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“You know my eyes change colors depending on what I wear,” Charlie covered, quickly. “Sometimes they’re brown and sometimes they’re green...”
“Well today they’re gold,” said Drew. “Very gold. Not brown at all.” He led them into a living room. “By the way, what happened to your arm?”
“Skiing accident. Remember, we went on that ski trip?”
“Ah, yes. I seem to be getting so forgetful. You broke your arm?”
“It’s actually just a bad laceration. And I have a few other injuries, but I’m good.”
“Did you hit a tree?”
“No. Collided with another boarder. I think he had a broken leg.”
“Perhaps you need a personal injury lawyer,” he joked. “Have a seat here. The Parsons will be out in just a minute.”
Josh whispered, “So far, so good. I think he bought it.”
“I don’t know. He seemed a bit suspicious.”
“No, I think we’re safe for how.”
He surveyed the room. Nothing too opulent. The home was comfortable and well-kept, although the décor was slightly dated.
“Ah! Here they are. Ron and Kay Parsons, I’d like for you to meet Dr. Josh Branson and his fiancée... Olivia.”
Josh turned his head toward the dark hallway from which Drew had emerged. He steeled himself to greet the heartless couple, ready to mete out judgment upon them for their lack of charity. But he was stunned speechless at the sight that greeted him. From the dim light, emerged a distinguished-looking gray-haired man in a wheelchair, pushed by a thin woman of similar age. Charlie elbowed him out of his astonished reverie, indicating they should stand to meet them.
Charlie took a few steps forward and stuck out her hand with a warm smile. “Mr. Parsons? Mrs. Parsons? It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Charlie.”
“Olivia,” Josh corrected quickly. “But Charlie is her nickname.”
“Charlie, nice to meet you,” said Mr. Parsons, returning the smile, but it faltered when he addressed Josh. “Dr. Branson. Thank you for coming.”
His wife shook hands without making eye contact. Josh was surprised the instant dislike he expected to feel was absent. Instead, he found himself a bit sympathetic for the couple who were obviously uncomfortable with the meeting.
As Josh and Charlie returned to sit on the sofa, Drew spoke. “Mr. Parsons. Why don’t you explain to Dr. Branson why you wanted to meet with him?”
He glanced at his wife, who reached out to take his hand from her perch on an adjacent chair. “Dr. Branson... Mr. Warner has explained to us there’s a strong likelihood you and your wife will gain custody of both Jace and Chloe. If this happens, we... Well, we just want to implore you not to keep our grandchildren away from us.”
The wording of his question startled Josh. “Are you asking about both Jace and Chloe? Or just Chloe?”
At his question, tears began to streak down the wife’s face, and the husband squeezed her hand but kept his eyes on Josh. “I know you may not understand this, Dr. Branson, but both of our grandchildren are very important to us. They’re all we have left. Jace may not be our flesh and blood, but we’ve loved him since he was born. Your sister came to live with us as part of a program when she was an unwed mother, and she became like a daughter to us. When our only son came home from Afghanistan, they fell in love and got married and had two miscarriages before they had Chloe. So can you understand Jace is just as much our grandchild as Chloe?”
Josh couldn’t make sense of the situation. “But I thought you didn’t want Jace? I thought that was why you were trying to adopt Chloe, but not Jace.”
The woman sobbed even harder, and Mr. Parsons explained, “I have Multiple Sclerosis, and about a year ago it progressed to the point where I’m stuck in this wheelchair.” His voice broke. “When we lost Mark and Laurie, we hoped someone would adopt them, and we could continue to be grandparents. But when we heard you were looking at adopting them... Well, we knew you didn’t want to be part of our family, because Laurie had already tried to get you to meet us, and she invited you to Christmas, and you’d refused. So...”
“So you
thought I would keep them away from you?”
“Yes. And so we filed for custody of Chloe, but we didn’t think we had a chance with Jace, since Mark had never gotten around to legally adopting him. And, with me in my condition, we probably couldn’t even handle Chloe. We were desperate. But honestly, we just want to be grandparents. We won’t impose on your time or intrude on your family. If you could just find it in your heart...”
Josh found, much to his embarrassment, that his eyes were swimming in tears. “I don’t want to keep you from your grandkids. I thought... I thought you didn’t want Jace. I just wanted them to grow up together, as brother and sister. I didn’t want him to be like me.”
“But when Laurie invited you, why didn’t you—”
“I was jealous,” Josh said, his voice overcome with emotion. “I was jealous my sister had a family and I didn’t. And I can’t tell you how much I regret not getting to know her and her family. And now it’s too late.” Josh could hear Charlie sniffing next to him.
