Page 97 of Lead Me Knot

“He once told me he has a traveler’s soul.” My dad eyes me. “I’m not sure what that means. Sounds spiritual, and you know I’ve lost my way with the new paths the younger folks follow these days.”

I chuckle. “I don’t think it’s that deep, Dad.” I look down the hall when I hear a commotion. Nurses are whispering, so I’m glad to see smiles on their faces, rather than the opposite. When I turn back, I say, “Griff just likes to travel, and since he no longer plays baseball, he’s free to do what he wants. He’s choosing to enjoy life. Nothing wrong with that when you have the money to support it. I’ll text him tomorrow to let him know he has a new niece or nephew and see what he says.”

“See if you can get an answer about coming home for Christmas. He told me he can’t commit this far out. That was in June, around the time of the festival, when I asked.” My dad worries about my brother more than he should have to. We all do to some extent. None of us hear from him as much as we’d like, but he’s a grown man who can make his own choices.

“I’ll try my best. I think this will take a while. Let’s grab a seat.”

He grips my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Thomas Greene is an old cowboy who still hides most of his emotions, but every so often, he lets you know how he feels in quieter ways. I glance over and spot a proud dad grin on his face. More reserved, but that’s just him.

His hand falls back to his side, and his gaze travels back to a TV we can’t hear from where we’re standing. “You got your smarts from your mama, Baylor. All you kids did. She’d be proud of how well you’ve done, son.”

I would have reacted differently to that statement a few years back. The grief from her death would have consumed me for days, and I probably would have taken it out on everyone else around me.

Now I grieve because she’ll never get to meet her grandkids. She’ll never get to hold the kids I’ll have one day. I find relief that she met my wife, even if she didn’t know back then, though I’m not fully convinced she didn’t.

Parts of me will never heal, but when I set aside some of the anger from her being stolen away from us, I know she’s with me. Rediscovering the car makes me feel closer to her again. I can only imagine how driving it will be. The breeze that comforted me on the courthouse steps affirmed I was making the right decision. After all these years, I realized that Mom made me take notice of Lauralee Knot. It wasn’t a grand production or anything. Just taking a moment when we were in the living room alone to show me the photo now feels like a sign I never picked up on prior. I didn’t need signs back then. I had her.

Now I have Lauralee in my life, and as my wife, and I know my mom is probably thrilled that her subtle matchmaking played out the way it was planned.

My dad is no slouch despite the old jeans and scuffed-up boots. He can fix anything, except apparently that bum knee of his. But there are doctors for that. “How’s the knee healing?”

He looks down as if he’d forgotten about it. “I’m almost as good as new.”

I’m not taking his word for it quite yet since he’s been known to hide his weaknesses, a mask of sorts, the same way we were raised. Lauralee knew what she was doing when she expected more from me. I’ll consider it growth that we can talk about anything, including our feelings. That’s definitely not how I was raised. “That’s good. You’ve been standing around long enough, though. Let’s grab a seat.”

We settle in for the long haul just as Tagger’s parents arrive. “Did we miss anything?”

“Just on time,” I reply, hugging his mom.

Two hours later, Daisy has fallen asleep on my dad’s shoulder and Beckett hasn’t said two words to me, though he’s been talking Lauralee’s ear off. I catch some keywords like caterpillar, excavator, and tractor. I’m sensing a theme. Even though the conversation involves large equipment, Lauralee looks fully invested.

Another hour passes before she comes to sit next to me. “I think I should consider taking the kids home. I was going to see if the nurses can update us first.”

“I’ll go with you.”

We walk together out of the waiting room to the nurses’ station. The urge to hold her hand is strong, but I refrain, starting to let annoyance get the better of me. We finally make the decision to share the amazing news and are sidelined. For a good reason, but I still want to get it out in the open so I can hold my wife’s hand. When I glance at her, she says, “I know. Soon.”

At the station, I ask, “Are there any updates for Christine Grange? She’s in labor.”

The nurse adjusts her glasses and types on her keyboard. “Let me check for you.” When she looks back up, she smiles. “Looks like the baby has been delivered. The baby is doing well. The doctor will be out shortly.”

“How’s my sister?”

“She’s doing well and is in recovery.”

“That’s good. Thank you.”

Rubbing my back, Lauralee looks up at me. “We have a new baby in the family,” she says, her joy overflowing through the words. I don’t think she’s even aware of her hand being on me, but I’m not going to tell her either. It comes so naturally for us to touch and connect when we want to, and I fucking need it.

“It’s an excitingtime.” While we return to the waiting area, I say, “I think we should keep the kids here. Chris and Tag will want them to meet the baby.”

“I agree. I’ll try to keep Beckett up, though we lost Daisy to sleep hours ago.”

Just as we reach the family, I hear, “It’s a girl.” Lauralee and I turn around to see Tagger coming toward us with an impossibly big grin on his face. “We have another little girl.”

“Aw. That’s such wonderful news,” Lauralee says, hugging him. “Congratulations.”

He works his way over to us, where we do the handshake we’ve done since we were preteens, but I tug him in for a good pat on the back as well. “Congrats, brother.”

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