, I was now five months along and feeling incredibly energetic. I’d taken to calling the baby Red Bull for the extra spring I now had in my step. And with the move and all, having my mojo back had been a major step forward.

“How are you feeling?” my mother asked me for the hundredth time.

“Happy.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” She beamed.

“And you?” I lowered the shirt I was fixing to the hanger and checked for her reaction. She seemed to be searching for an answer. Her well-being and that of the kids was always at the forefront of my mind, and I worried that she was hiding her true feelings behind a stoic exterior.

“I’m happy too,” she replied.

“Are you?”

Mom took my hand. “The sadness will always be there, and I’ve accepted that, but I have to be thankful every day for the kids. When I think about how much worse it could have been…” her voice trailed off. “Did you know they’d originally planned to bring the kids with them to the restaurant that night?”

“Yes. I heard.”

“So, you understand why I also feel grateful? They could all be gone, but instead I have these wonderful kids to watch grow, and they make your Dad and me feel young again. Riley’s just such a joy. His energy and boyish exuberance is so much like Miles at the same age that sometimes I feel like I’m raising him all over again. And Sydney…” Mom’s eyes filled with tears. “She’s like a beautiful, wild, raging river… all that intensity and strength, but with so many obstacles in her way. How she handles the changing courses will determine the woman she will one day be. I’ve never felt more essential and needed. I have her future in my hands, and I won’t fail her.”

“I know you won’t.” I smiled warmly at my awesome mom. “You’ve never failed any of us. And if I’m even half the mother you’ve been to me, my child will be so lucky.”

“I don’t know, Casey. If you’re only half the mother I am, then I might have to step in and whip you into shape. This is my grandchild we’re talking about.”

I tossed a shirt at her. “Okay, then, I’ll be better than you.”

“Well, now you’re just making crazy talk,” Mom said, grinning. “You know what I can’t wait for? Seeing Jake as a daddy.”

I stiffened a bit, knowing his reservations with fatherhood. “I know he’ll be great… but he’s not convinced yet.”

“I can see that. Jake takes time to adjust to new situations. But he’ll come around because that man will do anything for you.”

“Including having a baby when he doesn’t really want one.”

Mom waved it off. “Sometimes men don’t know what they want. It’s up to us to gently guide them in the right direction.”

“You mean the direction we want them to go?” I corrected.

“Yes, that’s what I said… the right direction.”

* * *

As the last of the moving trucks exited through the front gate, Jake and I walked out to the circular driveway and took a moment to appreciate our new home. Although no way near the small, quaint homestead Jake had imagined, it was a place we could both get behind. Fully enclosed behind a security fence and shrouded by full, majestic trees sat our fairy tale home, with a multi-colored slate roof and a stone tower with ivy growing up the side. The grounds weren’t huge, at least not in Hollywood terms, but they provided for a nice amount of space for outdoor activities and included a pool, basketball court, and a little vegetable garden enclosed by – you guessed it – a white picket fence.

“Do you love it as much as I do?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head against his chest.

“I do. It feels like home. You know what I love best?” he asked, a smirk lifting up the corners of his lips.

“Shut up.” I laughed, playfully punching him in the gut. We both knew what he was going to say – the guesthouse. The reason being that his mother-in-law would be in another building when she visited. That had been the running joke from the moment my parents had arrived, although it had been my mother, not Jake, who started the whole thing by insisting he’d bought the place specifically to keep her out of the main house. Jake had only run with the punch line.

His jovial mood was a welcome change. There’d been a heaviness to his step for the past couple of weeks, and although he wouldn’t tell me why, it was clear the therapy sessions were to blame. Sometimes I wondered if they were making him worse, not better.

And it didn’t help matters that he was so guarded. Jake was open and honest with me in all aspects of our marriage except one: the kidnapping. It was a topic that had always been off-limits to me. Although I’d learned to live with the secrets Jake carried from his past, that didn’t mean I liked it.

“You seem a little happier today.”

Jake caught my eye for a quick moment before tipping his head and kissing my forehead. “Things will be better soon. I promise.”

“Really?” Perhaps there was too much surprise in my voice, but it was the first time he’d articulated an end to his melancholy.

“Yes, really. I know I’ve been weird lately, but there are some things I’m working out right now. I can’t say what they are yet, but as soon as I can talk about it, I promise to tell you.”

“Maybe I can help,” I said, perking up. Was there really an end in sight?

His body tightened against me. I could feel his hesitation. “No. It’s something I have to do on my own.”

“I just don’t understand why I can’t be a part of whatever it is you’re doing.”

“I know, but you will understand. Soon, everyone will.”

There was a strange foreboding in his words, but just as I was about to ask for clarification, Riley came barreling out the front door and flung himself full speed into Jake’s arms. “Can we go in the pool now? You promised!”

“Did you help Grams pick up?”

“Yep, she said I could come get you.”

Jake rumpled his hair. “Well, a promise is a promise.”

I was still watching Jake, analyzing his body language for clues to this latest mystery. I had to assume that some things I’m working out right now explained why he’d been disappearing every day for hours on end.

“Riley, can you give us a minute?” I asked.

My nephew groaned, clearly impatient for his promised playmate.

Jake leaned into me. “Not now, Case. There’s nothing I can tell you yet. Give me a couple more days and then you’ll have the answers. Will you do that?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Jake shook his head. “No.”