Page 122 of Forever Enough

“Oh! So Granddad found out about them?”

He pointed to me and nodded. The flight attendant showed up again with his drink and my Dr. Pepper. She took our orders for food, and finally left so we could get back to the story.

“Okay, so your grandfather found out. And I take it that he didn’t like your dad?”

“Apparently not. Told her to stop seeing him or he’d cut her off from the family…and the family money.”

My eyes went wide. “Wow. He really didn’t like Marines, did he?”

The handsome stranger laughed. “I guess not. Or maybe it was just this one in particular. My grandfather’s very wealthy. One of the wealthiest men in Texas, actually. He was probably more worried that someone was trying to use his daughter for money, or take her to Montana and away from his beloved Texas.”

“Did you learn anything from the letters?”

“Yeah,” he said with a sad smile. “He wrote my mother all the time. He came from what sounded like a wealthy family himself, so I knew he wasn’t with her for the money. He talked about marrying her as soon as he got out of the Marines and bringing her home to his family.”

I put my hand over my heart. “That’s so romantic.”

He looked at me and smiled. Then he said, “Cattle ranchers.”

“I’m sorry?”

“His family, they were cattle ranchers.”

That caused me to perk up. There were a lot of cattle ranchers in Montana, but only a handful of them could truly count themselves as wealthy. “Did you find out in the letters how they met?”

“No. From what I can tell, my mother met him when she was living near a Marine Corps base while going to school. They fell in love with each other, and he vowed to marry her when he got out. The last letter she wrote to him was the one telling him that she was pregnant with me. She mentioned she was so excited because he was getting out of the Marines soon, and he promised he would come get her, marry her, and take her to Montana. It didn’t seem like she was worried at all about telling him she was pregnant.”

“How do you know what her letter said to him?” I asked.

I thought his eyes couldn’t hold any more sadness, but I was wrong. “It was returned, unopened. There was a note with her returned letter, telling her that my father had been killed in the line of duty.”

My hand flew to my mouth as I attempted to keep my emotions at bay. “How sad. Your mother was all alone, without the man she loved, and now she had to tell her family she was pregnant. Were your grandparents upset with her?”

He shook his head. “No, my grandparents told her everything would be okay. She took a job at my grandfather’s oil company, and worked there right up until she was diagnosed with cancer.”

I took his hand in mine. “Oh…I’m so sorry. And I just realized we haven’t introduced ourselves.”

A nervous bubble of laughter came from him. “Christ, I cannot believe I just told a stranger all of that.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “I guess I’m drunk.”

“No. Maybe if you have another drink, you will be.”

He turned and met my gaze, and for a crazy half second, I wanted to kiss him.

Swallowing hard, he softly said, “I haven’t told anyone since I found the box of letters six months ago.”

“Six months! You’ve kept this to yourself for that long? Why?”

“My grandfather wasn’t very happy with me when he found out I was coming to Montana to search out my deceased father’s family. It’s been an argument between us for awhile now. He doesn’t understand why I want to meet them. I don’t actually know why I’m going to Montana, if I’m being honest.”

“You’re curious, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Do they know you’re coming?”

A look of embarrassment crossed his face. “No. No. I haven’t really figured that part out. I mean, how do you walk up to someone’s door and say, ‘Hi there, I’m your dead son’s kid he never knew about’?” He looked back at me and shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this. I’m so sorry. The last thing you probably wanted is to hear my sob story.”

“Are you kidding? I’m enthralled, and I feel like I’m totally invested now.”

He laughed, and I realized I liked the sound of it. Reaching out my hand, I said, “I’m Avery Littlewood.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Avery. I’m Beck Dahlstrom.”