Chapter 1
Knox
This was it.
This was the opportunity I’d been waiting months for. Maybe a lifetime.
Even though my timing sucked, if I didn’t level with these people now, I didn’t know when I’d get a better chance.
It was random luck that I’d ended up on the Rusty Anchor beer patio at the same time as the entire Henry family in the first place, and now all the other customers had cleared out, so it was just the Henrys, their significant others, and me.
I glanced around at each person, all of them jovial about Cash and Ava’s engagement announcement. None of them suspecting there could be more to their family.
Simon Henry, with his wife, Faye, at his side, glowed with happiness now that the four children he’d raised had found their life partners—Hayden with Zane, Holden with Chloe, Seth with Everly, and Cash with Ava.
I stepped up to the group, between Ava and Hayden and across from Simon Henry, my heart about to hammer right out of my chest.
“Hey, everyone,” I said above their conversations. “I’m sorry to intrude on a private family moment, but I have something I need to say.”
The Henry family quieted relatively quickly, expectant smiles and welcome expressions focused on me.
That would change in a heartbeat.
I cleared my throat. “I know this isn’t the best time, but I need to level with you all about the reason I came to this small town in the first place.”
I was semi-aware of Ava clasping on to my wrist. “What’s going on, Knox?”
Focusing fully on the patriarch of the group, with his gray-brown hair and warm eyes, who stood mere feet from me for the first time, I said, “I found out a few months ago that you, sir, are my biological father.”
For three full seconds, there wasn’t a sound other than a frog or two in the distance. I wasn’t sure anyone in the group of ten had breathed.
Then Ava, my closest friend in town as well as my writing partner, squeezed my wrist tighter and breathed out, “Wow.”
I kept my eyes locked on Simon Henry, my father, holding my own breath as I waited for his reaction. There was confusion, then shock. Then he glanced toward his wife, who wrapped herself around his arm supportively.
“Holy shit,” Holden said from somewhere to my right.
I didn’t divert my attention from the sixty-eight-year-old man in front of me, my heart pounding harder with every second he remained silent.
Finally, with the slightest tilt of his head, he said calmly, “Who is your mother?”
“Janet Breckenridge.”
Simon blew out a sharp breath, and his gaze became unfocused, his eyes widening. “I didn’t think anything of it when I heard your last name…”
“It’s a common name,” I said.
“You know this Janet Breckenridge, Dad?” Seth asked.
Seth was the second oldest of my half-siblings.
I’d gotten to know him over the past three months and considered Holden, the third oldest, a friend.
I was older than all of them, even Cash, who’d only recently become civil toward me.
He stood on the other side of Ava, and I didn’t have to turn my head in his direction to sense the antipathy emanating from him.
“I did,” Simon answered. “How old are you, Knox?”
“I turned forty-two in February.”
I could see him doing the math in his head. I knew it would work out. I didn’t have anything to go on except my mother’s revelation after her death, but I trusted her. She didn’t have any reason to make this up.
“I…” Simon blew out another breath.
I didn’t know him, hadn’t laid eyes on him in person until this evening, but I could tell he was shaken.
“I guess I don’t understand,” he finally said. “Your mother…never told me. I never knew I had another son…”
“You still don’t know that,” Seth said.
“My mother died in December,” I explained, steamrolling right over any sadness that threatened to seep in. My grief had no place in tonight’s discussion. “She left a letter for me that revealed the secret she’d kept for my entire life—the name of my father.” I nodded once at Simon.
“Why would she keep that from you?” Hayden asked, her voice teeming with emotion.
I inhaled slowly, gathering my composure, because even with several months to work through this, even after reading her reasons, I still hadn’t made peace with my mother’s decision all those years ago.
“I only know what she said in her letter,” I said quietly, hoping we were indeed alone on this patio. The news would travel through town fast enough as it was, but I’d prefer that didn’t happen until the Henrys were ready to talk about it.
“Tell us,” Hayden said. “What did her letter say?”
I did my best to keep my voice neutral, like a narrator talking about someone else’s crazy background. “She said she met you”—again, I nodded to Simon—“at a convention for the company she worked for. The company you worked for.”
“In Houston,” Simon said. “It was early summer, already sweltering there.” He frowned. “Nita and I were going through a rough patch. We’d broken up that spring,” he explained in a rush with a glance around the circle. Nita was the late mother of my four younger half-siblings.
“My mom mentioned that,” I said, “so you must have told her.”
Simon nodded. “We…connected for that short interval of time. Spent the weekend together.”
“We don’t need details of that, Dad,” Hayden said with a plea in her voice.
He let out a halfhearted chuckle and shook his head.
“Details will not be offered. I told Janet about Nita, not because she needed to know but because I was confused about her. At the end of our weekend, Janet and I agreed not to stay in touch. There was no point. She lived in Texas, and I lived in Tennessee. We didn’t have email back then.
No cell phones. You had to really want to stay in touch with someone… ”
His story matched what my mom had told me.
I continued, “She found out she was pregnant and hired an investigator to track you down.”
“They couldn’t find him?” Holden asked. His wife, Chloe, held his hand. “Henry’s a pretty common name, I guess.”
“They found him,” I said. “Through his and Nita’s engagement announcement in the newspaper.”
Someone, maybe Everly, gasped.
“My mom made the decision to keep the news to herself. She didn’t want to shake up your future with your fiancée,” I said to Simon.
“She moved to a management position at a competitor, so she made good money and didn’t have to travel much anymore.
She decided to be a single mom, and that’s what she did. ”
“She never got married?” Hayden asked.
“It was always just the two of us,” I answered.
“And she never told you who your father was?” Ava asked.
