Page 37 of Shelter for Shay
Moose rubbed the back of his neck. If that were all true, her dad was a fucking asshole. But something didn’t track. “Shay, your mom would’ve had to get a court order to change your birth certificate too. Unless your dad wasn’t listed on it.”
“He’s not,” she said. “My father is listed as unknown.”
Now that really didn’t track. He didn’t know the law, but he’d known someone who’d changed their kids’ names after remarrying and the new husband adopted the kids, but it would have required a lot to change the birth certificates. And since the children’s father died, their mother thought it would be rude to wipe him out of their lives for good. Even though her new husband raised the kids from a young age, she wanted to keep their biological father alive in their eyes.
“Send me your birth certificate too,” he said.
“Where are you going with this? Because it sounds like you’re questioning my mother’s story.”
He was questioning a lot of things, but he wasn’t sure how to voice them, or even if he should. “It’s not that, but some of what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Did Katie have all this information the first time you hired her?”
“No. She had my dad’s name and his photograph.”
“She didn’t question the different names?”
“I didn’t give her an explanation. I just asked her to see if she could find any information on the man. I didn’t want to dig too deep and she found his location, but that was it and I didn’t even want to know that,” Shay said. “Do you think my mom lied to me about… about… I don’t even know what?”
“I really don’t know what to think,” he said. “But if there was a name change, there’s a paper trail. Also, since there was a marriage, and a divorce, with a child involved, I believe there would need to be the termination of parental rights by your dad. Although, I’m not sure about that. But let me handle lookinginto all of this. I won’t contact your dad, just gather information. You’ve got enough on your plate right now with everything else.”
“And you thought you sucked at this boyfriend thing.”
“Maybe I’m not so bad, but I did start our first fight.”
“At least it wasn’t an epic one and on the night before you leave,” she said.
He swallowed the knot in his throat. “I’m wheels up at zero six hundred. I don’t know where I’m going. Thor says we shouldn’t be gone more than a week, but sometimes that intel is way off. I’ll try to text or call, but I’ll definitely write.”
“I understand. Or at least I think I do.”
“I’ll be back,” he promised. “And when I am, I’ll be on the first plane to see you.”
“I’ll be here and, unfortunately, probably on jury duty.”
“Shit, that stinks,” he said. “Do you know when that trial is that you want to avoid?”
“Soon, but there will be other cases that I could end up on, so who knows. I just know I don’t want to be on that one,” she said.
“Yeah, I hear you.” He sighed, waving to his buddies as they shuffled from the door, down the porch steps, and to their vehicles. They didn’t need send-offs. They would see each other in the morning. “I don’t want to lose this,” he managed with a shaky voice.
“Neither do I.”
He closed his eyes again. “Say something else. Anything. I just want to hear your voice a little longer.”
So she talked. About the weather. About a book she was reading. About a casserole someone dropped off that she tried to reheat and burned half to death. About how she passed Margaret’s old school and it made her cry and how she didn’t feel weird telling him that.
And he listened. Until the bottle was warm in his hand and the sky was black overhead and the only light was the flickering porch candle and the glow of his screen.
When they finally hung up, he didn’t move right away.
He just sat there, listening to the wind in the trees, the occasional rustle of feathers from the coop, and the way his heart beat steady and sure for something that finally felt like home.
10
SHAY A WEEK LATER– LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK
Shay returned home from a day of shopping and doing her best to postpone hospital bills and other creditors. If she was going to get out from under this, she would have to sell her mom’s house—soon. While that had always been the plan, she figured she’d have more time. More time to sit in the memory of her mother. More time to grieve the loss. More time to think about what was next.
There were so many things she needed to do—one of which was to decide where she wanted to go. She’d thought about tossing a dart at a map of the United States and go wherever it landed.
