“I will.” I reached out and gently squeezed her arm, then went to meet Mo in the car.

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 17

“Got what you needed?” Mo asked, eyeing the drawing in my hand.

“No. It wasn’t a key. It’s a drawing that was with the other papers.” I glanced up at the office window before we pulled off. “Mrs. Redmond just heard that a close friend of hers died.”

“Seriously?” Mo asked.

“It was on the news. They found her body somewhere close by.”

“That’s terrible.” Mo shook her head and heaved a big sigh as we headed back to the house.

“You okay?” I asked.

“It’s funny how people complain about stuff that happens in the big city, but I’ve never had my tires cut back home. It threw me.”

I angled myself toward her. “I’m sorry. We’re out here because of me.”

Mo reached over and squeezed my hand. “No, love. Don’t be sorry.”

“Do you regret coming out here?” I asked.

“Do you?”

“No,” I said. That wasn’t the whole truth. “Maybe a little.”

“Why?” Mo asked. “You’ve been running around here with Karter. You seem happier than you’ve been in a minute.”

“Yeah, but this has to be weird for you and Mom. I know we talked about it and you said you’d support me, but we’re living in a place with people who knew my birth mother and her family. We’re living in a house that belonged to them. That has to make you and Mom feel some type of way.”

“We’re being honest?” Mo asked.

I took a deep breath. That was Mo’s way of saying she was willing to have a tough conversation. “Yes,” I said. “We’re being honest.”

Mo nodded. “I don’t know why your birth mother chose adoption. You were, and still are, the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen. I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you, and for the longest time, I asked myself how anyone could walk away from you.”

A knot formed in my throat. Mo kept her eyes forward as she continued. “But my thinking was flawed. I wasn’t as knowledgeable about the adoption process as I should have been. I have no right to judge anyone, especially when your birth mother’s decision made it possible for you to come into my life. What she did, for whatever reason she did it, was a choice that allowed us to be together.