Page 28 of Christmas at Pine Ridge Inn
Lila felt tears burning her eyes and threatening to spill over. “So, you think it’s possible?”
“I think,” Brady said, reaching over to put his hand over hers, “that you being here, right now, isn’t a coincidence. And I think whatever the truth is, we’ll figure it out together.”
Thewein that sentence made her heart soar. “Really?”
“Really. Tell me what you know so far.”
As she began to share everything she knew about her birth and the quilt, the weight she’d been carrying lifted ever so slightly now that she had someone to share it with. Brady’s strong hand stayed on hers as she walked him through all the details of her adoption and her decision to come to Pine Ridge.
Brady was quiet for a long moment after Lila finished. The fire crackled softly between them, casting dancing shadows on the walls.
“So, this isn’t just your first Christmas without either of your parents, it’s also your first birthday without them,” he saidfinally. “But now that they’re gone, you’ve allowed yourself to wonder more about where you came from.”
“Exactly. I’ve never known anything about the circumstances of my birth, just that it happened on Christmas and that someone cared enough to send a beautiful quilt with me.” Lila’s voice was barely above a whisper. “When I found out the quilt came from here, I had to come see for herself.”
Brady leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he studied her face in the firelight. “Tell me about the timing again. The quilt was delivered here on December 24th, 1991?”
“That’s what Cynthia found in her mother’s journal. A rush order completed and delivered to Pine Ridge Inn on Christmas Eve.” Lila wrapped her hands more tightly around her mug. “I was born the next day.”
“That fits,” Brady said thoughtfully. “Carol came to Pine Ridge in her early twenties. She’s told me before that she followed a man here. He had a job over at the ski resort in Breckenridge.”
“That must be the ‘bad boy’ she mentioned to me earlier in the festival.”
Brady nodded. “I’ve picked up bits and pieces over the years. She was involved with someone who wasn’t good for her, someone who didn’t stick around when things got difficult. Tom has hinted that the guy broke Carol’s heart pretty badly.”
“Do you think she could really be my birth mother? The baby ornament on the tree,” Lila said, remembering Carol’s reaction. “She got so emotional when Kimberly pulled it out of the box.”
“And the way she talks about family—about how love multiplies when it’s shared, about finding family in unexpected ways.” Brady’s voice grew more certain. “I always thought she was talking about me, about how they took me in. But maybe she was also talking about someone she had to let go.”
The possibility hung between them, both hopeful and terrifying. Lila had spent the past couple of days wondering ifCarol could be her birth mother, but hearing Brady confirm that it fit what he knew about Carol’s past made it feel suddenly, dramatically real.
“What do I do now?” she asked. “I can’t just walk up to her and ask if she gave birth to a baby thirty-four years ago.”
Brady was quiet for a moment, then sat up straighter. “What if we could find some kind of confirmation first? Something that would give you more confidence before you approach her?”
“Like what?”
“Inn records. Guest registrations, birth certificates filed with the county, medical records ... I don’t know. Something that might document what happened here around Christmas 1991.”
Lila shook her head. “My adoption was sealed, so there won’t be any birth certificates or medical records we can access. Do you think Tom and Carol still have records from the inn that are that old?”
“Tom keeps everything. He’s got boxes and boxes of old paperwork in the storage room behind the office. Financial records, guest registrations, correspondence—he says you never know when you might need something for tax purposes or insurance claims, and he likes to be able to go back if someone is a repeat visitor and check any notes on the activities they engaged in or food they enjoyed. Both Tom and his parents have always kept track of those things so they could tailor each guest’s experience. Plus, we could go through the guests and at least figure out who was visiting that year at Christmas in case there are any other likely candidates.”
“Would they let us look through them?”
Brady shrugged. “Technically, we don’t need permission. I have access to all of that. It’s not kept under lock and key or anything.”
“When could we do that?”
Brady glanced toward the stairs, where the other guests had long since retired for the night. “Tonight? The other guests all seem to be in for the night, and Tom and Carol are already back at their cabin. We probably don’t want to risk them coming back for something, finding us and asking questions, so let’s wait a couple of hours. I know they like to be in bed by eleven.”
“That feels so sneaky,” Lila said, but even as she spoke, she knew it was what she needed to do.
“Looking at old records isn’t going to hurt anyone. It’ll just help us understand what we’re dealing with.”
Lila nodded slowly. The logic made sense, even if it made her stomach bubble with anxiety. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
“Are you sure? Once we start looking, we can’t unknow whatever we find.”
