Page 30 of Fake It True

“What?” I sputtered. “You do?”

Dora nodded solemnly as she reached for her bucket purse. “Then, I can have a mommy again.”

And now, I was floundering. I never quite knew how to talk about Dora’s mom with her. I cleared my throat. “You had a mommy, she’s just not here anymore.”

“I know. She died.” My daughter’s matter-of-fact tone twisted my heart. “I’ll always miss her, but I would like a mommy here.”

My throat started to feel tight. She looked so earnest. “I understand that. I don’t know if that will happen, but you have me, and Gramps and Grammy.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

CASEY

My footsteps echoed in the hallway where I was pacing and peering out the window that faced the parking lot, hoping to see when Leo arrived. I was the cliché of a hot mess. I was meeting Dora, and I was so anxious about what this meant. I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin with restlessness and my pulse was a driving drumbeat echoing through me.

When I heard the sound of tires on gravel and glanced out to see Leo’s truck, I dashed down the stairs, meeting him at the door just as he was reaching to open it. “Hi!” I all but yelped.

He smiled slowly. “Hey. You doing okay?”

I stepped out, making sure the door locked behind me. “Just a little nervous.”

Leo took a step closer, leaning down to give me a kiss. His warmth and strong presence felt like a force field, soothing me a little.

When he straightened, his smile was a little sheepish. “I’m a little nervous too,” he offered. “It’ll be okay.”

“What if it’s not?” I fretted.

I could feel the low rumble of his chuckle where my palm had landed on his chest. His eyes were warm. “Dora’s friendly. And,so are you.” He stepped back, reaching for my hand as it fell away from his chest.

A short while later, we were there. Martha and George were kind and easygoing. They’d welcomed me warmly. The tension and anxiety that had been churning up a storm inside had finally started to ease. Dora was, of course, adorable and sweet. She hadn’t seemed all that interested in me after the first few minutes. She’d shown me a project she was working on that involved building a model volcano with her grandfather. She explained that she was trying to model it realistically after Mount Iliamna, which was visible from Anchorage.

After dinner, Dora went to work on her volcano while we stayed at the table. Leo’s mother didn’t try to hide her curiosity. “So, what do you think of Alaska?” she asked after we had finished eating and she’d served us coffee.

“It’s absolutely beautiful.” Safe answer, I thought.

“It certainly is. So, what brought you here?”

My mind silently tumbled through the whole answer, which was that I had been gallivanting all over the country, traveling to try to escape the pain from the loss of my sister. I never wanted to go back home even though I missed it because then I would have to stare down the pain and the secrets I was keeping. That waswaymore complicated than the partial truth.

“Alaska was a bucket list place for me. I always wanted to visit the last frontier and see the wilderness. It’s so different from where I grew up,” I explained.

Martha nodded along, her smile warm. “Alaska is full of transplants. It sounds like you might be staying?” Her voice lilted up in question.

Leo’s hand was on my knee under the table and he squeezed gently. He’d warned me his mom was all in with the marriage plan.

“That’s the plan for now. I’m enjoying working at the café. While that may not be a forever job, I sure love it.”

Leo’s father came walking in from where he and Dora were working on her volcano project, and he heard the tail end of my comment. “Firehouse Café has the best coffee in Alaska and maybe even the country,” he teased.

“Itisvery good.” I grinned.

“Dora would love the group to come take a look,” he said as he waggled his brows.

We all followed him into a room off the side of the living room area. The project was on a large table. Dora was waiting for us, wearing an apron with stars scattered all over it.

“Ta-da!” She swept her arms toward the table.

Dora’s father had a photograph of Mount Iliamna propped up against the wall beside the table.

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