They're old and faded, I can see that now. Blue-lined papers with ragged edges where they were torn from a notebook. "These are cute." But it's a little odd to frame forty-year-old drawings.
"They are, aren't they?" Corina traces the corner of a frame. "Has Amos told you about Allison, his birth mother?"
"He told me she died when he was one."
"That's right. An aneurysm. Long story short, Amos noticed their family was missing a woman. A mother. And he wanted one more than anything. He began externalizing his thoughts by drawing the family he wanted to have. Mitchell told me Amos wanted a momma to love the both of them so neither one of them would be lonely."
I can see him as a little boy. Tanned with a light spattering of freckles, maybe even a tiny gap in his front teeth that look too big for his mouth. Envisioning him drawing his wishes for a mom tugs at my heart and almost brings tears to my eyes. He and I are a little alike in that we both wanted someone to love us.
Looking a bit more deeply at the drawings, I see the story in them now. A crying boy with just his dad. A woman reading a book to the boy. A happy, smiling trio standing in front of a house. Three hands nested inside of each other, smallest to biggest.Amos, Corina, and Mitchell.
"Shall we go outside for the rest?"
I nod and she leads us outside where we settle in padded rocking chairs that overlook a rock garden. The gentle and monotonous motion of rocking relaxes my racing thoughts, but I'm anxious to hear this.
"So, after realizing just how much Amos wanted a momma, Mitchell decided he was going to get himself a wife to be a mother to his son, by any means necessary."
Shock runs through me and must show on my face because Corina smiles wryly. "Believe it. It's exactly how it sounds. He drove hours away from here to go looking. Stopped at a little grocery store and saw me when I was babysitting two kids. Followed me to their house and waited for me to go home. Followed me again down a deserted country road and was right behind me when a flat tire forced me off the road."
"Did he..."
"He swears up and down that he didn't do anything to my tire, and I believe him. They were beyond needing to be replaced," she affirms. "I didn't have a spare and he said he'd take me home, so I got in his truck with him. Little did I know he meanthishome, and then it was too late. Before I knew it, I was married and now the mother to a six-year-old boy."
Now I know shock is all over my face because my jaw hangs open. "No...no way."
Smiling hugely, Corina raises an eyebrow. "Yes. There's just something about these Shay men that makes it impossible to say no."
Tell me about it. "Did you have a family? What about them?" Did Mitchell make her disappear like Amos did to me?I am my father's son, he'd said.
"I did. Though he wouldn't let me go home, he let me write them once a week and sent the letters off with no return address."
"But how did that work? Surely the postmark gave the location away."
"Not in our case. Mitchell had a trucker buddy who'd drop the letters off at different stops on his route so they never came from the same place twice. The official story was when my tire went flat, my secret boyfriend in town picked me up and convinced me to elope with him and travel the state. A slightly different version of the truth depending on which of us you asked."
Can my mouth fall open any further?Unbelievable. But apparently it worked. "Oh my God. That's..."
"Messed up? Without a doubt. But now I have a perfect little family. My husband is head over heels in love with me, even after forty years, and I have two handsome boys."
"What about your parents? Did...did you ever get to see them?"
"Oh, yes, of course. After a year, we visited them and I got to show off my new little family. Dad was suspicious at first, naturally, but Mitchell and Amos just have that certain charm, you know? And when sweet little Amos ran to them and called them Grandma and Grandpa, that was it. They fell in love with him, and how could they not?"
Yes, he does have that way about him. That Shay charm. "Wait—you said your husband was in love with you, but what about you? How can you just be okay with what he did? The laws he broke...forcingmarriage on you..." I'm not going to ask what else he did, but I can only imagine.
"Oh, Mercy." Corina's small hand covers mine on the arm of the rocking chair. "Love looks different for all people. In my case, it definitely took a while for me to fall for him. It wasn't overnight. And I'd be lying if I said Amos didn't soften me up towards the idea, but Mitchell just had this strangely sweet way of showing me he loved me. If I had it all to do over again, I think I'd still have fallen in love with him just the same. Even knowing the rough start we'd have. You have to understand these Shays think differently from other men. Complete gentlemen in their own minds, though others might disagree, and rightfully so. But everything they do is with the intention of giving all of themselves to the woman they love, wanting all of her in return."
She pulls her hand back before gently asking me a question. "But that's what Iknow and believe to be true. How doyoufeel about him? Say the word and I'll drive you home myself—Shay tradition be damned."
I can't stop the little laugh that breaks free. If there's anyone who would understand my conflicted feelings, it's this woman. And it sounds like she doesn't know that I live—lived—in Amos's rent house. I can't go home. Not that I really want to, anyway.
Not now.
"I...I think I could grow to love him very much, even with what he's done. Not with him smothering me like he has, though. Not wanting to let me leave the house, taking away my cell phone. Basically rewriting my entire existence. But...but I haven't really had much experience with relationships. My"—I trace little triangles on the arm of the chair—"parents died in a car crash when I was a toddler, and I've lived a lonely life ever since. How do I know I'm not just using him to get safety and security? That's just as wrong as what he's done to me. In a different sort of way," I hastily add.
"That's something you're going to have to answer yourself, Mercy. I can say without a doubt, though, that if you let Amos love you—completely love you—you won't regret it. You'll never find a man who'd cherish you more fiercely."
The sliding door eases open and Mitchell walks though, followed by Amos. "And what are you lovely ladies talking about?" As if second nature, both of them pick us up and take our places in the rocking chairs with us on their laps.
