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3
ROSEMARY
It feels like the plane has barely lifted off the ground before I swear we are landing again. I knew the flight would be short, but I was still hoping for more time to prepare myself for what I was about to walk into in Seattle.
It’s been two weeks since I suggested to Hazel for us to switch lives. Return to what should have been our lives? I don’t know. Either way, I’ve been all over the place about if this was a good idea or not.
I’m just a small-town girl who grew up on a farm.
As a kid, traveling for vacations weren’t really an option for my family. Daddy didn’t like leaving the farm in the care of others for any longer than a few days. So our family trips consisted of camping in the Saint Joe National Forest. Traveling to one of the biggest cities in America and spending the week will be unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.
Mama seemed open to the idea of the switch when I told my parents of our plan. And at first, I was happy to hear she was, but now I can’t shake the feeling like she’s going to forget about me while I’m gone. Daddy, a man of few words, said even less on the matter. He didn’t have to, the scowl on his face was enough to tell me in no uncertain terms that he didn’t like the idea. But as nervous as I feel right now, I know that I need to do this. I need to know the family that should have been mine.
I gather my bag from beneath the seat in front of me and wait for my turn to get off the plane. Scott and Cynthia—my biological parents—offered to have their private plane pick me up and bring me to the city. And as exciting as that would have been to experience, my parents are proud hardworking people. I didn’t want them to think that I would lose myself, the daughter they raised, to the dazzle of the Davenports’ life of luxury by taking them up on the offer with the jet. I’m still me. The same old Rosemary Hardin I was before the truth came out. I won’t let this time away change who I am.
I check my bag to make sure I have my phone and my wallet and find a small wrapped gift, the size of a small notepad tucked inside. There’s a note attached.
To my Firecracker. We love you. Daddy.
I pull at the beautiful wrapping paper and chuckle. I know that Mama must have wrapped it for him. It’s a framed photograph of Daddy, Mama, Liz, Sophie, Chasen, and me that was taken at the Fatesville Founder’s Day Festival earlier this year. We are all standing close to one another, our arms linked and smiling brightly at the cameraman. It was an amazing day. I’m so grateful that this memory was captured in this photograph and that I could bring it with me. Hot tears sting my eyes, but I don’t let them fall.
Daddy didn’t see me off to the airport this morning. Mama said that he couldn’t come with them to see me off because there was fencing down in the back paddock. I was worried that he didn’t care that I was going, but now I know that he wasn’t ready to see me go.
“Do you mind?” the woman sitting in the window seat next to me asks.
I look up and realize that I’m holding up the line to get off the plane.
“I’m sorry about that ma’am,” I say as I tuck my gift back into my bag.
I push my suitcase off the plane in front of me and make my way up the ramp into Sea-Tac Airport. I look around for any sign of Scott or Cynthia, but I don’t see them waiting for me. I swear Cynthia assured me that someone would be there to pick me up when I arrived.
My eye catches on three guys standing and talking to one another. I know from Hazel that she has three older brothers, I mean, I have three older brothers. Could that be them here to pick me up? I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that neither of my biological parents are here to welcome me.
This doesn’t mean they don’t care.
I push away the doubt in my head. They wouldn’t have agreed to have me come if they didn’t want to get to know me. Maybe something important has come up, and they just couldn’t make it.
Two of the guys are facing me, with the third one with his back to me. As I get closer, I notice that the older of the two looks like Cynthia but with darker hair and the younger one is a dead ringer for Scott. These have to be my brothers. I pause. That thought came without any hesitation. I guess I’m finally coming around to this crazy situation.
ALEX
My best friend, Roman, asked me to come along with him and his younger brother, Luca to pick up their long-lost sister at the airport. He said that he didn’t know what to expect from this, Rosemary Hardin from Fatesville, Idaho and he thought that I’d be a good buffer to help ease any of the awkwardness that was bound to strike at some point.
At first, I told him that I had no interest in wading into the drama that was about to unfold.
“You have to come,” he said. “You owe me.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I got you a job on my dad’s campaign.”
“I got myself the job. Your father was very clear that he hired me in spite of my abysmal taste in friends.”
Roman laughed. “Shut up, asshole. Come on. I don’t know how to handle this chick.”
“You mean your sister? I don’t think she will have to be handled, but I’m starting to think that I should go to protect her from you and Luca’s jackassery.”
“Hey man, whatever you have to tell yourself so that you come along.”
