Page 23 of A Return For Ren

“His child was abandoned?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I was joking,” he said.

“I’m not. Zane had a girlfriend. Brittany. She’d gotten pregnant. We all knew. We’d met her. I can’t say I was fond of her, but if Zane was happy, who was I to judge? Things didn’t work out. He was finishing up his last tour. Brittany was in Texas. Before Zane could get home, she showed up one day with Willow and said she needed some time and she’d be back. We knew she wouldn’t be.”

“Zane had to be going nuts knowing what happened,” he said. “I’d flip out.”

“We didn’t tell him. He was at war. His mind needed to be there. It was two months before he was told and we knew he was back safe and would be home soon.”

“I’m not sure how I’d feel about that being withheld from me,” he said.

“Zane didn’t know until last year or so. We never told him. When he came home, he got a house and started his construction business. My mother was retired and watched Willow for him. I decided that I wanted to open my own PreK. I found my house with the building in the back. He did all the work for me at no cost and in exchange I watched Willow for him until she started school. The plan was to have her bussed to the PreK and either Zane or Lily would get her at the end of the day.”

“Lily?” he asked.

“Remember Lily Bloom? She was a year ahead of us. She has two sisters, Poppy and Rose.”

He grinned. “Hard to forget about them. And what happened to their mother. Didn’t she marry the old man that ran the flower shop they worked at?”

He remembered that story. He’d felt horrible thinking of them without a parent and being alone but then moved past that thought. He hadn’t known them well. Now as a parent, he couldn’t imagine what they might have gone through.

He knew they were talked about a lot in school but held that back since it seemed Lily was with Zara’s brother.

“She did. Carl Blossoms. He died years ago. She was a young widow. She was left the flower shop and she and her sisters own and operate Blossoms, more than the flower shop. They’ve got another store next to it with candles and lotions, soap, accessories, jewelry. A big multi-million dollar business.”

“Good for them,” he said. “I think I remember reading about them or my mother or someone saying it now. The small town girls that made something of themselves. There have been news articles and such. Wasn’t there something recently about them starting a foundation for their mother? It’s not like I use their products. Lily is with Zane?”

“Yes to the foundation to help other students that might be in abusive relationships or foster homes trying to get out. And yes, Zane and Lily are married now. A few months ago. She’s my sister-in-law. I love her. Such a sweetheart. I think those girls got the shaft and were judged so much in life without anyone getting to know them.”

“I know something about that,” he said.

He’d felt like his father had judged him his whole life.

They’d never been close and his father didn’t try.

Maybe Ren was guilty of not trying either, but why should he when he was always knocked down?

“Everyone is judged at one point in their life,” she said.

“So Zane and I share the horrible event of having our child dropped on our doorstep. Where is Willow’s mother?”

“Out of the picture. Zane has full custody and no visitations. Brittany has a drug problem too. She won’t be back. She might even end up like Rachelle and it’s sad. But we all made it up to Willow over the years. Now she has a new mother in her life and three aunts.”

“Then she’s got it made,” he said. It was not something he could give Max. He supposed it helped Dee and Colin were in Max’s life.

“I think she believes it now. She goes to the storefront most days after school. One of the girls is almost always there and she hangs out with them. She thinks it’s the best thing ever. I don’t blame her. I would have at that age.”

They finished eating and he got Max ready for bed. It wasn’t long before his son was out cold and the door was shut.

When he came back into the kitchen, he found it cleaned up.

“You didn’t need to do that,” he said.

“I don’t need to do a lot of things, but it kept me busy and my mind off of other things.”

“Like why I did what I did?” he asked.