35. Porter
35
porter
“Okay, I’m going to need you to start from the beginning,” I say, setting down my pint glass of beer because I don’t know what the hell just happened over the last hour. “We went over the plans thoroughly, and in none of those was Missy making a grand entrance.”
“Believe me, it wasn’t,” Quinn says. “Though, I do commend your flare for the dramatic.”
Missy shyly shrugs, clearly a little nervous about being the center of attention. “I was raised by Bonnie. I learned to be dramatic from a young age.”
The table laughs at her joke, and as much as I’d love to just laugh this day away, I have so many questions.
“Can we address the elephant in the room? How the hell did you find her?”
“She didn’t make it easy,” Stella says. “My normal channels of digging to track people down weren’t working.”
“And the private investigator I hired was coming up short as well,” Logan adds. “But we knew we were running out of time, and as much as I wanted to keep everything legal and above board...”
“We were running out of time, so he hacked into her email,” Maeve says. “My computer genius husband is an amateur hacker.”
Apparently I’m the only one at the table surprised by this. It’s also making me very curious if Stella is a part-time private investigator, Logan can hack things, and Simon and Quinn being, well, them…what kind of family am I getting into?
Oh, who am I kidding? I’m now a part of, without a doubt, the most entertaining family imaginable.
“So once we were in the email, we were able to trace the last time she used her computer to an IP address in Wyoming. From there Stella started doing Stella things that I’m not sure I want to know about.”
“You don’t,” she says. “But I figured out the campsite that was near the IP address, and well, we took a guess that’s where she was.”
“A guess!” Quinn yells. “You guessed?”
“We had to,” Logan says. “Who knew if Bonnie was going to fall for the lies? We needed to try to get Missy back because she was the nail in the coffin.”
Quinn and I both wide eyed as we listen to this story unfold. About how when they narrowed down the campsite, that Maeve jumped on a plane and headed to Wyoming. That once she found Missy and explained enough to get her on the plane, that they hightailed it back so Missy could sign any documents to make sure Bonnie never had claim to Grace.
“I should probably feel violated, but I’m glad you did what you had to do,” Missy says. “Clearly I didn’t think things through when I left Grace here. I thought my letter was going to be enough.”
“Don’t you dare blame yourself,” I tell her. “It’s not your fault our mother is batshit.”
“Once we were on the plane, Maeve told me more about what was happening and my heart dropped. I specifically left Indiana to get away from her. Because she was trying to do what she did to you, trying to claim Grace as her dependent. I was already over my head and confused and questioning if I could raise a child. She didn’t help. I just…I broke. Then I came here.”
“There’s still one thing that never made sense,” I say. “How did she know you brought Grace to me? I can’t imagine I was a frequent part of conversation.”
“I was wondering that too,” Missy says. “But then I remembered, and it was my fault.”
“Nothing is your fault,” Quinn says.
“I don’t know about that. When I first got the idea, I needed to make sure you were still here, so I was searching on my phone about Rolling Hills and The Joint. Looking up your Facebook account. That kind of thing. Out of nowhere she walked up behind me, saw the pictures, recognized it immediately, and then threw my phone across the room. She screamed at me for an hour about how you were ungrateful—for what, I don’t know, because you seemed to be doing fine—and that I shouldn’t concern myself with you. My only guess is that when she didn’t get the life insurance payout from Dad’s death like she thought, that’s when she schemed to get Grace back.”
“Wow,” I say, rubbing my face. “If I didn’t hate her so much, I’d be a little impressed with her deductive reasoning.”
“Well, that reasoning went out the door the second she saw dollar signs,” Quinn says. “I swear, once she realized she was going to get money and make you sell the bar in the process, we could’ve told her the check was coming from the King of England and she would’ve believed it.”
“I was holding my breath when we brought her out the contract to sign,” I admit. “But I don’t think she could’ve signed it any faster.”
“Also, kudos to you, Logan, for not actually giving her the check,” Quinn says. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hand move so slow.”
Logan takes a sip of his whiskey. “When we were in the back, Maeve texted me that she was on her way. I was stalling as much as I could. But I must say, my wife has impeccable timing.”
He leans over to kiss her cheek. “I’m just glad we were able to make it. And now this saga is behind us.”
“I agree.” I look around the table to make sure everyone has a drink of some sort. “And I’d like to propose a toast.”
Everyone holds up their glasses. “I’d like to say thanks to each and every one of you. This…I never had a big family. Sure, I had extended and the people here, but not anything like you guys. And…well…I just hope you know I’ll never be able to properly pay you back for what every one of you did today.”
“No thanks needed,” Simon says. “You’re family now. And this is what you do for family.”
Glasses clink together as the chatter starts back up, which is when I see Missy stand from her chair and walk over to the picture wall. I get up and follow her, wanting a minute alone.
“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you,” I say. “I know this isn’t what you wanted to do.”
