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“That’s what I thought.”
“If that guy is your ancestor, babe, at least you know Garrity is the right place to keep looking.” Murdoch looked at Gillian, the town librarian. “Gill, any way to identify these peeps for me and the former sheriff of Garrity?”
“I’m afraid not. We’ve labeled all the ones we have.”
“What about old newspapers?” Zoey asked.
“All that we have here goes back nineteen years. There was a fire in the old library building. It destroyed most of our records. It was arson. They never determined who did it.”
Murdoch bit back the urge to curse.
“FCU, the main branch, might have copies of some of it. There is a big display going on there right now that’s very interesting. It’s notGarrityhistory, really. More Coleson Hollow. Coleson used to be bigger than Garrity. But once the leading family fell on hard financial times, the town fizzled a little.”
Coleson Hollow.
Well, well, well. That place just kept turning up, didn’t it? The simplest thing would be to convince pretty nurse Bonnie to meet the love of Murdoch’s life. Maybe do a…DNA test? That would solve it all. Ok, maybe it would be a start, anyway.
If he could just make it happen.
He waited until the librarian was busy, then slung his arm around his woman’s shoulder. “What do you say, darlin’? Want to head to FCU this afternoon? Have lunch with our young-un’?”
“You are completely incorrigible. What would I do with you after?”
“Just drop me off on my brother, there at the hospital. He spends a lot of time there. There is this hot redheaded nurse he’s trying to steal from under the COM’s nose, I think. Anthony can have custody for the night. I’ll figure out a way back to Garrity later. I’m adaptable, you know.”
“I know you are a serious pain-in-the-ass.” She looked at the bank of photos on the wall. “Seems like every time I get close to having a name—someone or something else has been therefirst.To just make it all go away. Erase it forever.”
She wasn’t just talking about the photo. He knew that.
It went so much deeper.
It was a soul-hurting quest for her…roots.
He understood that. But didshe?
Murdoch pulled her close. Hugged her for just an instant.
“I know. But we’ll find the answers. When we work together, I don’t think anything can stop us. It just…took us a while to figure that out.” He kissed her. Right there, between the eyes. “Well, come on. You’re driving.”
35
Crispin could probably spendevery day for the rest of her life at Finley Creek University. There was something about the oxygen around the place that just felt like it was exactly the way the world was supposed to be. She loved learning.
She’d been taking college classes since her mom had decided she was ready for that first math class at fourteen. She’d never forget how it had felt, walking in there. With her sister Cashlyn next to her. Her mom had only agreed to her enrolling at the community college sixty miles away for an evening class, if Cashlyn or Cara agreed to enroll with her.
It had given Cashlyn incentive to keep going, too, when she’d been talking about just getting a job and helping their mom with bills instead. Cashlyn had wanted to help pay for Samia’s medical school, and help Eden with her nursing school tuition. But…her mom had convinced Cashlyn they’d all find the money somehow. That Cashlyn deserved a future and dreams, too.
And they had.
Grandpa Otis had found it somewhere. He had started college funds for all of them when her mom had gotten them all, but he hadn’t been super-rich or anything. He’d just made good investments. And there were ten of them. He wanted to be fair to all of them, and not just giving everything to Cara. Cara was his only biological grandchild. But Grandpa Otis had always said family and biology weren’t synonymous. That family was what you made it.Familycame from love.
They all understood they’d have to find ways to pay the rest of their tuition themselves. Especially since he’d also wanted them to have the house in Hughes Heights to live in together.
Crispin had a full-ride scholarship. And she lived at home. She even had some grant money to pay for living expenses, and things. She would be ok.
But some of her sisters of the heart had far less financial help than she did. So they worked.
Colesons were not afraid of hard work.
