Page 45 of Forever Then

Chapter Thirty-Six

THEY’VE BEEN WAITING FOR HER

Connor

Gretchen’s phone comes out, as does mine, and we begin to mine our camera rolls and our social media accounts as well as her family’s profiles to find photos to share with Cheyenne and Miguel.

One look at the handful of pre-teen and teenage Gretchen pictures we find on her mom’s profile and it wouldn’t take an expert to see the Ortega siblings’ resemblance.

When we pulled up to this house yesterday and Gretchen spotted the tricycle and sidewalk chalk, she was nearly scared away altogether.

Imagine if she had missed out on this.

Teenage parents who managed to overcome all odds.

Despite her parents’ strict forbiddance to the contrary, when Cheyenne moved back to the reservation after Gretchen’s birth, she remained in contact with Miguel via secret messages and phone calls until she graduated high school and made the decision to come to Flagstaff for college.

Her parents cut her off entirely at that point.

Miguel’s family, however, took her in like one of their own.

Four years later, they were married. Two years after that, Miguel Junior was born and three more kids came along over the next several years.

Gretchen’s four full-blood siblings. If she feels any sense of abandonment from not getting to grow up alongside them, she doesn’t let it show. Cheyenne and Miguel made the right decision in choosing adoption.

And Gretchen was right; she’s had a great life.

She tells Cheyenne and Miguel about her parents, Drew and Reagan, and life back in Illinois.

I’m able to chime in with my own anecdotal stories of the years I spent growing up with them, too.

We smile and laugh, reminiscing over our shared history.

Our history . It may only be for the sake of catching her birth parents up to speed on everything they’ve missed, but it does something for me, too—it fills the cracks and hollow spaces where doubt and regret used to be and replaces them with hope and undiluted adoration.

“How long have you two been together?” Cheyenne asks as she swipes through a photo album on Gretchen’s phone from Drew and Reagan’s wedding.

I hesitate because “since yesterday” sounds not only ridiculous, but also like a lie.

“Officially,” Gretchen starts, “not very long, but we’ve been inevitable for years.”

She winks at me before swiping to another photo. Just a casual one-eyed blink, like her words didn’t send my heart into a free fall behind my sternum.

“When do you guys head back to Chicago?” Miguel asks.

“We fly back day after tomorrow,” Gretchen supplies.

Miguel and Cheyenne share a look, wide grins in place.

“Listen,” Cheyenne says, “it’s probably more than you bargained for, and there’s no pressure, but we’re having a family get-together tomorrow and we’d love for you to join us.

It’ll be mostly Miguel’s family, but there’s a lot of them.

” She chuckles and Miguel offers an impish shrug.

“Winona and her husband will be here, too, and I know they’d love to meet you. ”

“Oh…um…” Gretchen fumbles over her words and turns to me, the conflict in her eyes a tell for that brain of hers that’s working overtime right now.

Tomorrow is her birthday. It’s not that she doesn’t want more time with her family, but rather, she doesn’t know if they recognize the significance of the date.

It’s a mother’s intuition, perhaps, that has Cheyenne adding, “It’s something we do every year, Gretchen,” she looks to her husband briefly and then back to her first-born daughter, “on your birthday.”

Gretchen blinks rapidly as I stroke her back with my open palm. Of course they remember.

“The whole family? You…every year…a-all of you?” The words tumble and fall over each other, her throat tight with restrained emotion.

“Yes. All of us. Every year,” Miguel replies with a kind smile.

“I wish I could say that my family would be here, but…well, they haven’t been in contact since I left the reservation.

It’s just me, my sister and her family now.

” Cheyenne’s eyes lie full of sorrow. A daughter who made some mistakes, as teenagers do, went through the unimaginable and whose parents, instead of offering support, shunned and disowned her.

Thank God for Winona.

“But, if it’s too much too soon, we completely understand,” Cheyenne adds, honing in on Gretchen’s blank expression.

I grab her hand, drawing her gaze to me. She wants to say yes, but she’s overwhelmed. “Yeah?” I whisper quietly, only for her, and nudge her knee with mine.

She nods. The unshed tears glisten beneath her lashes before she turns back to Cheyenne and Miguel. “Yeah, okay.”

An hour, three photo albums, and countless tears later, Gretchen finally musters up the courage to meet her siblings.

Cheyenne and Miguel take the short walk down the street to pick up the kids while Gretchen and I wait at the house .

When the door clicks shut behind them, I allow her a few moments to breathe in her own space while I discreetly prop my phone on a nearby shelf. She hasn’t asked me to document anything, but I know she’ll want to remember every detail of this day.

Gretchen paces the living room, thumbnail between her teeth, as I approach her. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispers. The improbability of today’s events shines bright all over her, as fresh now as it was two hours ago when she knocked on the door.

I haul her into my chest for a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

She steps back and promptly begins wiping under eyes and combing her fingers through her hair. Before she can ask, I say, “Beautiful.”

Shadows drift across the front window and I plant a chaste kiss on her lips, tell her she’s got this and press record on my phone.

I duck around the corner to let them have this moment for themselves.

I’m out of everyone else’s view but I still have a line of sight to where Gretchen stands at the threshold of the living room.

The front door swings open on a held breath that swells the air with anticipation.

