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Mason nodded. “I’ll catch him.”
Lacey’s mother waved him to the seat opposite Lacey and he sat. She placed a fresh cup of coffee in front of him and handed him the sugar.
With a start, Lacey realized her mother remembered how he took his coffee. The pleased look on Mason’s face said he was thinking the same thing.
While Mason stirred in his sugar, Lacey bit her lip, then asked softly, “Do you want to see her baby album?”
Mason looked at her. “More than anything.”
Lacey’s mother bustled from the kitchen saying, “I’ll get it.”
Within a minute, she returned with the thick book. She handed it to Lacey and said, “I’ll just be in the den with your dad. Let me know if you need anything.”
Shooting a warm smile at her mother, Lacey opened the cover and Bethany’s very first picture stared back at them. “That was when I was twenty-four weeks along. It’s an ultrasound. That’s the day they told me she was a girl.”
Mason reached out a finger and traced the image, his expression one of awe.
She turned the page. “This is her when she was a couple of days old. She was so tiny.” Lacey thought back to the day she’d brought Bethany home from the hospital. “Home” as in her rented room at the boarding house.
“It was hard, wasn’t it?” Mason asked, his shrewd gaze taking in the details not only in the pictures, but in her face, too.
She swallowed. “Yes. It was very hard. But the home I stayed in while I was pregnant was very good. They spent a lot of time counseling us, educating us on parenting and what to do when we felt like we were at our wit’s end. They also provided a way to get my degree in graphic design. It wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I’ve come to realize it’s where I needed to be. So…” She shrugged. “I put a lot of that to good use.”
“I’m impressed.”
She gave a little laugh. “Well, like I said, it was one of the hardest times in my life.” Drawing in a breath, she shook her head. “But I got through it. I look back now and realize it had to be God looking out for me, putting people in my path that I didn’t even know I needed, but—” she swiped at a tear that escaped “—we survived and even had a good life there in North Carolina.”
“But then it was time to come home.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “God can be very convincing when it comes to putting wrongs to right, you know?”
Mason pursed his lips. “Yeah. I know.” He flipped through each and every page, lingering, studying, learning about his child. When he lifted his eyes, she saw the tears there.
He blinked and the tears dissolved. “Thank you for sharing this with me. It’s hard knowing what I missed, but—” he nodded and tapped the album with a finger “—this helps.”
Throat tight once again, she nodded. He stood as her mother came back into the kitchen. Looking at Lacey’s mother, he said, “Y’all try to get some rest.” To Lacey he said, “We’ll get back to it first thing in the morning.”
“What about the hospitals?”
“I’ll let you know if I find out anything, I promise.”
Lacey hesitated, fatigue sweeping over her. Yet the thought of Bethany out there, scared, alone…or worse—not alone—made her tremble. “How can I sleep?” she whispered, agony flowing through every part of her.
Mason pulled her into a hug, almost as though he couldn’t stop himself and she let herself fold against him. Then she heard him say, “You have to. For Bethany. When we find her, she’s going to need you strong and able to care for her.”
In her mind, she knew he was right. Convincing her heart wasn’t going to be that easy.
* * *
Climbing into his car and leaving Lacey behind in her current state of angst wrenched his gut. Almost angry at himself for letting the woman he once considered a cheat of the worst kind weave herself back into his heart within the span of twelve hours, he ordered himself to be wary.
Lacey adamantly denied kissing Daniel, placing all the blame on his friend.
But his mother had very convincingly done the same thing to Mason’s father.
Over and over again.
Until she finally just left.