Free Autumn Promises by Kate Welsh Page A

and grew up in foster care that we’d understand your lack of affection. That’s about all I know. You came here as a runaway at sixteen and never left.”
    Evan nodded and gazed out over the beautiful world his in-laws had opened up to him. It was easier to say that way. He didn’t want to see pity on his daughter’s face, but he knew Meg was right. They had a right to know. It had affected their lives, too. And if his story helped them understand him more, so much the better.
    “There’s a little more to it than that. I never told Mary all of it. My parents abandoned me sick at a hospital when I was about six or seven. The age was a guesstimate, kiddo. I didn’t even know my birthday. Frank, Mary and Martha were my salvation in more ways than just showing me the way to the Lord. I’m sorry I didn’t learn more from them about how to make us a family.”
    He looked at her then and her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. She flung herself against him. “Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry.” She snuffled and backed away, her gaze fierce, her tears clumping her long lashesinto spikes. “Oh, treating a child like that! What is wrong with some people?”
    “Cris, calm down, honey. Even I’m not this angry. I made too many mistakes with you and Jackson to hold them in contempt.”
    She wiped her eyes. “Oh, don’t mind me. It’s the hormones.” Her eyes widened. “Oops.”
    Evan felt his mouth stretch into a wide smile even as he was processing what she’d let slip. “Do you and my son-in-law have an announcement?”
    Her hand went to her still-flat stomach. “We were going to wait till Beth’s better. I didn’t know how you’d take it, considering.”
    He held out his arms. “I’m thrilled, honey. My only regret is that my grandchild will live across the country.”
    She shot him a dark look. “Dad, don’t start the ‘moving home’ stuff again.”
    Evan held up his hand, still grinning like an idiot. “I’m not. I know you love it there. Now, come give Daddy a hug.” She did, and they started back toward the house.
    “You’ve flourished and blossomed there, Cris. I’d have to be blind not to see it. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the location, other than that’s where Jim hails from, but you look wonderful and happy, honey. So are we going to be surprised or do we know if this is a grandson or granddaughter? You get to break the tie, you know.”
    “It’s a girl. Oh, Daddy, can’t you just see Jim with a girl?”
    Evan chuckled. “She’ll wrap him around her little finger. But I can also see him standing on your front porch with his arms crossed, staring daggers at her dates, too. Poor little girl. She’s doomed to be an old maid. Then again, if she’s as pretty as her mother, they’ll beat a path to her door in spite of him.”
    “Funny, I don’t remember any path-beating around here.”
    “That’s because the locals were blind, as Jim says every time the subject comes up. Man seems mighty grateful they were, for all his grousing about it.”
    A slight blush tinged her cheeks. “We…uh…we already decided on a name.”
    He steeled himself. But it wasn’t necessary.
    “Martha Mary,” she said, and shot him a grin. “At first Jim thought that was too many m ’s, but then he thought we could call her Em or Emmy. Kind of cute, huh?”
    Now Evan was the one fighting tears. He slung his arm over Cris’s shoulders and pulled her against his side and they walked to the house in step.
    “Thank you, honey,” he said. “I understood Jackson and Beth’s reasons for naming the twins what they did, but Martha had such a short life. It’s nice to see her name carried into the next generation.”
    “I wish I could remember her. I always thought I did, but I’ve only begun to realize that it’s the storiesabout her I remember. I even thought I remembered her smell, but when I was packing up my things to move east, I came across some of her things and realized it was a sachet