Page 56 of Embattled Return

“How did you find us?” Arthur asked. “Was it one of the ancestry websites? We weren’t sure where to post that we were looking for you.”

“No,” he glanced at Marigold for a moment. “I flew out here for a couple of reasons. One of them was to try to figure out where my family had come from. But I ran into this lady, and long story short, her husband is an investigator with a firm that helped me find you and put all the pieces together. I had done my own investigating but when Dad changed his name that kind of roadblocked me. I didn’t know what the old family name was. John figured it out.”

“Well, we need to thank him,” Eugenia said, her eyes filling with tears. “We’re so very glad to get to know you again, Logan. A piece of my heart is back where it’s supposed to be. You’re not returning to Virginia in the near future, are you? There’s a lot of family that would love to meet you.”

Logan felt his eyes widen with the thought. Alotof family? For so long it had just been he and his sister against the world. The thought that there were people actually related to him and wanted to meet him was... odd. And the thought of returning to Virginia hadn’t even entered his mind. When he’d first planned this trip, he’d thought that Colorado would be his final destination, and that hadn’t changed. He had no desire to go back east.

This entire week had been odd. Glancing at Marigold, he found her watching him, a soft smile on her lips. Impulsively, he leaned forward and dropped a kiss to those smiling lips. When he drew back, her smile had morphed into a full grin. “What was that for?”

Unaccountably, his throat tightened with emotion again, of an entirely different sort. “Everything,” he murmured, voice raspy. Then he turned to his grandparents. “I would love to meet them.”

16

Marigold lost track of all of the family members that came to the house over the next few hours. At one time there had to have been at least thirty people milling through the rooms and laughing with each other. Some brought snacks or beer. Little kids were running around and being cute. It was so heartwarming watching Logan meet each person and lay out in his mind who they were connected to. She never once saw him misspeak a name. It was like he committed them to memory. Military Intelligence training at its best.

One little boy with dark hair and sea-glass blue eyes latched onto Logan and felt the need to tell him his life story. It was so adorable because they could have been father and son, they looked so similar. The child, Austin, was actually Logan’s second cousin, and only six. As she looked out over the people she could see, most of them were dark haired and light eyed, just like Logan’s grandparents. The line bred true.

An impromptu meal was pulled together and tables and chairs were pulled out of the garage to fill the dining room and accommodate all of the extra people.

“Bone apple teeth,” Austin called out, sending people into laughter. It took her a minute to realize he meantbon appétit.

It was a rowdy, wonderful affair, and Marigold wished she’d had this kind of family growing up. Hers had been small to begin with, and there were only a few people left besides her grandmother and a few cousins.

By the time they left later that night, Marigold was exhausted, and she knew Logan had to be as well. As they headed to her cold car, he limped more than normal, and sagged into the seat. It took him a minute to get the seatbelt wrapped around himself.

Marigold cranked the engine and they wove through the neighborhood, headed south toward Denver.

“Thank you,” Logan said, his voice low and soft.

“Why do you keep thanking me?” she laughed. “I didn’t do anything.”

“But you did,” he corrected firmly. “Every time I started to second-guess myself you were there to keep me going. And in the end, it paid off. I can’t believe what a family I have.”

“You are exceptionally lucky,” she murmured. “I would love to have a portion of the amount of family you have.”

He laughed then. “It’s so crazy. Six hours ago, I had no one I wanted to claim.”

Marigold nodded, glancing in the rearview mirror as she changed lanes. “You can only be thankful. And enjoy them while you have them.”

He nodded, looking out the side window at the passing lights. “That Austin was something,” he murmured, chuckling softly.

Marigold snorted. “That kid thought you hung the moon, and I get it. You look enough like his dad that you could be brothers instead of cousins.”

He nodded, looking at her in the darkness. “You noticed that too, huh?”

“That you all look the same? Of course. Only the married spouses looked different and brought some color in. Elliot’s wife Brandy had the most amazing hair. It wasn’t red. It was like a true auburn. Just beautiful.”

“Austin’s dad and I played together when we were little. I didn’t want to leave,” he said softly.

“I can totally understand why. Arthur and Eugenia were getting tired, though. And you were as well.”

He heaved a sigh. “Yeah, I know. That was a long day. Thank you for sitting through all that.”

She made a face at him in the dark. “You make it sound like I was sitting through opera or something. It really wasn’t that bad. I loved watching you meet everyone. I got a few pictures, too.”

“Did you really? I didn’t even notice. Thank you, again, Mari.”

“No problem.”

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