“Glad to hear it.” He sounded appeased and she was relieved. “Difficult as all this is, I have to tell you that I’m pleased to know that I have a grandson, especially now that Dave’s gone. It’s comforting to know that a piece of him lives on.”

“Of course,” she replied, her eyes and nose burning.

“But I can’t imagine why you chose to hide him from Dave for ten years. It would have done my boy some good to know that he had a son of his own.”

“I didn’t mean to hide—”

“I guess it don’t matter now that Dave’s gone—” The old man’s voice cracked and Katie crumpled inside.

“I did try to tell him, before he left Oregon,” she said, shaking her head at the unspoken, worried questions forming in Bliss’s eyes. “He never called or came back to find out.”

“So now it’s his fault?” The man’s voice rose an octave and Katie could almost feel his agitation.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I should hope not, missy, because our boy’s gone. Gone. It nearly killed Loretta—” His voice cracked again and Katie wanted to drop off the face of the earth.

“Look, I’m sorry about Dave. Really. He was a good person.”

“But not good enough for you to contact and tell him about his son.”

“That was probably a mistake,” she allowed.

“Amen to that one.”

“But I was young and scared—”

“Maybe we should be running along,” Bliss said as she caught a glimmer of the conversation.

“No, it’s fine. Please. Stay,” Katie mouthed, placing her hand over the mouthpiece of the receiver.

“Okay. We’ll be outside.” Without another word, Bliss shepherded Dee Dee outside, found the basketball on the back porch and challenged her stepdaughter to a game of horse.

“I know why you were scared,” Ralph Sorenson said. “Can’t say as I blame you, but the here and now of it is that Loretta and I have a grandson—the only one we’ll ever have—and we want to meet him.”

“Of course you do,” she said, trying to stay calm. “I think that it would be a good idea.” That was stretching the truth a bit, but she couldn’t deny Josh the right to see his grandparents, or vice versa.

“Then let’s do it. The sooner the better.”

She’d forgotten how pushy Ralph Sorenson had been, how Dave had complained of an overbearing father. “Listen, Mr. Sorenson, I said I was sorry and I am. I probably handled this all wrong from the get-go, but the most important person in this situation is Josh. I just want to make sure that he’s strong enough to handle this. I think he is. And certainly, very soon, he’s gonna want to meet you.”