Yes. I was looking for Minnie. But I didn’t say that. I just nodded like a dimwit.
She tipped her head toward the back door. “She’s in the kitchen.”
I looked around, suddenly aware of the other guests, silent now and watching me. A schoolteacher type with glasses. A stocky kid with a shock of blond hair standing beside a balding, older version of himself. An older man with Mina’s eyes, green-blue and considering me with curiosity and something else... maybe sizing me up.
I’d figure that out later.
I walked to the propped-open back door, my heart beating fast and furious as my eyes adjusted to a dim kitchen smelling of cinnamon and vinegar. A pot boiled on an old black stove and a woman stood over it, her back to me. She wore a green dress, a narrow-brimmed hat hiding her hair. If this was another dead end, my heart couldn’t take it. If it wasn’t... I didn’t know if my heart could take that, either.
Then I heard it. The humming—the wedding song, the one they played when the bride walked down the aisle—and I knew I’d found her.
I couldn’t say a word.
Mina turned, still humming, a flour-sack towel in her hand. Her eyes flew wide and she let out a squeak of surprise. The towel fell from her hand. My eyes fell from her shocked face to her waistline. The curve of her rounded belly took my breath away.
Gracias a Dios.Thank the good Lord I’ve found you both.
MINA
It was Max. My Max. Here. In the kitchen.
I blinked. He was still there.
He looked terrible. His clothes were rumpled, his head bare, his hair longer and curlier than I’d ever seen it. He took one look at me, let out a breath, and put his hand on the doorframe, leaning against it as if he might fall over.
I turned away, my back to him. I couldn’t bear it. I braced myself against the cold lip of the sink. I breathed in and out. In and out. No, Max. Why did you come? How did you find me? I pressed one hand protectively over my tummy, as if to hide the baby from him, but it was too late.
His step scuffed across the linoleum floor. “Mina.” The word was soft, barely a whisper.
I shook my head, biting hard at the inside of my mouth. Oh, Max. It had taken all I had to give him up. I couldn’t do it again.
Sounds drifted through the open window—birdsong, Penny’s voice, Robert’s laughter—as if the world hadn’t turned upside down when Max appeared. His hands touched my shoulders and his sigh brushed my neck. I breathed in the scent of his cigarettes, hair tonic, gasoline. My throat was clogged with tears, but I didn’t know what to say anyway. I guess he didn’t either, and that was a wonder.
He tugged at me, but I wouldn’t turn to face him. I couldn’t bear to look into his face to see the question on it. He’d be right to think maybe this was some other man’s child. How I wished he’d been the only one. He deserved so much better.
Why didn’t you just let me go?
He pulled me back against his chest. One hand slipped down my shoulder and around my waist. I closed my eyes. I could picture his hand, the way he had intertwined it with mine that perfect day on the beach. In the Tower Theatre while we laughed. Now it curved over mine, like he was holding our baby with me. I thought I’d known what a broken heart felt like, that day I said goodbye, but this was the real thing.
“Mina, please,” he whispered. “Please give me a chance.”
I closed my eyes, a sob caught in my throat. “That’s what I was trying to do,” I whispered. A chance for a real life, without someone like me.
He pulled me gently around and I couldn’t fight him. “Look at me,” he whispered, his breath brushing my cheek.
But I didn’t. I couldn’t. If I did, I’d be lost.
“Mina, look at me.”
I opened my eyes. A stubbled chin, straight-edge lips, crooked nose. Honey eyes, bloodshot and earnest.
“I told you I wouldn’t give up on you, Mina.”
“You should have,” I said. I laid my cheek against his chest. “You really should have.” I knew I’d lost and that’s when I cried. Heaven help me, I cried out my regret or relief, sadness or joy. Maybe all of those things. Max held me tight and whispered—promises or prayers, I don’t know. It was all the same to me.
That’s how Papa found us.
Max straightened and stepped back. I took a breath and wipedmy face, then introduced them, my voice shaky. Papa eyed Max from the top of his head to his fancy shoes. Max pulled down his cuffs and ran a hand over his hair, then stuck out his hand, stammering a hello.