I shook my head. “When I was young, she told me some kids had two parents and some had one, and our family worked out that I had one parent. Eventually I wanted to know more, of course, and she told me she only ever knew my father’s first name and that there was no way to track him down.”
There was a collective silence again, and I could feel people judging my mother.
I could understand it. I’d felt more than a little anger myself since finding out the truth, but that was mixed in with compassion and love and grief, because my history was her and me against the world.
We were all the other had, as my grandparents had died when I was a toddler, and my mom had no siblings.
“But she decided to tell you everything in a letter?” Seth asked. I could hear the skepticism in his tone.
“That’s right,” I said. “She explained she went through periods of doubt my whole life, when she felt guilty that I didn’t have a father figure like other kids.
When she realized she wasn’t going to beat the cancer, she knew she had to tell me the truth.
She acknowledged in her letter she took the coward’s way out. ”
“I’ll say,” Cash said. It was the first thing he’d uttered, and his tone wasn’t kind or understanding.
I couldn’t say I disagreed with him, but again the emotions I felt about my mom were a quagmire. She’d been a good mother, sacrificed a lot for me, so nothing was as clear-cut in my heart.
“Anyway, I found out, like I said, a couple of weeks after she died. I sat on it for a few months, trying to figure out what to do. I searched for you online”—I nodded to Simon again—“and learned you’d retired recently from the same company.
I didn’t find much other information on you, but I did find Henry’s Restaurant and realized it was run by your sons.
My half-brothers.” I swallowed hard, because emotion surged in my throat despite all my months of imagining this moment.
“I’ve never had a family, ever. Just my mom.
So while a part of me acknowledged it might be smart not to shake things up, a bigger part of me needed to at least meet you. ”
“To hell with not shaking things up, I guess,” Cash muttered.
“Cash,” Ava said, running a soothing hand over his back.
“I’m reeling more than a little,” Simon said. “It’s going to take time to wrap my head around everything.”
“I understand,” I said. His words gave me hope that he had every intention of doing just that.
“Do you have any proof of what you’re claiming?” Seth asked.
I shook my head. “Only my mother’s word, but I’m willing to do a test. Whatever you want.” Again, I looked at Simon because that was up to him, not his son.
“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not thinking straight.” Simon rubbed his forehead.
“It’s okay, Dad,” Hayden said. “You don’t have to figure out everything tonight.”
“None of us do,” Faye said. “I, for one, am glad you told us, Knox. I won’t put words into my husband’s mouth, but he’s one of the most caring men I’ve ever known. I suspect you have some of that in you too.”
“Remains to be seen,” Cash said. “He’s been lying to us for months.”
“Cash,” Simon said sharply.
“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s right. I want to apologize for that.
You might not believe me, but it’s been keeping me up at night.
You all have been so welcoming, and I hated not leveling with you, but I thought your dad—our dad—shouldn’t be the last to find out.
I thought I’d run into him long before this.
And while I’m apologizing, I’m sorry for raining on your happy news tonight.
I hesitated, but I didn’t know when I would get this opportunity again, where you were all together. ”
“That’s fair,” Hayden said. “I just have one question. How the hell am I getting stuck with yet another older brother?”
There was halfhearted laughter, mostly from the women and Holden, and I sensed it would take a while for Seth and Cash to accept me—if they ever did.
“Welcome to the family, Knox,” Hayden said as she gave me a quick hug, and a small portion of my tension dissipated as I let it sink in that I was hugging my half-sister. Family.
“Thanks, Hayden.”
Before I could say more, Simon spoke up.
“Like Faye said, I’m glad you told us. I hope we can get to know each other.
Faye and I are leaving town for a long weekend.
That’ll give me a chance to start to absorb this news.
Let me get your phone number. I don’t know much, but I do know, if you’re my son, I’d like to know you better. ”
“Thank you. I’d like that.” I exhaled, feeling the beginnings of relief that he hadn’t rejected me or taken the news badly. A chance was all I wanted.
When he held out his phone with my name typed into a contact, I entered my phone number.
“Let’s go, Ava. See if we can get back to our celebratory mood,” Cash snapped. He stormed toward the patio exit without saying goodbye to anyone.
“Are we still on for tomorrow?” Ava asked me, half-turned to watch her fiancé leave.
“If you’re up for it, hell yes.” I needed to bury my brain back in fiction writing as soon as possible.
“It’s my job. Cash isn’t going to like it, but you and I are working together. I’m still totally in. I’ll be there.” She squeezed my arm again. “I gotta go. Night, everyone.”
“Night, Ava. Good luck with him,” Hayden called after her. Others said their goodbyes to her as well.
There was nothing else I could say tonight to win anyone over.
I’d known this going in, but I couldn’t help feeling empty.
Worried. “It’s getting late,” I said. “I’m going to take off.
I’m probably not the most welcome guy right now.
Again, I’m sorry for the inopportune timing. Thanks for hearing me out.”
Simon—my father—stepped forward, his hand extended. We shook as he said, “I’ll be in touch soon, Knox. You have a good night.”
“Good night.” I nodded at the group in general and headed to the exit, noting only a couple of them said goodbye.
As I walked toward the house I’d just bought down the road, I couldn’t help but wonder if purchasing real estate here in Dragonfly Lake, Tennessee, had been premature and overly optimistic. If moving to the same small town as my only biological family was a giant mistake.
What if my only living family never accepted me?
The thought of them had given me hope for the past few months.
Getting to know my half-brothers—even though they hadn’t realized we were related—had given me a taste of what it would be like to be part of a family, to not be so alone.
In the process, I’d fallen in love with this close-knit community, the scenic town situated on the shore of Dragonfly Lake.
Now I wondered if I’d ever truly be accepted here as a member of the Henry family or if I’d just made the biggest miscalculation of my life.