Chapter 27

___________________

Alex

“GO AHEAD, I’LL BE right down here. I’m just the assistant, remember?” I smirked at Rose as she hesitantly took the first steps on the front porch of the last known address of William’s daughter.

“Should I just come out and tell her right away or ease into it?”

I shrugged. “You’ll figure it out.” Luckily, she had a couple of drinks in her to help ease her into it.

She barely knocked and took a deep breath. I walked up the steps behind her and knocked harder.

“What are you doing?” She panicked.

“Rose, I really don’t think anyone heard your teeny tiny tap on the door.”

She cleared her throat and pulled it together, her eyes widening when a little boy who looked to be around six years old answered the door. “Oh, hello.” Rose’s tone was soft and sweet. “Is your mommy or an adult around?”

“Stranger danger!” Crinkling his freckled nose, he pointed at Rose and shouted through the screen door.

“Oh, umm…no, honey,” Rose spoke, and I couldn’t help but laugh over the flustered state this little boy had her in. “Yes, I’m a stranger…but—”

“Stranger! Stranger…go away!” he shouted even louder.

Rose turned my way for help, and I laughed harder.

“Can I help you?” a blond-haired woman asked as she came to the door, her guard instantly up as she moved the little boy behind her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare him. I was looking for Audra.”

The woman cinched her eyebrows and stiffened her posture. “Umm…and you are?” Her tone was anything but welcoming.

“Oh, my name is Rose. I’m a friend of Audra’s father.”

“Audra’s father is dead,” the woman snapped.

“No…he’s—”

“Actually, the man we know is William Benton, Audra’s birth father,” I clarified.

“No, Audra’s father wasn’t named William.”

“Diane? What’s going on?” A dark-haired woman appeared in the doorway.

“Oh, Audra, can you explain to these people that your father passed away and isn’t named William?” the blond-haired woman requested. “You guys obviously have the wrong person.”

“No, they don’t.” Audra’s words were barely a whisper.

“Audra, what’s going on?” the woman asked.

“Diane, I’ll explain it to you later. Can you please take Josh into the kitchen for a moment?”

“Umm, yeah, okay.” The woman hesitantly took the little boy’s hand and walked away.

Audra opened the screen door and stepped out onto the porch. She appeared to be in her mid-forties, with long dark hair and very similar traits to that of her mother in the photograph from way back when. There was no mistaking she was of Asian descent until I got a look at her eyes, which were the same shade of blue as William’s.

“Look, I don’t know what that man wants from me, but as far as I’m concerned he’s not my father and he never was. I never told my partner, Diane, about him. As far as she knows the man who raised me was my father and will always be my father. So, whatever reason he sent you here for, I’m sorry to say, it’s a waste of your time. Now, if you don’t mind…” She turned around to walk back inside.

“He didn’t send us here,” Rose shouted, stopping Audra dead in her tracks and causing her to turn around. “In fact, he doesn’t even know we’re here. He told me all about you. He showed me a picture of you when you were just a little baby.”

“Well, it’s a shame that being a father takes more than exchanging a few pictures back and forth with my mother. Being a father is being there for your child through all the ups and downs in their life. Not leaving their child and the mother of their child in some war-ravaged country and then forgetting about them because you’re more committed to the bottom of a whiskey bottle.”

“Rose, come on, let’s go,” I pleaded. I knew how much she wanted to make this work, but I could tell this woman wasn’t going to budge with her opinion of William.

“That’s not true. He did really love you, and he wanted to be part of your life.” Rose ignored my plea and continued with her mission. “He wanted to find you. He wanted to be your dad.”

She shook her head and stared at Rose. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-four,” Rose replied.

She flashed Rose a cynical smile. “I used to think I knew everything at twenty-four too. Turns out I didn’t know much at all. Give yourself twenty years and you’ll see the world isn’t the rose color you perceive it to be. William Benton is nothing to me.”

Rose reached into her purse and pulled out a large tattered envelope. “Here…this is for you.”

I stared at the envelope, seeming just as perplexed as Audra as to what the contents of it were. “William told me if he ever saw you again, he would love for you to have this.”

“What is this?” she asked as Rose placed it in her hand.

“It’s letters William has written you every year on your birthday. Forty-something years’ worth.”

