Page 26 of His Christmas Star
Joe squeezed the little girl gently and shook his head. “Not at all. A hug from Poppy Rose makes any day a good day, but today it’s especially appreciated.”
Caleb glanced between us. “What’s going on?”
“Daddy Nash passed away a few hours ago,” I explained gently. “He suffered another stroke this morning.”
“Oh, Joe, I’m sorry to hear that. He was a good man and always so willing to help out. I remember spending many hours haying with him and listening to the stories he had to tell about raising you as an old codger, as he’d say.” He stared at the little girl in Joe’s arms and shook his head again. “She never ceases to amaze me. She always knows.”
“That’s my Poppy,” Cece said, smiling at her little girl in the giant arms of one sad sheriff. “And she doesn’t need words to comfort you.”
“That’s for sure,” Joe agreed, soaking in the love Poppy offered him. “You’re a lucky man, Caleb, to have this baby love you as a father.”
“I never take that for granted,” he promised, leaning up against the counter. “Cece and Poppy are my everything. Soon they will both have my name, and I couldn’t be more excited to raise Poppy as a North. No one will ever tell me I can’t love her like a father just because she isn’t mine genetically. She’s mine.”
Cece stood and walked to him, hugging him around the waist. “No one is going to take her from you. Just relax.”
Poppy sat up and patted Joe’s face again before she gave him a boop on his nose with her finger. He returned the boop, a ritual they’d done since last fall when he’d worked diligently to find her after she’d gotten lost. Poppy climbed down from Joe’s lap and skipped over to Caleb, who picked her up and accepted a hug.
We all shook our heads at her this time. “It’s like she knows,” I said with a chuckle.
“Oh, she does know,” Caleb said, setting her down and making the sign for play. She ran off to the living room, where her toys waited. “She’s more attune to things than even I am. I think it’s because she doesn’t have to tune out all the noise around her to focus on what she’s feeling.” He brushed his hand at us. “Forget it. It’s hard to explain. Joe, what can we do to help?”
“This,” Joe said without hesitation. “Being here and reminding me I’m not alone when I feel like I am. Daddy Nash was the last of my family. I was an orphan at two, and now I’m an orphan at thirty-two.”
“You’ve got us,” Heaven whispered. “We’re here for anything you need in the coming days. Does work know?”
“I took him over to the office before we left town,” I said. “The Sheriff of Water Creek is going to lend a hand for a couple of days until Joe is ready to go back to work.”
“Good,” Heaven said with a nod. “Sheriff Erikson is a good man.”
“He will help out on calls for the night, but you all know I’ll be back there tomorrow. If nothing else, it will keep me distracted.”
I rubbed his shoulders and patted them. “Or, you could take a few days to grieve your father. The world won’t fall apart.”
Caleb pointed at me with a nod. “That. Burying yourself in work just prolongs the inevitable. Take my word for it.”
“I promise to take the time I need. Right now, I just keep reminding myself that I was lucky to have Daddy for thirty years. Neither blood nor DNA changes the fact that he stepped up and took care of me when he didn’t have to.”
The room was silent as everyone glanced at each other, but Heaven spoke. “I thought Daddy Nash was your grandfather.”
“So did I,” Joe said. “It turns out he wasn’t.”
“Not by blood,” I corrected. “He was your father by love, though.”
Joe chuckled and patted my hand still on his shoulder. “She’ll never let me forget that either.”
“As well she shouldn’t,” Caleb said emphatically. “Love transcends blood and DNA, Joe. Love is a choice. Blood and DNA aren’t.”
Joe sat up and squared his shoulders. “What did you just say?”
“That love is a choice?” Caleb asked with a hint of fear at Joe’s posturing.
Joe deflated then, his shoulders sinking in on each other with his chin on his chest. “Love is a choice. Why did I care so much about the blood or the DNA?”
I rubbed his shoulders and glanced around the room. “I’m going to explain, and then I’m taking him home to rest.” Everyone nodded, and I squeezed Joe’s shoulder to tell him it would be okay. “When Daddy Nash married Clarissa, she was already pregnant with Laramie. No one knew that, so Alfred welcomed her into his life and adopted her. When Laramie had Joe, his real father was never in the picture, so when Laramie died—”
“Daddy Nash adopted him too,” Caleb said.
“Yep,” I agreed. “He wasn’t letting anyone take the little boy that he loved away from him. He loved Laramie the way you love Poppy, and he loved Joe the same way. Alfred wanted Joe to know before he passed and found the papers, so they had a bit of a falling out a few weeks ago. But today, before he left us, they were able to find that love again.”
