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“Give me a sec, I’ll call Zayne.” He places his cell to his ear and waits for him to answer while I pull another box off the shelf and slam it on the desk.
Zayne said Sarah Hendricks is a name Noah’s mentioned a few times, he couldn’t find any information on her. No social security or medical. It’s like she never existed. He just jotted it down in case it became relevant.
I quickly flick through the birth certificate files and feel triumphant when I find one that matches.
“Tate, look for anything registered to the Hendricks surname. Marriage, deaths, property.” We’re getting somewhere, I can tell, and although Tate doesn’t share my enthusiasm, he does as I say and gets back to work.
“Here, Gerald Hendricks bought a small holding in this town back in 1972.” It takes me some time but I eventually find something promising.
“1972.” Tate laughs at me.
“This could still be the address of this woman’s parents.” I point out how relevant all this could be and Tate sighs. “I’ll call Zayne back and get him to see if he can find out who owns the place now.”
“Good idea.” I quickly write down the address that we’ll need.
I leave the library feeling proud of myself. I have an address of a small holding that was and is still owned by Sarah Hendricks’parents. Whoever this woman that Noah remembers is, we know she came from this town and that seems like a pretty big coincidence.
We have to stop at the lights when we get to the crossroads in the center of town. Tate has the music so loud that I can barely hear myself think, but it still doesn’t stop me getting all dreamy about how things are going between me and Cole right now. It seems whatever happened last night finally made it sink in for him that we can make this work, and although I’m trying not to think too far ahead. I can’t help wondering if, one day, we’ll be building a cabin of our own like Wade and Leia as we move along.
Tate suddenly slams on the brakes and my arms automatically reach out and hit the dash as my seat belt cuts into my chest.
“What the fuck?” Tate doesn’t explain what caused it, he abandons me and the truck in the middle of the road and nearly gets himself run over when he dashes across the street toward the chapel.
“Tate, what's goin’ on?” I jump out the truck myself, apologizing to the people who are honking their horns as I rush after him.
“Tate?” I finally catch up with him around the back of the chapel, realizing he’s staring into the trees that edge the woods on the other side of the river.
“Tate, what was that about?” I know he would have been told to be on alert, but I saw no sign of danger back there.
“Nothing.” He shakes his head, looking a little haunted.
“Good to know I almost got killed for nothing.” I rub my shoulder where the seatbelt cut into me.
“You didn’t nearly get killed. Come on.” He tries to shake himself out of whatever’s got him spooked.
“You sure I shouldn’t drive back? You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“I think I might have,” he admits. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Just admit it, you're impressed,” I tell Cole as he reads through the files I took the liberty of photocopying back at the library.
“I don’t know if I’m impressed or scared.” He looks up at me and smiles. “Anyone would think you’d done this before.”
“I tried, when I wanted to find my birth parents, though in that case I didn’t find anything. Turns out Dan’s method worked again. Shame it worked with Calvin, huh?” I regret saying that because his smile fades and it kills the happy mood he’s in.
“That man wasn’t worth finding, he was a jerk.” Cole grabs my waist and guides me to sit on his lap. “Way I see it, your dad is the man who raised ya, the one who looked out for ya and?—”
“And lied to me,” I remind him.
“Yeah, he lied, but I’m figuring it was to protect you. You met the guy, you saw he was a class-A dick. DNA is just science. You were raised and loved by your folks and they deserve to hear from ya.”
“I don’t know what to say to them,” I admit, feeling that heavy sense of confusion start to spin in my head again.
“Tell ‘em the truth, say you’re hurt. Just don’t keep ‘em in the dark.”
“I kinda have to, Dan put everything on the line when he gave me that information. I’m not gonna destroy his career as well as break his heart.” I let out a long, guilty breath, and Cole immediately grabs my jaw and forces me to look at him.
“Call your parents, let ‘em know you forgive ‘em at least. They’ll be hurting enough from the fact that you ain’t goin’ home.”
