Melissa gasped. “I cannot imagine what a shock that must have been. It’s also unusual that adoptive parents keep that a secret. It must feel like your whole existence was a farce. Are you finding leads? What led you here, of all places?”

Sully began to explain, and Melissa sat while her coffee got cold and she lost her taste for pie. She sat motionless, listening to his story and watching the changing expressions on his face. When he finally stopped talking, it seemed to Melissa as if he had visibly relaxed. As if sharing the tale had lessened the burden of his truth. She leaned forward and, without thinking, put her hand over his.

“I don’t know how to react. Part of this is intriguing, like a wonderful secret just waiting to be revealed, and part of it is so sad I want to cry.”

It was the warmth of her hand and her voice that cut right through the drama of his story.

“Thank you,” he said.

“What if you never find her?” Melissa asked.

“Then I will assume it wasn’t meant to be. But if I do, I hope she’s someone who will want to get to know me, because I have a thousand questions for her.”

“What do you know about your birth father?” Melissa asked.

“Absolutely nothing, but I’d like to at least know his name,” Sully said.

Melissa couldn’t help thinking about Sully moving on and never seeing him again. “What are you researching here next?”

“The newspapers. I’m assuming I will find the old issues at the library.”

“Yes, and they’re on microfiche, if you can believe that. In this day of technology at the speed of light, we’re still using the old ways. You’ll be flipping through those old records for hours. Too bad you don’t have help. I’m pretty sure there’s no one but the librarian on duty, which means she wouldn’t have time to help you much.”

“That’s okay,” Sully said. “I have nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.”

“You said you retired from the fire department. You’re really young for that.”

“I put in twenty-five years. In fireman years, multiplied by the number of fires, I’m as old as Methuselah.”

Melissa had a sudden vision of all the dangers he must have escaped during that time.

“I didn’t think of it like that,” she said.

Sully grinned. “I get a pension, but I do plan on finding another occupation. I was considering it when my mother died. And then this search began, and I’ve let everything else slide.”

“With good reason,” Melissa said. “If the going is very slow at the library, I wouldn’t mind helping you out a bit tomorrow. I mean, it’s just sitting, right? And looking for a name, right?”

The offer surprised, then touched Sully. It was a sweet and generous thing to suggest.

“I don’t think watching those screens flipping past would be very good for the two-day headache you’re working on.”