Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
Lola had carried that secret for decades, telling no one. Not even her husband, not even her daughter or granddaughter. Admitting it aloud now was one of the hardest things she had ever done, and it was so much, so much worse than even she had thought. If their child had been a shifter like Sam, then he'd been lost in a system that knew nothing about his true potential. She had let herself believe that he'd found a family, that he'd grown up safe and loved, because she couldn't live with anything else. Now, though…oh, she was so afraid of what might have happened.
"Do you remember anything about when they took him?" Sam asked gently. "Any questions they asked, anything they said? It's all right if you don't. It was a long time ago, and you were unwell."
"I remember everything." She pressed her face into his chest, shivering. "They asked me what I wanted to name him. Samuel Charles, that was his name. But I—Todd isn't that common a surname, and I didn't want your parents to find me," she said desperately. "I had to use the one I was using then. Johnson. I'd had a c-section. I was so weak. I had HG, hyperemesis gravidarum, it took me such a long time to even learn those words, I was so tired and sick. It's what Princess Kate had," she said with a shaky laugh. "She was the first person I ever even heard of someone else being that sick all the way through their pregnancy. I was just as sick with Jennifer, Charlee's mom."
"Oh, you poor thing," Sam said with such sympathy she nearly started to cry again. "That must have been awful. Everything else aside. It's all right, Lola. You didn't do anything wrong."
"I wanted to be able to take care of him," she whispered. "But…oh, Sam. Everything was against me. I was so young and too obviously single and you know how people were about single mothers back then. It's so different now. They asked…someone asked if his father or I had any conditions they should know about. They kept asking, in all kinds of different ways, over and over. Of course I said no. We were both so young and healthy."
Realization crashed through her as she spoke, though, and she lifted her head, staring at the man she still loved so very, very much. "Oh my God. I thought I was imagining how insistent they were about it, because I was so tired and weak and I couldn't understand why they would ask so many times, but they could have been trying to ask if I knew my baby, our baby, was a shifter. If I knew his father had been a shifter."
"Oh, dear God," Sam half-echoed. "They might have been. And they might have lost him into the system on purpose, if they thought their choices were finding a shifter family to adopt him, or letting him go home with a fragile true human who might—I'm sorry, I know you wouldn't have, Lola, but there are parents who do turn on their shifter children when they discover them. If they're sports, turning up in a family that hasn't had shifters for a long time. Lola—do you remember what hospital it was?"
"Yes, of course I remember, although I called it the Ladies of Uncharitable Thoughts Hospital," Lola said darkly. "They were such judgmental bitches."
Sam laughed, obviously startled, and despite her emotional turmoil, Lola managed a wet smile of her own. "I didn't like them very much even before I lost Samuel to them. They made it very clear they thought my sickness was punishment for being an unwed mother and that I deserved every minute of my suffering."
Sam's humor bled away as quickly as it had come. "I wish I could undo that for you, too. But it's a place to start, Lola. I have the resources. We might be able to track Samuel through shifter inquiries instead of the true human system. Someone at that hospital was a shifter, and recognized him as one. I might be able to find out who." He smiled again, a faltering sweet expression, and whispered, "'Samuel.'"
Lola lifted her fingers to trace his jaw, beneath the short white beard. "Who else was I going to name him after? Although I did name him after me, too. Charles, not Charlotte, obviously, but…I thought he should have those names from both of us, since his last name wasn't really from either of us."
"Thank you," Sam said hoarsely. "Thank you for that. Even though everything went wrong…thank you, Lola. My brave, beautiful girl. Will you marry me?"
"What?" Lola sat up, blurting the word in a laugh. "Really?"
"Yes, really. Tomorrow. In the damn town square, whether it's raining or snowing or shining. I love you more than life, Lola Nelson?—"
"Brown," she said, smiling.
"Charlotte Elizabeth Nelson, Lola Brown, whatever name you want to use, will you marry me? We've spent enough time apart, and I don't want to spend another minute without you." Sam's blue eyes widened suddenly. "Unless I'm being too forward, in which case I'm very sorry and wi?—"
She silenced him with a kiss, hands knotting in his short white hair, and whispered, "Of course I'll marry you, Samuel Theodore Todd. Tomorrow sounds perfect." Tears filled her eyes again, and she dashed them away as Sam made a face.
"Theodore. There's a part of my name I don't hear often. Or want to hear often."
Lola, sniffling, nestled up to him. "I know. That's why I always called you Ted Todd when we were little. I thought you were very handsome and…" She trailed off, thinking about her own youthful motivations and finally finishing with, "…and wanted to annoy you so you'd notice me, I suppose, which in retrospect seems really stupid."
Sam laughed and hugged her closer. "Every time you did it reminded me of why I absolutely never used my middle name. Sam Todd was an all right name, but Ted Todd sounded like I should be a toad shifter. Are you sure?" he asked more quietly. "About getting married, I mean. We only re-met about five hours ago."
"And we should have gotten married three and a half hours ago," Lola said decisively. "I've had a good life, Sam, and I don't have any regrets, but the one thing I've wanted as long as I can remember was to be your wife. That got taken away from me before we even had a chance to really start, and I don't want to miss out a second time. Can we get married tomorrow? Is there a waiting period?"
