“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since before you were born.” He used to want babies with me. We’d decided on four.

“Will he be my dad like my daddy Will was?”

“I think he wants to try. Is that okay?”

“Yes. But Calla needs a dad too. I want to share my dad Luke with her. Can I?”

“It’s not that simple. I haven’t seen Luke in years. All I know is that he wants to meet you and explain why he was gone.”

“When? Can I meet him right now?” he asked.

“Are you ready for that?” Thank God, I’d listened to my dad when he said I should tell Dylan the truth about Luke and Will.

“I’m ready. I want to,” he insisted. Voice firm, tears gone.

“We’ll drive to his house right now. I don’t know if he will be there, but it won’t hurt to check.”

What am I doing?

Instead of heading straight to my parents’ house, I turned off on the road that led to Luke’s place. The narrow, serpentine road was staggered with steep drop-offs that used to scare me when I was a kid. This road was as familiar to me as the road I had grown up on, and it hadn’t changed much over the years. Luke’s family home was in the middle of thirty acres of forested land that backed up to the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. We used to camp at the rear of the property, near the creek that fed into the Sweetbriar River. So many hours had been spent here—Luke, me, and my siblings—running around, exploring, and playing make believe.

I handed my phone back to Dylan. “Call Auntie Violet and tell her we will be late,” I instructed. His voice on the phone was an echo ringing in my ears. I had grown lost in memories that had long since been buried along with my childhood dreams. Dylan was ready to meet Luke, but I wasn’t so sure about myself. I knew this was long overdue, but the anticipation was about to kill me.

“We’ll be there very soon, Dylan. If you change your mind, I won’t be mad. We can turn around if you want.”

“I don’t want to turn around. I want to meet him. I’m ready, Mom,” he insisted.