Family (38 page)

She led Dayne down the hill. “Come on.” There was a catch in her voice. “Dad’s been waiting for this moment all his life.”

So far John was winning. He had a ten-inch trout in his bucket, and everything Landon had caught was either not a fish or too small to keep. The others, including Katy, had gone back to sculpting their sea turtle, and the banter between him and Landon was easy.

With Luke gone, he felt closest to Landon. Maybe because they both understood hospital work-John as a doctor and Landon as a firefighter. Or maybe because of the time when Landon had been critically injured saving the life of a small boy 318

in a house fire. John had stayed by his side, carefully administering the right balance of oxygen and moisture and medication to Landon’s damaged lungs.

Or maybe because God had used Landon to answer his prayers for his precious Ashley. Where would she be if it weren’t for this young man sitting beside him?

The way he’d loved her little Cole, the way he’d waited for her and sought her and understood her-even when she hated herself. Landon’s patience and love could have only come from God.

Whatever it was, he enjoyed his son-in-law, and sometime later today he was going to enjoy watching him jump in the lake with his clothes on. Because John couldn’t let the next generation beat him at a fishing contest. He rested his arms on his knees, his fishing pole balanced in one hand, and glanced at Landon.

“Maybe it’s your bait.”

Landon had just finished putting a lure on his hook. “My bait?” He cast out thirty feet. There was laughter in his voice. “What about it?”

“Well-” John pointed to the tackle box-“I hear driftwood’s crazy about those sorts of lures.”

“Yes. Very funny.” Landon raised his eyes. “Listen, it’s not every fisherman who can snag the big driftwood. I want you to know that.”

John was about to say something about Landon’s lures scaring the fish in his direction when he heard Ashley’s voice. “Dad … Dad, come here.”

He looked over his shoulder, and what he saw made the blood leave his face.

Ashley was walking toward him, a grin spread across her face, her arm linked through the arm of … Dayne. Without looking away, John set down his pole, stood, and faced the two of them. His children.

The others were watching, puzzled as to what was happening. Kari and Ryan stood and brushed the sand from their hands and legs; then Brooke and Peter rose. Katy Hart took a step back, giv

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ing them this moment. The grandchildren glanced at the newcomer but then returned to their sea turtle.

Landon set down his pole and anchored himself next to John. “Ashley invited him.”

“I… I see that.” John’s eyes blurred, and he struggled to keep from breaking down. Dayne, his firstborn son, was here. Here where he belonged. Was this really when everything would come together, here on the beach at one of the Baxter picnics? The moment Elizabeth had longed for all their married lives? He took a step closer, his eyes glued to Dayne’s.

Kari and Ryan, Peter and Brooke moved in closer, looking from Dayne to their father. John saw Kari shoot a silent question at Ashley, and Ashley nodded.

Dayne looked at them, each of them one at a time; then he found John again. He pressed his wrist to one eye and then the other, and suddenly John understood why he wasn’t talking. He couldn’t.

But John couldn’t either. How was he supposed to explain the situation now that Dayne was here? Would the others understand? Would they even believe it was possible that Dayne Matthews was their brother? He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, so instead of talking he closed the gap between him and his firstborn.

Ashley stepped aside, and he hugged Dayne hard and sure. “Thank you … for coming.” John could barely get out the words.

“I had to.” Dayne whispered the words, so only John could hear them. “My sister invited me.” When they pulled back, the emotions left them both speechless again.

Ashley looked at Kari and then at Brooke. “Everyone … I’d like you to meet our brother.”

Understanding seemed to dawn on Kari and Brooke at the same time.

Kari gasped and looked from Dayne to John. “He’s our… ?”

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John still couldn’t find his voice. He only nodded and wiped at the tears on his cheeks.

Brooke stepped up first. She went to Dayne and started to hold out her hand.

Then she changed her mind and threw her arms around his neck. “Welcome, brother.” She held on several seconds, and when she let go her face was wet too.

“I’ve been praying we might meet you.”

The shock faded from Kari’s face, and it was her turn. She, too, hugged Dayne.

