Page 56 of A Fall to Remember

Had Jim gone off script again?

“I’ve been looking for my birth father,” Pete said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I haven’t told anyone about it.”

“Oh.” Shelby was slightly stunned. “Oh.” She hated that she couldn’t come up with a better response than that. He was looking for his birth father? Gawd, she’d been so wrapped up in her own issues. She felt like an ass. How many questions had she asked Pete about himself? He must think she was a self-obsessed narcissist.

“Mom doesn’t know.” He blew out a long sigh as he waited for a surfer to pass them, hauling a board easily on one shoulder. “I’m scared she’ll be hurt and feel betrayed.”

“Really?” Shelby hadn’t gotten that impression from Miranda. If anything, Miranda seemed confident, grounded, calm, wise, and content. Obviously, she didn’t know her well, but there was nothing about Miranda’s aura or personality that suggested she would be rattled by much.

Pete ran his hands through his hair. “Maybe. No. I don’t know.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Shelby was glad to flip the script, and she felt equally pleased that Pete was sharing something so deeply personal with her. Was it just to make her feel better? Well, even if it was, it was working.

“Kind of. We have more in common than you might think. Everything you said about keeping the secret of what’s going on with your family resonated. I mean, I understand our issues are different, but it’s been eating me up not to tell Mom.”

“Would she be upset?” Shelby wasn’t sure how much to pry. She didn’t know anything about Pete’s background. Miranda seemed so steady and sure of herself. So grounded. Shelby had already picked up nuggets of wisdom from her that she would take home. But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t complicated. Pete was her only child. Maybe Miranda was being extra protective of him. Maybe she knew more about Pete’s birth father than she was telling him. Perhaps there had been a nasty breakup. Maybe there was a reason Miranda didn’t want him to find his birth father.

“Not about wanting to look for him,” Pete said, gnawing on the inside of his cheek. “But about me searching for him without telling her, yeah, for sure. It started as almost a hobby. That’s a weird hobby, I guess that’s not the right word, but I never thought it would go anywhere. As time has gone on and I’ve found other tidbits of information, I haven’t been able to let it go. It’s like a mystery that I need to solve.”

“That makes sense.” She picked at her fingernails, not sure what to say next.

“Mom never knew the guy.” Pete shrugged. “It was a one-night stand. They met at a conference, had a fling, and went their separate ways. She’s always been completely transparent about it. By the time she realized she was pregnant, there was no hope in finding him. It turns out he gave her a fake name. She said she wondered if he was married.”

“Traveling for work, yeah, that checks out.” Shelby nodded, not wanting to say too much. She could tell that he was in the same space that she’d been in. He needed to get this off his chest.

“Right. I’ve done my own digging. I went so far as to track down the organizer of the conference and try and get my hands on the list of registrants.”

“Did you?”

Pete shook his head. “I did speak with the organizer, but the conference was over twenty-five years ago. It was the late nineties. She explained they did everything by hand back then. They didn’t keep electronic records.”

“The before times.” Shelby winked, trying to break a little bit of the tension.

“Exactly. Way back in the nineteen hundreds.” Pete chuckled. “Anyway, then I couldn’t let it go. It’s like I’m in too deep now. I’m close, but not close enough. A friend of a friend recommended a private detective agency that takes cases like this.”

“Whoa, a private detective?” Shelby was genuinely impressed that Pete had gone to such great lengths to find his father. It said a lot about him. She didn’t want to overstep, but if Pete was considering hiring a private detective, it was probably time for him to loop Miranda in on his plans.

He waited for a group of hikers to pass by before he continued. “Apparently, they work out of a mystery bookshop in Redwood Grove; it’s another small beach town not far from here. I had a preliminary conversation with them, and they’re willing to take the case and feel confident they can find some answers, but if I do it, I feel like I have to tell Mom.”

“Would she find out? Like, would the private detectives need to involve her in the investigation?” Shelby asked, feeling a deeper sense of connection to him. She’d been thinking the same thing.

“Probably. It sounded that way. I’m not entirely sure, but yeah, I guess so, and I suppose it’s also me needing to rip the Band-Aid off and be honest with her.”

“Look, Pete, I don’t know your mom that well, but she doesn’t strike me as someone who is fragile. She clearly loves and adores you. I can’t imagine her freaking out.” She couldn’t help feeling another slight tug of envy. Pete was lucky to have a mom like Miranda who was looking out for him.

“Nah, she won’t freak out.” A smile tugged at Pete’s lips as he shook his head again slowly. “She’s super chill. You’re right about that.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“She’ll be devastated that I’ve kept this from her. We’re really close. It’s always been her and me and then my cousin, Elise, too. We’re a unit. She’ll be so hurt. I think she’ll feel betrayed. I’ve never kept a secret from her. Never.”

“Okay, that makes one of you, Pete.” Shelby furrowed her brow. “This is probably a good thing. Everyone I know keeps secrets from their parents. You never lied to her about sneaking into a party you weren’t supposed to go to or staying out past your curfew?”

“Never.” He gasped in faux outrage. “Me?” He feigned an innocent look. “Never, seriously. Never. I always got home well ahead of my curfew.”

“Pete, that is not normal.” Shelby laughed. “Legit, like, everyone lies to their parents at some point. You’re just late to the game, my friend.”

He cracked a real smile this time. “I was a late bloomer.”