When I Found You by Brenda Novak
Epilogue
Natasha smiled as Lucas tried to help Mack unload his truck. Her son had been almost as excited as she was to have Mack move in with them, and after waiting so long, they were glad the day had finally arrived. It’d taken nearly six weeks for J.T. to get back on his feet so that he could once again help out, to a limited degree, at Amos Auto Body, and for Mack to hire and train someone to replace himself full-time.
“Look what I brought!” Mack beamed at her as he hefted an ugly recliner up the walkway toward the porch.
“Really?” she said. “You had to bring that?”
He looked crestfallen. “What do you mean? This was the most comfortable chair in the house. Grady and I almost got into another fight when I tried to take it—until I reminded him that I was the one who bought it years ago from a secondhand shop.”
She cleared her throat. “And I suppose you want it in the living room?” she said, tentatively.
He blinked at her. “Where else would I put it?”
She’d throw it out. But she knew better than to suggest that. “Okay.” She shrugged. Her own furniture wasn’t much to brag about. Since she’d gotten only the dregs of what she’d owned with Ace, she supposed it didn’t really matter.
He hesitated, probably guessing—accurately, in this case—that she was only trying to be nice. “Do you hate it that bad?”
She did, but she was so happy that he was finally here she’d let him bring all the ugly furniture he wanted. “If you like it, it’s fine.”
He flashed her a grin and, once he got close enough, gave her a kiss before he finished moving it inside.
“I like it,” Lucas said, following closely behind his new idol, and Natasha couldn’t help laughing.
“Of course you do. It belongs to Mack,” she said and tried to help him lift the duffel bag he was struggling to carry in, but he wanted to do it himself.
She was about to follow them inside so that she could check on dinner when her cell phone rang.
It was her mother. Once Chief Bennett confirmed, four days after she’d realized the truth, that the gun used to shoot J.T. was registered to Stan Vogler, he’d finally released Anya from jail. If Stan hadn’t shot J.T., there’d be no reason for his gun to be in J.T.’s house, and what Stephanie Vogler had said to Natasha she’d also said to one of her best friends, so they had a better case against him than they did Anya, especially after Anya retracted her confession and J.T. insisted he’d been too drugged to understand when he nodded to indicate it had been her. No one had known where Stan was, however. They’d thought he might get away with what he’d done until Dylan and Aaron confronted some of his extended family and managed to track him down at his mother’s place in the Bay Area. Bennett had arrested him just three days ago, so it felt great not to have to worry about that anymore.
“Mom,” Natasha said as she answered Anya’s call. “How are you?”
“Good.”
After spending the last month in rehab, Anya sounded better than Natasha could ever remember. “How do you like your new place?”
Natasha had helped her rent a room in Whiskey Creek from an elderly widow who was looking to bring in some extra money. Dylan felt so bad for how they’d treated her when they suspected her of shooting J.T. that he’d offered her a job in the front office at Amos Auto Body—with the stipulation that she submit to monthly drug testing and remain sober—so she’d wanted to stay there rather than move to Silver Springs.
“About the room...”
Hearing the hesitation in her mother’s voice, Natasha felt a trickle of her old anxiety. “Oh boy. What now?”
“It’s nothing big,” she hurried to say. “It’s just... I’m not living there anymore.”
Closing her eyes in despair, Natasha let her head drop into her hand. Here it goes. “Why not?”
“I know you won’t like this, but...I’ve moved back in with J.T.”
“What?”Casting a worried glance over her shoulder and through the open door of the house, where she could see Mack setting up his recliner in the perfect position to be able to see the big-screen TV he’d also brought, she forced a smile when he looked up.
“What is it?” he yelled out to her.
She waved him off. “Nothing.” Turning away, she lowered her voice as she spoke into the phone again. “Please say you’re joking.”
“No.” Her mother sounded nervous but determined. “I’m sorry. I knew this would upset you, but I’m a grown woman, and I have the right to live my own life.”
“But you and J.T. aren’t good together. You fight constantly. And he was cheating on you! How do you know that behavior will stop? That he won’t find someone else and ask you to move out again?”
