“I’m not trying to pry. It’s just that . . . is he even going about this the right way?”

“Honey, do you think there is a certain way he should be going about this?”

“No, sorry,” she whispered. She sat on the bed. “You know what it is? I’ve been picturing this moment ever since he was a little guy. And now we’re here. I just thought that we’d take this journey together. Instead, he’s upstairs on his computer. Unless he tells me what he’s doing, I don’t really know what he’s doing.”

“Honey, David’s got to want to do this for himself. He’s not going to do it at all if he feels pushed.”

Susan sighed and kept folding.

“You know what?” Jimmy said. “We haven’t even prayed about this like we should. Let’s put these away and do that.”

Susan smiled as Jimmy took the pile into the next room. When he was gone, she opened the dresser drawer and pulled out a box of cookies.

“Hey, I had a thought,” Jimmy said, coming back into the room.

Wide-eyed, Susan looked up at him. Her cheek bulged with the uneaten cookie.

“Are you still hiding cookies?” Jimmy said.

“I need these,” Susan said.

Jimmy paused as if wondering what to say next.

“Can we still pray?” she said.

Jimmy came around the foot of the bed, smiling. “Not until you share one of those.”

Susan laughed and it felt like she was letting go of something as she did.

CHAPTER 26

The lake was an hour away, the perfect distance for the family to feel like they were secluded but still close to home. Since he was little, David had loved coming here with his parents and grandparents and they had made some rich, warm memories. His grandmother, G, always made her signature fruit salad and they feasted on it throughout their stay. Then there were the fishing expeditions in their bass boat. And on this getaway, Paw Paw wound up catching most of the fish they would fry on the campfire that evening.

After dinner they gathered at the fire and listened to Paw Paw tell his most-requested hunting and fishing stories from his childhood. David could recite several of them word for word, he had heard them so many times, but that was the thing about being around family. Their shared stories bonded them. And David hoped his story would do the same, that one day he might bring his own children to this spot and camp with them and tell them what it was like when he found his biological mom and dad.

“So, David, tell us the latest,” G said. “Have you learned anything new about Melissa and Brian?”

“Well, they were married shortly after I was born and then divorced a few years later. Brian has a daughter now. He married a woman named Azure.”