I didn’t know who was more shocked, me or Audra. I had no idea William had given those to Rose. As far as I knew William was clueless to us even coming here.

“I came here today to tell you William is dying. He didn’t tell us to come here and track you down. Like I said, he doesn’t even know we’re here. It was all me who wanted to come here. Against everyone’s better judgment.” She turned her head in my direction. “I just thought maybe you’d want to say goodbye. Maybe I’m wrong, and that’s okay if I am, but I couldn’t let William leave this earth without you knowing he really did love you. So, you do what you want with those letters, but they’re yours, and if you change your mind, I’ve included his address in there, as well as my contact information.”

Audra was visibly shaken, holding the envelope like it was a bomb ready to detonate at any moment. Her eyes clouded over and without another word to either of us, she turned around, stepped inside, and closed the door behind her.

Rose stuck out her bottom lip, and I could tell she was beating herself up that the meeting didn’t go as she planned.

“You did everything you could,” I said as we stepped off the porch and onto the street.

“Yeah, I know.” Her voice faltered in defeat.

“When did you get those letters?”

“William gave them to me that day when he showed me the picture. He asked me to try and track her down, after he…” Her voice cracked. “That’s why I wanted to find her so badly before anything happened because then maybe he’d get the closure he was looking for.”

I stopped walking for a moment just as we were about to cross the road and stared at her.

“I know you think I’m crazy, and quite honestly, I’m questioning my own sanity for coming down here and trying to plan this reunion.”

“No. I don’t think you’re crazy, not at all.”

“Well, thanks for not telling me ‘I told you so,’” she muttered as we crossed the street.

I pulled my phone from my pocket when it vibrated with a text message.

Mom: Alex Thomas Andrews, I know you aren’t avoiding us. Dinner will be ready by seven, and I would like you to be here.

I thought about it for a moment. I didn’t feel right about leaving Rose alone for dinner in a strange town, but then did I really want to face the alternative by inviting her along and having my mother give her a rundown of my life history?

“My parents want me to come to their house for dinner. Do you want to come with?”

“Oh, no. That’s okay. I’m just gonna head back to my hotel and wallow in my failure.”

That was the last thing I wanted her to do. I was impressed with how she went out of her way for someone she hardly even knew, and she didn’t deserve to feel like she had failed by any means.

“You didn’t fail, Rose. You tried, and you should be proud of yourself for that.”

“Wow, did you just give me a compliment?” She smiled.

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“The heat must be getting to you.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” I chuckled. “So, what do you say? Spend a lonely night held up in a dark and dreary hotel room eating bad room service food, flicking through the five channels on the television, or be entertained by the incessant ramblings of Charlotte and Tom Andrews while eating real Southern food?”

“First of all, my hotel is actually very nice. I have more than five channels, and they don’t offer room service—”

“Then there you go. It’s settled, you’re coming to dinner.” I wasn’t sure why I was so adamant she come. Was it because I knew she would act as a buffer to questions I didn’t feel like answering to them or was it because I was really enjoying my time with her and didn’t want it to end?

“Alex, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Really, you’re not. You’re actually doing me a favor by coming.”

“How exactly is that?” She laughed.

“Because I’m sure they’ll be less inclined to give me all their standard lectures if you’re there.”

“Oh, so you’re using me?”

“Yeah, I guess you can say that.” I smirked.

“Well, good, because I didn’t want to think you were actually being nice. It would totally ruin my image of you. Not to mention, then I’d have to change your name in my contacts.” She snickered. “So, I guess as long as you’re asking me for your own benefit instead of just being nice…then yes, I’ll go to dinner and be your go-between.”

I waited in the bar area of Rose’s hotel while she changed. I wasn’t sure why the heck it was even necessary, but she was insistent. I didn’t argue because it allowed me time to call my mother and give her a lowdown of the topics that were off-limits for the evening: Vanessa, my divorce, and my time in the military. As soon as I told her I was bringing someone for dinner the questions began. Who is she? Is she more than just a coworker? How long have you known her?

I assured her Rose was just some girl I worked with and that was all. The last thing I wanted was for my mother to get her hopes up and start planning the wedding she never got to plan with marriage number one. But as I took a chug of my beer and Rose entered the bar area now dressed in a floral sundress with her long brown hair falling in loose waves around her, I began to doubt what I had just spent the last five minutes trying to convince my mother of.