She just nods but doesn’t say anything as she stares at the wall that’s covered in photos. Up until a few months ago, it was pictures of me and Pops. The regulars. Harry and George holding up their beer cans from their place at the end of the bar. Those photos are still up, but I’ve recently added some new ones.
Photos of me, Quinn, and Grace during her one-year-birthday celebration. One of Grace playing in her special corner. George holding her while she looks at him like he’s nuts.
In her defense, he usually is.
“She’s gotten so big. I feel like it’s been a year and it’s only been a few months.”
“She has,” I say. “We’re still working on the talking. The walking thing she’s getting down pretty good.”
She nods, but I see a tear escape.
“You were brave,” I assure her. “What you did for Grace? What you did today? You didn’t have to do any of that. I just want you to know I think what you’ve done is courageous and a sacrifice not many would make.”
“Thank you,” she says, wiping the tear away. “Porter, I promise I never thought Bonnie would come here. I?—”
“Absolutely not. Don’t blame yourself one minute because our mother is crazy,” I say. “And now we know she’s in our pasts forever.”
We stand there for a few more minutes, just looking at the pictures of Grace.
“Do you want to see her?”
Missy shakes her head, another tear sprinting free. “I already said my goodbyes. It’s going to be best if I get going.”
“I understand,” I say, bringing my sister in for a hug. “She’ll always know about you. About how you sacrificed to make sure she had the best life she could.”
She nods against my shoulder as we continue the embrace. “Thank you.”
We pull away, but not before I grab a piece of paper and pen from the bar. “Here’s my phone number. Please keep it. If you need anything, ever. And…if you’re ever ready. If you ever want to...”
Missy holds up a piece of paper. “I’ll know how to call you.”
With one more hug, Missy says her goodbyes and is out the back door to a car ready to take her back to the airport, where his plane is standing by to take her back to Wyoming.
“Hey,” Quinn says, wrapping her arms around my waist. “You okay?”
“Yeah…I’m good.”
I bring Quinn around to my front, needing to feel the comfort only she can bring me now, knowing this saga is over. That our lives can start now.
Our lives together. As a family.
We slowly pull apart, but I keep her hand in mine as we walk back toward the table. Which is when I notice that we have a new member to the party.
“Come here, Miss Grace!” Simon pushes away everyone as he makes his way to Wes, who I knew at some point was bringing her back tonight. “I have a good feeling about you today!”
The crowd backs off as Wes hands her over, but everyone is watching intently to see if this will finally be the moment that Simon breaks the stalemate my niece has with him.
“Hey, Miss Grace,” he says, trying to bounce her to get her to smile. She’s not. “Oh, come on. Don’t you know what I did for you today? I knew a guy, and he made documents, and now you get to stay with us forever!”
She looks at him, then looks at everyone else, before seeing me in the crowd. Her arms shoot out, clearly ready to be away from weird Uncle Simon.
“Sorry, man,” I say as I take her from him. “Plus, I haven’t seen this girl in way too long.”
Grace immediately starts smiling for me as I kiss her rosy cheeks and walk with her back to a table. “Hey, baby girl. I missed you.”
Wes and Betsy have been angels this week, keeping Grace more than normal as we tried to figure this all out. I’ve seen her every day, but sometimes only at night when she’s asleep. It feels like it’s been days since I’ve just held her like this, not worried if this was the last time I was going to do so.
“I’m never letting you go,” I say, hugging her tight. But unfortunately, the second I let loose she starts pushing me away, ready to go run into her play area. “Or not.”
Quinn laughs as she loops her arm through mine, the two of us watching as Grace toddles—to massive applause, because most of the people here haven’t seen her walk yet—to her corner.
“It’s over,” she says, her head falling against my arm. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“It almost doesn’t feel real,” I say. “This whole day—hell, this whole week—felt like one bad dream.”
“I know. But you can wake up now.”
I bring Quinn around, holding her tight to me. “I don’t know how I could’ve done this without you.”
“You need to be thanking Stella. And money bags Logan. And everyone else. I was just the chaos coordinator.”
I shake my head in laughter as I kiss her forehead. “I’m not just talking about today. But everything. You…I know this wasn’t your plan. I know how you ended up here was not how you wanted your life to go. But part of me believes that in some weird way, all of this was meant to happen now. Because you were here.”
Quinn cups my face with her hands, bringing me in for a kiss that screams forever. “Plans change, Porter. And this life? The one we’re building? Getting to love you? Getting to watch that little girl grow up? I can’t imagine my life being any other way.”
I tip my forehead down to meet hers as her hands loop around my neck. “This life. It’s unexpected. Us? Grace? I never would’ve imagined this life for myself. And yet, I can’t imagine the future going any other way.”
Quinn lifts up on her toes, giving me one last kiss. “Just you wait. The best is yet to come.”