Page 2 of Once Upon a Summer Night

She pounded a fist on the table before her. “Sonofabitch!”

Heads turned in the order line, but Hannah didn’t care. They weren’t the ones about to lose the one person in this world that mattered most to them. She was.

Like hell I am. If the Wiggmans think I’m going down without a fight, they have another thing coming.

But how? How was she going to fight this? She didn’t have an attorney or a bunch of extra cash lying around to hire one. Heck, most of the extra money she did have socked away had gone to taking care of Beth toward the end.

It was times like these, Hannah missed her the most. Beth would know what to do. Damned cancer. Why couldn’t it have taken her instead? Not stolen Noah’s mother and the level-headed adult among them.

“All clean. See?” He reappeared at her side, two clean and still visibly damp hands extended before him.

Hannah forced a smile as she shoved the mail back into her purse. No way was she sharing this news with Noah, not until she’d had time to process it herself. “Much better, thank you. Come on, let’s get some food.”

The line ahead of them was longer now—a few businessmen on their lunch break, a mother and father with two wiggly toddlers, and a white-haired grandma with her granddaughter. That image had Hannah seeing red again. She’d trusted the Wiggmans, had agreed to connect with them because it was what Beth would have wanted. Lord knew, their son never had. So, Hannah had acted in good faith, and what had it gotten her?

Stabbed in the back.

Noah asked her a question and wrapped his arms around her waist. She glanced down to find him batting his eyes, and she knew without asking that he’d just requested a Frosty with his meal. Lord, he looked so much like his mama with his green eyes and freckle-dotted nose. Like she could ever tell the kid no.

Nor could she ever willingly hand him off to anyone else. Regardless of biology, Hannah was his family, not the Wiggmans. There had to be a way to keep him, to see her adoption through. But how?

There’s nothing more important than family. Nothing…

Echoes of the last conversation she’d had with her father sent a shiver down her spine. Hannah looked to the restaurant’s broad, east-facing windows. Their travels today had brought them uncomfortably close to her hometown, the place she couldn’t wait to escape eight summers ago. It was also a place that, in the past, had been full of family and support. And damn, she could sure use a little of both right now.

But could she do it? Could she go back and face the family she’d run from to now ask for their forgiveness and help?

Did she even have a choice?

Standing in the middle of a Wendy’s restaurant with a giant question mark dangling over her future with Noah, Hannah knew she was in over her head. She needed help, needed someone to throw her a lifeline, and there was only one person left in her life she could count on to do it without condemnation. The calmest, strongest woman she knew, able to handle anything life threw at her without so much as flinching.

Aunt Faye.

She gave Noah’s sleeve a tug and stepped out of line. “Hey, buddy, I just remembered there’s an evenbetterplace to eat lunch not too far from here.”

“But—”

“And they have desserts with real ice cream.”

That was all it took to get Noah angling for the door. Soon they were back on the highway, her pulse quickening with every mile they drew nearer to State Road 331. Suddenly, it was there, opening to the right…and she was easing her Jeep off the interstate.

God, was she really doing this? Was she really going back?

Yes, she had to. They would stop and see Aunt Faye before grabbing a bite at the Sweet Mash. There was no one in this world that she trusted more, which is why she’d secretly kept in touch with her over the years. Surely, her aunt could offer Hannah some advice on how to handle this custody mess, and how to word her response to Stan that Noah would, in fact,notbe staying with them this weekend.

Also? Her aunt always gave the best hugs and Hannah could really use one right now, especially with her long-awaited weekend plans getting hijacked. But she’d sacrifice her plans before risking the Wiggmans taking Noah and not giving him back, any day. Surely, her friends would understand.

“Bourbon Falls?” said Noah, reading the town’s welcome sign.

“Yep. It’s where I lived when I was your age.”

“Really?”

She nodded as fields of soybeans gave way to suburban properties. “Sure is. Smaller than Kankakee, but lots of train stuff here, too.”

“Cool.”

Hannah swallowed hard as the all-too-familiar intersection of 11B came into view. If she took a right, a mile to the west it would tee into Elm—the road she’d grown up on and where her father and aunt still lived. Faye said they had ducklings on the farm now, which Noah would love. For now, Hanna stayed on 331, which would soon turn into Main Street, Brooks Books her intended destination before grabbing lunch at the Sweet Mash. She just prayed her father wasn’t at either location.

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