Page 32 of Catching Dreams

Dominic: My mom just texted that she’s about an hour away from her motel. She’s actually staying in Roseford since all the local motels are booked solid because of the tornado.

Me: I’ve never even heard of Roseford. How far away is it?

Dominic: It’s about 45 minutes away to the North. I was wondering if you minded driving over there to meet up with her? We could leave in half an hour, if that works for you.

Me: Yeah, I don’t mind driving at all. Ty is in the shower now, but we’ll be ready to go in half an hour.

Dominic: Sounds good. So, I had an idea….

Me: What’s up?

Dominic: We’re going to be less than an hour away from Cincinnati. What would you think about visiting Mack and Nico after we see my mom?

Me: I LOVE that idea, and I know Ty will, too. Great idea, Dominic!

“Oh my god!” A tall woman in her late fifties with chin-length, dark brown hair exclaimed, approaching my car as we got out. “You have to be Molly. You’re the spitting image of your mom. You’re so beautiful!”

“Mom, this is Molly Stone, as you guessed, and her husband and my former teammate, Tyler Stone. Guys, this is my mom, Jessica Anderson.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Anderson.” I said, not sure how to greet my possible brother’s mom. Did I shake her hand or go in for a hug? She answered my internal question by reaching down and giving me a big hug.

“Please, call me Jess. Let’s go inside and have a seat in the hotel lobby,” Jessica said. “Dom, please, don’t kill me.”

“What did you do?” Dominic asked as we walked into the hotel.

“Your brother and sister insisted on coming with me. They wanted to meet Molly and see you.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother and a sister,” I said. I guess they would have no relation to me, but maybe they would welcome me as a sister.

“Wow! Emma and Braden are here?” Dominic asked, and then he turned to me. “Yeah, sorry, we didn’t get to talk about that yet. They were adopted, too.”

“When Dominic was three, we decided to try to adopt another baby. Our adoption agency called us a week after we put in our application to let us know that a little girl had just been born and was available for adoption. Her single mom had passed away during childbirth. The big catch was that they wanted us to take her two-year-old brother as well. Suddenly, we had three kids under three. It was a wild and challenging time, but we embraced it.”

“I can’t even imagine,” I said, and before I could say anything else, I heard a loud squeal, and one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen jumped into Dominic’s arms.

“Dom, Dom!” she cried. “I missed you, bro!”

“Emmagination!” Dom said with a chuckle.

Emma had dark brown hair that was straight down her back and had dark, tan skin. Her large eyes were beautiful and a deep chocolate brown. She had beautiful curves in all the right places.

“Is this her?” Emma asked as she turned those brown eyes on me.

“Emma, this is my other sister, Molly.”

I felt my heartbeat faster as Dominic called me his sister for the first time out loud to someone else. It made it feel even more real.

“You’re adorable and so little! I’m 5’4”, and I always thought I was short!” Emma said as she hugged me, just as her mom had.

“You and Dom are both short,” another male voice said. I looked up and could definitely tell that Emma and Braden were biological siblings. He had the same dark hair, eyes, and tan skin. Only he was just as tall as Tyler, if not taller. His brown hair was longer on the top and fell over his forehead, and he swung his chin up to get the hair out of his eyes.

“Hey, Bray,” Dom said.

“Hey, Dom!” They gave each other a big guy hug, and then he gave me and Tyler head nods. “Nice to meet you guys.”

Tyler shook hands with Braden, and we all went and sat down in the hotel lobby.

“So, I’m sure you have lots of questions. I don’t know how much you know, and I’ll try to help answer whatever I can,” Jessica said from her seat next to Dominic.

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