“Now we know-” she searched his face- “why you and Luke look so much alike.”

“Yes.” He smiled, but John could see the loss in his eyes. The years they’d missed would always be a source of sorrow. Dayne looked from Ashley to Kari to Brooke. “I never thought this day would come.”

Multiple conversations broke out, and in the background little Ryan started crying for his mother. Ashley’s baby was still asleep in his car seat a few feet up the hill, but the other children seemed to sense something big was taking place. They joined the circle as the men shook Dayne’s hand, welcoming him and making small talk.

“Hey!” Landon broke free from the group and scrambled for his fishing rod. “I’ve got it! Look, for real this time!” His pole had been sitting against a log, his hook and bait in the water, same as John’s. As he reached the rod, he jerked it back, and like before, he dug in his heels and began cranking his reel at a record pace. Just as he pulled up another clump of driftwood, John’s rod began to move.

“Here I come!” John held up his hand and began jogging toward his pole. All the grandkids followed him, like an impromptu Fourth of July parade. Even though John walked on the treadmill every day, he was breathless when he reached his pole and grabbed it, careful to keep the tension in the line. He reeled and reeled, while beside him his grandkids cheered.

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“Papa!” Hayley, who was walking better every day, clapped. “Bigfishie!”

“There’s no way you’ve got a fish on that line!” Landon tossed his rod on the ground and moved in closer.

Behind them, John heard Dayne ask what was at stake, and Kari explained the contest. The tension built as John turned the reel again and again.

“Wow!” Cole jumped four times in place. “Papa, you beat my daddy good this time.”

John started to bring the fish in. It had to be eighteen inches long-more than twice the size of anything Landon had caught.

Cole rushed up to help him unhook it and slip it into the bucket. “Fish tonight!” Cole raised his fist in the air. Then almost as quickly, his smile faded and he looked at Landon. “Sorry, Daddy.”

Landon held his hands up in mock surrender. “Fine.” He kicked off his shoes, cleared a path through the children, ran down the shore and into the water.

The kids cheered and danced along the sandy beach, pointing at Landon and laughing.

When Landon was waist deep, he flopped backward and disappeared underwater. A few seconds later he burst back through the surface, his face taken up by a huge smile. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “There,” he shouted, “I hope you’re all happy!”

“Come get me, Daddy!” Cole stripped down to his bathing suit and scurried toward the water.

John watched all the activity quietly. A long time ago, when he and Elizabeth first married, they took a trip to Fort Myers Beach. Not far from their hotel was a flower garden, and one day on their walk to the water Elizabeth picked a bright red rose. She stopped, the ocean spread out behind her, placed the rose between her teeth, and faced him. “Take it,” she mumbled through her clenched teeth.

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John remembered how his heart had melted. “What am I going to do with you?” He took the rose and held it close. “I fall more in love with you every day, Elizabeth Baxter.”

“Then take a picture.” Her tone had been playful. She took the rose back from him. “That way you’ll never forget.”

He’d laughed and raised his eyebrows at her. “One problem. I don’t have my camera.”

“I know.” She made a silly face and put the flower between her teeth again. With her jaw clenched she managed to say, “Take a mental picture.”

Take a mental picture.

It was something the two of them had said to each other often through the years, raising their children and living everyday life. Whenever something happened that they wanted to remember forever.

Now John looked at his older son-the child he never thought he’d meet-talking and laughing as if he’d always been a part of their family. They had a lot to work through. Erin and Sam and Luke and Reagan needed to know the news, and one day-hopefully one day soon-everyone would find a way to be together. But for now, he could hardly believe the scene playing out bigger than life before him.

As the afternoon wore on and boats zigzagged across Lake Monroe in the distance, John studied Dayne and he could see the resemblance, the way he moved like Luke and laughed like Ashley. Everything else faded as he watched Kari put her hand on Dayne’s shoulder and whisper something close to his ear and Dayne chuckle as if whatever she’d told him was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. He watched Ashley chatting with Katy, and that’s when he saw it. The ring on her finger.

And he knew-he just knew-that Dayne had asked her to marry him.

