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“Yes, of course. Come in.” He nearly shut the door in the face of the man that had been with her. “I’m sorry. I’m a little bit overwhelmed at the moment. Did you say your name was Merce?”
“Yes. This is my husband, Del Archer. We were just married two days ago. I didn’t know about you until a few days before that.” He nodded, feeling foolish until he heard his wife. She would have fainted to the floor had Cody not been right behind her. “I’m sorry for this. I guess I should have called. But I was afraid you’d not want to see me.”
“You look like your mother. So much so, I thought for a second…. Come, let’s go into the living room. I need a minute.” Taking his wife from Cody, he carried her into the living room with them. Sitting in the chair with her on his lap, Ronny held her like the lifeline she’d been all their married life. “Can we talk until my wife comes around? She’s not been well of late. Some kind of flu or something. At our age, it’s dangerous to get a cold, and here we’ve had two this summer. I’m off my head right now. Tell me about yourself. Please? You said you only just found out about us. What did you do? How is it that you weren’t at the hospital when we went to get our daughter? What—?”
“Ronny, give our granddaughter a moment to answer before you shotgun more questions than she can answer.” He kissed Lily on the mouth, and she sat down on the couch. This child was his granddaughter. There wasn’t any doubt in his head about that now that his wife approved. “Tell me, child, where have you been all this time?”
“Ohio. Where my parents were killed. As I said, I’ve only just found out about you and the Overlooks. The night of the accident, there was some confusion with all the people involved, and I was mixed up with a child that was stillborn. My father didn’t know either.” He asked about her mother. “Sadly, she passed away some time ago.”
“I’m sorry about that.” She nodded. Ronny didn’t know why, but he thought there was more to the story than she was telling them. But he didn’t care. She was here, and he couldn’t have been happier. “I can’t believe you’re here. I have been…. Oh, I must call the Overlooks. They’ve been looking for you as well. You’ve not been to see them, have you?”
“No. We came here first because you live in a house. They’re in a gated community, and we didn’t think they’d allow us in without some proof of who I was. I didn’t want them to be hurt if they thought I was lying to them.” Lily got up and came back with a framed picture of Rachel, taken a few weeks before she’d left home. “My goodness, I do look just like her. Look at her eyes. They seem like you could see right into her soul.”
Ronny couldn’t hold it back any longer and started crying. His granddaughter was home. She was here, and he was able to hold her, hug her whenever he wanted. Getting up before he made a bigger fool of himself, he was nearly to his office when the young man, he couldn’t remember his name, touched him on the shoulder.
“I wanted to tell you something I think you should know. Merce hasn’t had the best life growing up. Her mother ended up in a mental institution after trying to kill Merce when she was less than a week old. That was where she was when she passed away. Merce’s brothers, older than her, have the same kind of condition. The doctors are treating them both, but it doesn’t look good for one of them. Also, I love her with all my heart. My family does as well. I will never allow anyone to hurt her again.” He put out his hand, and Ronny took it immediately. “I swear to you on my mother’s heart that you will never have to worry about her being mistreated ever again.”
“I believe you, son. I do. We’ve missed her entire life, you know. I know nothing about her.” He grinned at him. “You really do love her, don’t you? It’s written all over your face how much you do.”
“I do. More than I do myself.” Nodding, he invited the younger man into his office as he made the call. While waiting for the phone to be answered, he asked the younger man how long they’d be here. “As long as you wish. We both work from home, so it’s no problem for us to take a few days or a couple of weeks.”
He wanted forever but didn’t push it. Just then, the phone was answered.
“Did you know there are over three hundred kinds of hummingbirds in the world, Ronny? I was just looking it up to answer one of those damned crossword puzzles Holly does. How the hell are you?” He told him he was fine. Before he could get another word in about Merce, he started again. Chadwick rarely shut up long enough for people to have a conversation with him. “I tell you, Ronny, that woman gets loonier and loonier every summer. What did you need?”
“Our granddaughter just showed up here with her husband. Nice man. I can’t remember his name right now, but he swears he loves her. Why don’t you and—?” Chadwick asked him if he was drunk. “I’m not, and it’s only nine in the morning, Chadwick. Why don’t you and Holly come over and see them? She’s the spitting image of Rachel.”
“I don’t know why I’d have to say this to you, Ronny, but this isn’t funny.” Ronny assured him he wasn’t trying to be. “She’s there? Really and for true?”