What comes next happens so fast, yet feels like slow-motion all at the same time.

The Ortegas stand behind their four children in the entryway, Gretchen a few strides in front of them.

The pause between them like that big resolute breath you take when you stand on the cusp of something you know is about to change your entire world.

Gretchen offers a shy wave and quiet “hello” as her brothers and sisters close in.

I don’t even think Gretchen expects it until it happens.

A four-year-old Kai clings to Gretchen’s leg.

Tally wraps her arms around Gretchen’s waist and the two oldest, Rosa and MJ, close in around her shoulders.

The five of them latched together in an embrace, limbs crisscrossing around each other’s bodies, the sound of sniffles and whispered words piercing the otherwise pin-drop silence.

My chest tightens at the sight of something that shouldn’t make sense but somehow…does. Four kids embracing their big sister, whom they’ve never met, as if she’s been here all along.

Like they’ve been waiting for her.

Cheyenne, Miguel and myself can do nothing but watch it all unfold.

Once tears are wiped away and official introductions are made, Gretchen asks each of her siblings about themselves which leads to a tour of their bedrooms upstairs.

MJ is really into movies and filmmaking, but he also plays football, so I get a chance to connect with him over sports.

Rosa loves art and is learning to play the guitar. With some gentle encouragement from Gretchen and myself, we’re able to convince her to play something for us with Miguel accompanying her on his classical guitar.

Tally is spunky and full of life with her head of curly hair that bounces behind her everywhere she goes. She loves tumbling and ballet and proudly shows us the video of her most recent dance recital performance.

Kai is the baby and mainly just wants to show his big sister his Bluey collection. Figurines, stuffed animals, playhouses, costumes: the kid’s got it all.

Before everyone settles back into the living room, I offer to take some photos.

The emotion in the room is a tangible thing when everyone shimmies into position for their first full family photo.

I look through my little camera screen and choke back my own tears at the sight of Gretchen sandwiched between her birth parents, her brothers and sisters crowded in around and in front.

Everyone squeezes in tight as I count down and the smile that breaks across Gretchen’s face lights up my entire soul.

She’s strong. She’s brave. And she’s never looked more beautiful.

Hugs are doled out like cotton candy at the fair as Gretchen exchanges goodbyes with her family. Plans are made for our return tomorrow afternoon, more pictures are taken, and then everyone hugs some more as Miguel and I stand off to the side as spectators.

An hour ago, despite how incredible today has been, I sensed she was ready to be alone to process it all.

Cheyenne had invited us to stay for dinner and, even though I know she must be hungry because we haven’t eaten since breakfast, Gretchen deflected with an ambiguous “maybe”.

At the first opportunity, I whispered for only her ears that it was okay if she was ready to call it a day.

She sagged her body against mine and that was all the confirmation I needed.

Not wanting to interrupt the third round of ‘Pretty Pretty Princess’ Tally had roped all the girls into, Gretchen finished the game before I conjured up a work call I needed to get back to the hotel for.

Thus ensued this carousel of goodbyes in the entryway.

I notice Miguel’s face, painted in a soft canvas of peace and contentment and disbelief. I step in closer, voice quiet, “You guys have changed her life, Miguel. She gets quiet when she’s overwhelmed and probably won’t say it herself, but this means more to her than you’ll ever know. So, thank you.”

He shakes his head almost imperceptibly, gaze locked on his first born, arms wrapped around her little brothers and sisters, while the mother of his children dons the brightest smile, snapping picture after picture on her phone.

“I’ve had six best days of my life. The first was twenty-two years ago and I wasn’t even there to witness it.

She made us a family.” He pauses, a deep breath filling his chest. His next words come out thick and laced with emotion as he turns his attention on me.

“I’ve never not loved Cheyenne. Marrying her was the second best day of my life and I’ve never regretted it for a single moment.

But we were just kids when we fell in love.

Who’s to say what would have come of us if we hadn’t had Gretchen.

What would distance, teen hormones and strict parents have done to two starry-eyed kids who didn’t have this big thing tethering their souls together…

forever.” His glassy eyes land back on his family—on Gretchen. “ She changed our lives.”

With a final round of hugs, phone number exchanges, photos and video airdropped from my phone to Cheyenne’s, and promises to see everyone again tomorrow, Gretchen and I finally walk out the door.

We turn the corner onto the driveway as the front door clicks shut behind us.

Gretchen lets out a heavy breath, all the tension she’s held tight in her bones escaping with it.

When we’re clear from view, I turn her to face me. She doesn’t hesitate as she curls her arms around my neck and buries her face against the skin there. Her sobs come on strong and heavy. I throw my arms around her waist and lift her up, her legs linking around my hips.

I ease back onto the hood of the car, her body wrapped tight around mine, and I let her cry. This is what she’s held in for the past four hours. Tears have fallen throughout the day but only enough to relieve the pressure.

“Shhh, let it out, baby.”

“I’m sorry,” she chokes out, the words muffled against my neck.

“There’s no reason to be sorry. You’ve just run a marathon…you know, emotionally speaking.” That makes her laugh.

We stay for a few minutes as her cries dissipate and her breaths even out.

“You know what I’m thinking?” I whisper into her hair.

She pulls back, eyeing me playfully, brow arched.

“Margaritas.”