Sam untangled his arm from around her enough to look at his watch. "If we haul ass to the car and drive into town like the devil's on our tail, we can get into city hall just before it closes and get a marriage license, and then get married at six o'clock tomorrow evening."
Lola stood up, smiling through tears. "Then what are we waiting for?"
Sam also rose, a huge grin on his face. "Chase! Chase, I'm going back into town, can you arrange a wedding for tomorrow evening?"
" What ?" Another man's voice rose from somewhere in the house, and Lola blinked at Sam, baffled, as footsteps echoed down a hall. "Mr Todd, what did you say?"
"I said I'm getting married tomorrow," Sam said happily. "Chase, this is Lola Brown, the love of my life. Lola, this is Chase, one of my oldest foster kids and my current secretary. Chase, can you call City Hall and ask them to stay open until we get there?"
Chase, a good-looking young man of around forty-five or fifty—well, maybe not that young, but he looked young enough from where Lola was standing—stared between them with his jaw long. "Um."
"Don't worry," Sam said. "I haven't lost my mind."
"It's nice to meet you, Chase. Thank you for taking such good care of Sam. If you'd call City Hall, and then call Chef Charlee at Hold My Bear, she'll explain. Oh! I'd better call her myself, hadn't it?" Lola took her phone out, waved at Chase, and left the house with Sam, calling Charlee as she went.
"Nana?" Charlee sounded worried as she picked up. "Why are you calling me at work? Are you all right?"
"Everything is okay," Lola told her. "I was just wondering if you'd be available to walk me down the aisle tomorrow evening?"
There was a beat of silence before her granddaughter shrieked loudly enough that Lola pulled the phone away from her ear. Just in time, too, because a terrible banging clatter and a half dozen voices cried out in alarm in the background. Charlee shouted, " NANA ! You found Sam? You're getting married? For real? Tomorrow ? Is Mom coming? Can Steve and I host the reception? OH MY GOD!"
Lola, beaming, said, "Does that mean yes?"
" Yes of course it does oh my god I've got so much to do I love you congratulations bye! GUYS! GUYS! MY NANA IS GETTING MARR— " The phone went dead and Lola, climbing into Sam's car, shook with laughter.
"I take it your granddaughter approves," Sam said, and Lola leaned over to kiss him before buckling in.
"She seems to, yes. I think your poor secretary may bring you in for a mental examination, though. No, he won't," she decided happily. "Not once he's talked to Charlee and heard the whole story. Do we need paperwork?"
"We were both born here," Sam pointed out. "The county council office is going to have copies of most of our paperwork already. If there's anything else we need, I'll throw money at them until they decide it's not that important."
"Sam!"
"There has to be some advantage to being rich," Sam said. "Or, some advantage to being from a small town. Everybody knows your business here. One or the other, rich or everybody in your business, will do the trick."
"Everyone is going to know our business by tomorrow afternoon," Lola admitted. "After living a life so I wouldn't draw attention, that sounds kind of wonderful."
They pulled up to the city hall a few minutes later, spilling out of the car like they were much younger than their actual years. Sam caught her hand and kissed her knuckles as he opened the city hall door for her. "Voila. They stayed open for us."
'They' had, in fact, gathered at the main desk of the stately old city hall building: two town clerks, a grey-haired woman in judges' robes who had come down from the courthouse on one side of the city hall, and the sheriff and a deputy who had come in from the sheriff's department on the other side. All five of them were waiting curiously as Sam strode up to the desk. "Thank you for staying open. We'd like to apply for a marriage license, please."
"At 6:03 in the evening?" one of the clerks asked. "I was on my way home ."
"Patricia," the judge said sharply, and the woman looked sullen.
"Fine. Names?" Patricia's eyes widened as Sam gave his, and she shot a look first at the judge, then the sheriff, both of whom were doing a terrible job of hiding smiles. Lola didn't know why: they were both around ten years younger than she and Sam were, and she didn't suppose their names would mean anything to them.
Except they obviously did, and as they filled out the paperwork, it occurred to Lola that they'd been kids when Sam 'died' and she left town. In a place the size of Virtue, both of those things had probably made an impact. As the clerk looked over what they'd filled out, the judge said, "When's the wedding?"
"Tomorrow at…" Sam looked at his watch again. "Six thirteen p.m."
Amusement creased the judge's eyes. "Would you like it to be at a more convenient time tomorrow?"
"Yes," Lola said, amused, too. "It would probably make catering easier for Charlee. Or maybe not. But the law says twenty-four hours."
"The law says twenty-four hours unless a judge or magistrate tells you that you can get married earlier. I could marry you right now, if you wanted me to."
Hope leaped in Lola's heart. She and Sam turned to one another, enthralled with the idea until Lola laughed. "I just asked Charlee if she could walk me down the aisle, and she's not here, so we might have to wait until tomorrow after all."
"I'm available all day," the judge promised, and Lola, feeling like she was floating on air, walked back out into her home town with the man she loved.