He watched Brooke and Peter chasing Hayley and Maddie along the damp sand and Brooke take hold of Dayne’s arm as she

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ran by, looping around him and using him as a decoy, and Dayne laughing hard as he joined in the chase.

As John watched his family at play, his heart hurt for missing Elizabeth. She would’ve loved this moment. God, please let her see that it’s happening. Dayne’s really becoming a part of our family.

He smiled because he could feel the Lord’s hand on his family, their relationships, and everything about the moment. There would always be trials-Jesus promised that much. But with his family together, they could get through anything. Then, his eyes never leaving the happy scene, he captured it in his heart and did what Elizabeth would do.

He took a mental picture. One that would last until he drew his final breath.

The picnic was over, and Dayne hadn’t had so much fun in all his life. Not at movie premieres or nightclubs or on location-not ever. Katy sat beside him as they drove out of the parking lot. They were headed to the Baxter house, where Landon had asked him to help light the kids’ sparklers.

They rode in silence, not because Dayne didn’t have anything to say. More because Katy understood him, understood that this was something he needed to savor-the feeling he had after spending a few hours with the Baxters.

He held Katy’s hand and couldn’t get the smile off his face. “It’s amazing.” .

“Yes.” She didn’t have to ask what he meant.

Every time they’d had a minute alone, Dayne had gushed about how wonderful they were, how funny and well connected.

She would laugh at him because she’d known them first. “Of course they’re wonderful.” She’d give him a kiss. “They’re related to you.”

There was a slight sorrow to the feeling of joy, because this 324

was what he’d missed. All those years alone, living in LA, he’d missed watching his siblings grow up and get married and have babies. He’d missed birthdays and Christmas mornings and graduations. He’d missed more than he could even comprehend.

But he wouldn’t dwell on that. God had given him this day, and somehow God would give him tomorrow with the Baxters as well. He and Katy, living in Bloomington, spending summer afternoons here at the lake with Ashley and Landon, Kari and Ryan, Brooke and Peter. And their wonderful kids.

Dayne still wasn’t sure how it would come together, how he would create a life with Katy and the Baxters and still fulfill his contracts with the studio, or how he would ever live a normal life-the way he’d lived it this afternoon. But he didn’t need all the answers. God would take care of that part too.

Because being with his family had given him a feeling he’d never known before.

He could hardly wait for the evening, setting off sparklers in the Baxters’

driveway, catching fireflies with the little girls, and sitting around getting to know his sisters and their husbands. The emotion was more than he could put into words.

He was following Ashley and Landon’s Durango, and he wondered if maybe the sensation was one of freedom. Appropriate for an Independence Day celebration.

Because he’d escaped the paparazzi for a few days. But as the Durango slowed, as it turned into a long driveway that cut through a vast grassy field and headed toward a beautiful country house, complete with a wraparound porch, he suddenly realized what the feeling was.

It didn’t come from the freedom he was experiencing. The emotion came because for the first time he felt the sense of belonging, of being connected to people who cared about him, not because of what he’d done but because of who he was.

The feeling of love and laughter and acceptance and encouragement-completely unscripted.

Dayne smiled as he parked his rented SUV, as he squeezed 325

Katy’s hand and looked through the windshield at the Baxter house.

The feeling became more obvious with every heartbeat because it was something he’d longed for a lifetime.

The feeling of family.

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DEAR FRIENDS,

It gets harder and harder to write these books, because I know each one takes me closer to the last book-the last time I’ll write about the Baxters and Katy and Dayne and the Flanigans. I still have a while, of course. One more book in the Firstborn series, then four books in the Sunrise series-which will focus on the Flanigans but will include constant involvement with the Baxters and Katy and Dayne.

The other day I was at a book event in Pennsylvania, meeting many of my reader friends, when one woman put it perfectly. “I love these books because the Baxters are family to me.”

I guess I realized it then. The reason these series will be hard to wrap up is because the characters feel like family to me too. They sort of live in the recesses of my mind, and even when I’m not writing about them I can check in with them and see how they’re doing.