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She hesitated to open it. What if there were no family photos? She’d been disappointed so many times in her life—like back in elementary school when there was the father-daughter dance. All of her friends were going with their dads, but she didn’t have a dad. Her mother had offered to go with her, but Leah had immediately and emphatically turned her down. There was no way she wanted to stick out because she didn’t have a dad.

She knew the chances of finding him now were slim to none. Even if she did find him, would he want anything to do with her?

She opened the photo album. The first picture was of her mother as a teenager. Wow! Her mother had long brown hair that hung down to the middle of her back and bangs. She was smiling.

Leah took a closer look to make sure it was actually her mother. She’d never seen her mother so happy. Her eyes twinkled like she didn’t have a care in the world. Then again, she probably didn’t back then.

Her mother wasn’t alone in the photo. There were a couple of girls about her age and three guys. One of those guys had short blondish-brown hair, and he appeared to only have eyes for her mother because he was openly staring at her in the photo. Although, her mother didn’t seem to notice.

There were a few more photos on the page, but none of them had her mother in them so she turned the page. She couldn’t believe her mother had been so carefree back then. What had changed her into the unhappy person she’d known?

Page after page, Leah’s gaze scanned each photo, looking for her mother and that guy who had been staring at her mom. There were some snapshots of them, but they weren’t together in any of the photos.

And then she came across another photo of the mystery guy. He was in a football uniform with a ball in his hand as he posed for the picture. The number on his red jersey was ten. She didn’t know much about football, but she had dated a few guys who were totally into the sport. She’d picked up enough to know that number more than likely meant he was the quarterback.

“Way to go, Mom,” she whispered. “You had the quarterback hot for you.”

Leah wondered why her mother wouldn’t tell her about this time in her life. Now she would never know if her mother had gone out with him. She wouldn’t know if he was a total gentleman? Or had he been a thoughtless jerk?

Instead of opening her mother’s footlocker and getting answers to her questions, she had more questions now than when she’d entered the attic.

She continued turning the pages. She slowly took in each photo, wondering who the people were in the photos, wishing her mother was there to give her the answers.

She turned to the next to the last page. Her eyes widened. She gasped! This couldn’t be right. Her eyes were lying to her.

She dropped the photo album. “No. No. No!”

Chapter Fifteen

Where was it?

Shaun checked all of his pockets for his phone, but it wasn’t in any of them. He checked the bed and the little desk where he’d been working. It wasn’t in any of those places.

He tried to recall the last time he’d used it. It took him a moment, but then he recalled. It had been in the living room.

He moved to Mochi, who was asleep in bed. She lifted her head to look at him through eyes that were heavy with sleepiness. “Stay. I’ll be back.”

Unimpressed with his words, she let her head fall back onto the blankets. He heard her soft snores as he exited the room.

In the dark, he retraced his steps back to the living room. It had to be in there. When he reached the living room, it took him a moment to find the light switch. And then he started to look around. The search was complicated by all of the cardboard boxes that were stacked around the room.

After a couple of minutes, he found it stuck between the couch cushions. The funny thing was that he didn’t recall sitting there. In fact, if he recalled correctly, it had been Mochi who’d been camped out there. Hmm... He wondered if Mochi had stolen his phone. He looked at it and didn’t notice any teeth marks, but there was some slobber dried on the screen. Shaun couldn’t help but smile.

The phone vibrated in his hand as it did when it had notifications of things he’d missed. When he logged in, he found that he had thirteen new text messages. What was that all about?

A quick check told him that one was from his father. Another was from his sister. And the remaining eleven were from his ex. He sighed.

He opened his father’s message first.

Dad: How’s the SUV? Any word on when you’ll be home?

Shaun: No change. Still stuck under the tree limb. Will have it freed tomorrow.

Next, he checked his sister’s message.

Teri: Wanted to see if you’d make it for Christmas this year. Hope so. It would be good to see you.

Shaun: I’m not sure yet. Let me see how things go with the SUV.