Page 36 of Finding Limits

“My mother.” He snatches it back off me and looks down at it fondly.

“Well, you better get hold of your mother and tell her I want to talk to her.” I shake my head and try to cast my mind back to a time that seems so long ago.

Naomi was the daughter of the preacher of Fork River back when that photo was taken, and I recall her having a wild streak. There were a few nights where she’d ended up back at the bunkhouse with me, but even in my youth I always played it safe.

“I would if I could, but I can’t find her.” Hunter stares back at me with all the anger in his eyes broken down to sadness. “I’ve been looking since I was twenty-one. I managed to track down her family, but the only person still living was her sister. I visited her, showed her the birth certificate and she remembered you from when they lived here,” he explains.

“She was the one who gave me the photo.” He looks down at it again, as if it’s his most treasured possession.

“And this sister, does she know where Naomi is now?” I take a seat on the bunk beside him, trying to find some resemblance between us.

“She didn’t even know her sister had had a baby, told me her folks sent Mom away pretty much as soon as they left this town. They moved on to her father’s next parish without her. I’m guessing that was because of the trouble she was in. Being knocked up ain’t exactly a good look for a preacher's daughter.” Hunter shrugs sadly.

“She wasn’t a little girl, Hunter, she was a woman.” I shake my head and stare at the picture in his hands. Naomi was a fun girl. Pretty too. She knew me well enough to know that if she’d come to me and told me she was in trouble, I’d have helped her.

“No, she wasn't, she was barely seventeen.” He defends her again.

“What?” I stand back up in horror. “No, there's no way. I met her in a bar outta town and gave her a ride home. She told me she’d graduated college.”

“Well, then she lied to you because I spoke to her sister and she told me she hadn’t even graduated high school.”

I slump back down onto his cot feeling sick to my stomach.

“How could you not know her age, she was the preacher's daughter?” he questions me.

“And do I look like the kinda man who goes to church?” I yell back at him, wanting to tear my hair out. “Back then I worked hard and played hard. The only places I ever went beyond this ranch were bars. I swear she told me she was a college graduate.” She may have lied to me, but I still can’t help feeling sorry for the girl. She must have been so scared. No wonder she didn’t come to me for help.

“Why didn’t ya tell me this as soon as ya got here?” It suddenly dawns on me that this kid has been here for a whole week.

“I wanted to suss you out first, and maybe I was a little scared of rejection. It ain’t every day a guy shows up and tells a man he’s his son. I assumed since your name was listed that you’d always known about me.”

“Well, I can promise ya that I didn’t. If I had…Well, I don’t know what I’da done, to be honest, but we sure as hell wouldn’t have been meetin’ like this.” I let it sink in that, for twenty-five years, I’ve had a kid out in the world that I’ve played no part in raising.

“We’ll have to do tests or somethin’ just to be sure, and I understand if now that you know who I am you don’t want me workin’ here, but?—”

“What? Why would I not want ya here?” I look back at him as if he’s crazy. “Hunter, all this has come as a shock. A fuckin’ huge one. But that don’t mean I don’t wanna to get to know ya. If all this is right and you are my son, you're exactly where you're supposed to be now.” I see the relief on his face when his lips lift into a smile. “I think we need to up our game on findin’ your mother. I sure want some answers, and I know someone who can help.” I immediately take out my cell and call Jessie, back in Manitou Springs.

“Mitch, it’s good to hear from ya. Is everythin’ okay with Everleigh?” he asks.

“Everythin’s fine, great in fact.” I move on from that subject because I’m not gonna go into details on just how good it really is. “I was wonderin’ if ya could get your old lady workin’ on findin’ someone for me.”

“Sure, she can, she’ll just need a name and whatever you already know,” he informs me.

“Appreciated, I’ll get a text sent to ya so she can get to work. And, Jess, you know we’re here, right? If you need anythin’.” I know things back in Colorado must be tough right now. I want Jessie to know that he has our full support.

“I appreciate that too, you just keep takin’ care of Addison's sister, she’s eager to be reunited with her.”

I feel a twist in my gut as I hang up and look back to the kid who’s claiming to be my son. I wonder if deep in my subconscious, I knew that he was mine the first moment I set eyes on him. My instincts had instantly told me to trust him, and that ain’t something that happens often.

“Maddy’s on it, and she’s good at what she does,” I assure him, hoping that she doesn’t take too long in doin’ it.

“So, your life before you started lookin’…” I gesture my head toward the piece of paper that says this kid belongs to me. “Was it kind to ya?”

“It was great.” He nods his head. “The couple who raised me always made me aware of the fact I was adopted. When I reached twenty-one they gave me all the information they had which was this, and they said it was my choice what I did with it. I’ll be honest, at first I wasn’t interested. I wanted to focus on the people who wanted to raise me rather than the ones who didn’t.” He twists up his mouth awkwardly.

“I get that.” I nod my head, understanding his logic. “So, what changed your mind?”

“Some girl I went to high school with got herself into the same kinda trouble as my mom did. She decided to do the same and put her baby up for adoption. Speaking to her put some things into perspective for me. People get themselves into all kinds of situations. She knew she wasn’t the best option for the baby she was having, but she still wanted him or her to have a good life with everything it needed. I guess I wanted to know if that's how my mom felt about me.”

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