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And yet…even now, when my gaze hit the sea, I felt that pull. It was back, even though I’d found out who my father was. Nathan Hale. He had died without ever knowing who I was or even that I existed at all. I had no reason any longer to search for answers, or for belonging. It was here, right where I’d started.
I looked back at my uncle, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. I’d misjudged a lot. But the fact remained that my place was here. My people were in Mud Gulch. “Call a roofer,” I said. “Get someone here in the morning.”
“Rory, there are a couple of people here to see you.”
I looked up at Romeo from where I was sitting at the desk in the office. “A couple?” I frowned. “Who is it?”
“I think you should come see for yourself.”
The chair scraped over the floor as I stood, following Romeo from the office out onto the mostly empty floor of the bar. It was four thirty and so only a few regulars took up their normal spots. The place would be buzzing by five thirty or six when happy hour began. I stopped short as I turned the corner and saw Archer and Bree standing near the bar next to Cassius.
Archer and Bree both gave me tentative smiles as I approached. “Archer. Bree. Hi. This is a surprise.” I looked at Cassius. “And you’re home early.”
“Yup,” Cassius said, wasting no extra words as usual. For a moment, I looked between all of them in confusion. “Sorry,” I said, giving my head a small shake. “Where are my manners? Archer and Bree Hale, these are my uncles, Cassius and Romeo Casteel.”
“We’ve all already met,” Romeo said. “Which is good, being that we’re family now.” He slung his arm over Archer’s shoulder and Archer gave him a somewhat wary glance.
“Yes, we are,” Bree agreed, looking back at me with a smile that appeared sort of nervous.
We’ve all already met. Why did it sound like he didn’t just mean a few minutes before when they’d walked in the door? Why did they already seem more familiar than that? I was on sudden alert. Romeo sat down on a barstool, his expression telling me he was enjoying himself.
Bree took in a deep breath and let it out. “First of all,” she said, picking up a canvas bag at her feet and handing it to me. “Your father’s paintings are in there. He painted them while he was falling in love with your mother, and I think he’d want you to have them.”
“Oh,” I said, taking the bag from her. “But…I couldn’t take these from you. You were close to your uncle—”
Archer raised his hands and Bree interpreted. “I was. Because I had him with me. I have years of memories.” He nodded to the bag filled with his art. “You have those. I wish it was more.”
I felt strangely choked up as I nodded, accepting the one tangible thing—other than that faded photograph—of my father’s that I’d ever own. “Thank you,” I said. I had traveled to Calliope in search of my father, and though I hadn’t found him in the sense that I’d hoped, his art was a part of him, it was the expression of his heart, and to me, they were treasure. “I’ll cherish them.”
Bree glanced at Archer and I saw the small flash of understanding pass between them, there and gone, as though they didn’t need more than the breath of a moment to read each other. “We’re also in town because thanks to your mother’s diary entries, we know more than we did about Archer’s mother, Alyssa. She grew up in a girl’s home here in Mud Gulch.”
Archer raised his hands and Bree spoke. “I never knew anything about my mother’s past, Rory,” he said. “All my life. I had no idea where she came from, or what her childhood was like, and now I have a place to start because of you. Now, I can begin building my mother’s past so that her family has the full picture of who she was. We’re meeting with a woman who worked at that girl’s home after we leave here.”
“Oh,” I breathed, a burn rising under my breastbone. “That’s…that’s wonderful. I know better than anyone what it feels like to have missing pieces surrounding your past—so if I had a part in helping you discover a few of those pieces, then I couldn’t be happier.”
“I want to do the same for you,” Archer signed, glancing at his wife. “Which brings us to the final reason we’re here.”
Bree brought a folded piece of paper from her purse and put it on the table in front of me. I opened it, staring down at a legal document. “A plot of land came up for sale,” she said. “It’s right down the road from Haven’s Gate. It’s on Pelion Lake, but right on the border of Calliope.”
“What? I don’t understand,” I said. My brain had begun buzzing and I was suddenly having trouble thinking straight.
“If Nathan had known about you,” Archer signed, “he’d have taken care of you too, in whatever way he was able. That’s what he did. He stepped up when no one else did. He showed up despite all the reasons he had to bury his head in the sand and stay hidden. He was damaged, Rory, but he loved me, and honestly, without that love, there’s no way I’d be where I am today. So, with that in mind, I purchased that land and I’m giving it to you, along with the sum of all Nathan’s army payouts, with interest of course.” He glanced back at my uncles who were pretending not to watch us from the bar. “The one small caveat is that you use it to open up a business focused on dogs. A dog park, a training school, whatever feels right. And if you would, please name it after your father because he spoke their language too and he passed that on to you and,” his hands faltered, and Bree took a small breath as Archer seemed to gather himself quickly before finishing, “he’d be so incredibly happy if he knew that.”
My mouth had dropped open as Archer’s hands flew through the air and Bree voiced his thoughts. I looked over Archer’s shoulder to see Romeo at the bar, wiping out a glass, a small smile on his face and Cash “reading” the bar menu that he certainly had memorized.
My gaze moved back to Archer. “A business where I work with dogs all day?”
He nodded.
“We heard that might be something you’d be interested in,” Bree said, the corners of her lips trembling slightly.
Again, I glanced at my uncles and saw that Cash was fighting back a smile. I caught Romeo’s eye and he winked. Oh.
“Nathan’s Legacy,” I breathed, naming the business I hadn’t even agreed to yet as I met Archer’s golden-brown eyes.
He grinned and signed, “I like it. He’d like it too.”
“Please accept,” Bree said, reaching across and taking my hand in hers and squeezing. I lifted my other hand to hold hers in mine for a moment before letting go.