“That could happen. I don’t know that it won’t. We’re not perfect,” she admitted. “No couple is. But we love each other. That’s what we’ve figured out through all of this.”
“You won’t make it if you keep using.”
“That’s just it. We’ve agreed that it’s time to change our lives. We’re both clean. If we stay that way, we believe everything will be different, better.”
Natasha scrubbed a hand over her face. She’d heard so many of these types of promises in the past. She opened her mouth to say she was afraid her mother was only asking for more trouble—or to speculate that J.T. was merely using Anya until he could get back on his feet—when he surprised her by coming on the line.
“I’m sorry for how I’ve treated your mother,” he said. “It took almost dying for me to realize that...that I’ve been a total ass. I asked her to move back in so that we can be together and look out for each other. It won’t be easy for either of us to stay clean, but we’re going to take it one day at a time and give it our best shot.”
Natasha sighed. He sounded sincere, so...who was she to judge? It could be this time would be magic. It could be that this was exactly what her mother needed. It was what Anya had always wanted, anyway—the love and support of a good partner. To Natasha, J.T. had seemed like just another loser in a long line of losers. But it was because of him that she’d found Mack. And maybe J.T. could change. Maybe the support he and Anya offered each other would make all the difference. “I appreciate that,” she said. “I hope you’ll both be kinder to each other.” She glanced over her shoulder again. “Do any of your...um...sons know about this?”
“Not yet,” he told her. “Is Mack there? I could tell him right now, if you want me to.”
She thought of the surprise she had planned for Mack after dinner. “No. It can wait.” She could see that Mack was coming out of the house, so that was all she felt safe to say. “I’ve got to go. Tell Mom I love her,” she whispered and disconnected in a hurry.
“Who was that?” he asked. “Don’t tell me Ace is giving you a hard time again. What happened—did he and that woman he was seeing break up already?”
“I’m guessing they haven’t, since he’s only taken Luke that one time. I did hear from his mother yesterday, though. She asked if Luke could stay with them next weekend, and I agreed. I predict it’s only going to get easier with the Grays. Ace is too focused on finding another wife to worry about being a good parent.”
Luke had trailed Mack out of the house, and now Mack rested his hands on Luke’s shoulders. “If it wasn’t Ace on the phone, who was it?”
“My mom.”
“What’d she want?”
She thought maybe she should give away the surprise she had planned for after dinner. He wouldn’t be happy that their parents were back together, and she didn’t want it to ruin her big moment. So she found the picture she’d planned to show him later and handed him her phone. “I’ll tell you what my mother said in a minute. First, I want to show you this.”
He scratched his head as he studied what she was showing him. “Am I supposed to know what this is?”
She laughed because he’d probably never seen one. “I took a pregnancy test—and this is a picture of the result.”
He gave her a sideways look. “And? What is the result?”
He had to lift her phone when she slid her arms around his waist so she could rest her head on his chest. “We’re going to have a baby.”
He pulled back to be able to peer into her face. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been hoping. But when you didn’t say anything...” An endearing grin spread over his face. “I can’t believe it. That’s so exciting.”
“What’d you say?” Lucas asked. “Someone’s having a baby? Who is it?”
She brought her son into the hug with them. “I am. In a little over seven months.”
He escaped her grasp. “Is it going to be a boy or a girl?”
“I hope it’s a girl,” Mack said before she could respond.
“Why?”Lucas wrinkled his nose to show that he wasn’t in favor of that at all.
Mack let go of Natasha so he could lift Luke into his arms. “Because your mother and I already have a boy, right?”
He beamed. “You’re talking about me?”
“I’m talking about you,” he said, and Luke put one arm around Mack’s neck and the other around Natasha’s.
If you enjoyed Natasha and Mack’s story,
don’t miss Brenda Novak’s next book
set in picturesque Silver Springs,
Keep Me Warm at Christmas,
about two house sitters whose wires cross before their stars do.
Coming this holiday season from MIRA.
Keep reading for a sneak peek!