“Yes. She’s right here in our living room, Chadwick. Beautiful like my Rachel was, and as tall if not taller than Chad was. They wanted to come to see you but were afraid you’d turn them away.” Chadwick sniffled, and Ronny spoke while his good friend regained control of himself. “She told me there was a mix-up that night. That a baby had been born to another couple, and it had died. In the confusion of the accident, there was a switch. They never told us there was a stillborn there. I don’t know why, but after all this time, I’m betting no one would be able to tell us either. We have her here, and she’d really enjoy meeting you. Her husband too.” Del told him his name. “Del Archer. That’s his name. Come on over. But if you don’t want to upset Holly right now, I can understand that as well.”
“You know as well as I do that if I go there and it is my granddaughter, Holly will hang me out to dry.” She would at that, but he didn’t say anything. “I’ll have to tell her first. You don’t be surprised, Ronny, if we’re still in our bathrobes when we show up. She’ll want to get over there that fast.”
“As a matter of fact, Chadwick, I’m still in mine. I’ll change before you get here.” He wasn’t, but he thought it would make the other man feel better to think he was. “I’ll have tea on when you arrive, the two of you. And some Danish. I think Cody can have some ready in no time. You two come here, but please be safe. She will be disappointed in you if you get yourself hurt before you see her.”
“Is it really her, Ronny? I know I keep asking you this, but it would hurt my heart to think she might still be out there waiting for us to find her.” Ronny asked Chadwick if he was near his computer. Asking for a picture of his wife, Del mailed it to the address Ronny gave him. “Damned thing. It takes forever when you’re wanting something to— Oh Ronny, she does look like your little girl. Just look at those eyes. And that chin. That’s—we’ll be right there, Ronny. Right there.”
They stared at one another as they sat there, Del and himself. When Del smiled at him, Ronny thought he could surely like this young man. But he had some questions of his own to ask, and he was a little afraid to ask them. He didn’t know why, but he thought that whatever he asked him, Del was going to give him the truth as an answer.
“Ask me.” Nodding, Ronny leaned back in his chair. “Merce will tell you right up straight if you want some information. I don’t usually, but I have a feeling in this circumstance you need it more than you do half-truths.”
“I do. But I don’t want to know either.” Del told him he could understand that. “Why don’t you
tell me some things about yourself, and that’ll make me feel better.”
“I’m the youngest of six brothers. My dad passed away not long after I was born. My grandda lives with my mom. The man who raised Merce, Harlin Lowery, is living in a condo now with his father. He’s a good man with a wonderful heart. The two of them are getting along nicely. Merce and I are going to live in the house when we get back from here. It’s being renovated with new paint and such. I have a doctorate in engineering, as does Merce. We’re working on a project together to make mechanical arms for the operating room. It’s going very well.” He asked him about his mom. The smile on his face told Ronny a great deal. “She’s amazing. Her name is Katherine Archer, and she makes the most wonderful jellies and jams. Her chicken and dumplings are the most tender you’ve ever tasted. She loves Merce as much as she does me.”
“Katherine Archer the billionaire? She’s your mother?” He nodded. “My goodness. I was just reading about her the other day. You and your brothers, you’ve been—you’re Delmar Archer, the architect that designed the Watson Building in downtown Columbus, Ohio.”
“My partner and I did, yes. I didn’t realize it was this far-reaching. It was a fun thing to do for us.” Ronny told him what he’d read. “That’s what I heard. I don’t know if I’d call it a modern miracle, but it does have a lot of green features that make it economical to use. In five years, the savings on electricity for the company using it will have paid for the building. And the city is paying them for the extra that they generate with the solar panels that were put on top of it, as well as in the parking lot.”
He liked the way Del included his partner in the work. Also that he was modest about his design. There wasn’t anything to indicate that he was playing him. As soon as he was able, Ronny was going to look into other things his granddaughter and this man had done.
They were headed back to the living room when the front doorbell rang again.
“That can’t be Chadwick unless he ran every light on the way here.” Opening the door, he had a feeling he was meeting not just Del’s lovely mother but also the man who had raised his granddaughter. Pulling them into the house, he hugged the man first. “You saved her for us. I can’t thank you enough.”
“Well, I guess you realize it’s your granddaughter.” The woman, Katherine Archer, shook his hand. “I’m Del’s mother. I wasn’t going to do this, but I really had to make sure my children were all right. I do think of Merce as my daughter, and I don’t want her hurt.”
