Page 54 of The Homecoming

“He doesn’t know?”

Autumn shook her head. “I’ve been in denial. It’s become very real recently.”

“It is Daniel’s child, right?”

Autumn closed her eyes to keep from rolling them or screaming as she nodded. “It is. I had some idea in my head that if I told him, it would be a distraction and it might get him killed.” She sighed. “My fears made sense at the time. Now I’m scared I made the wrong choice.”

“You will tell him, then?”

“I plan on it. Whenever that is.” She paused and looked into Carmen’s eyes that she hadn’t noticed resembled Dan’s. “Are you going to tell him?” she asked, but Carmen shook her head.

“It’s not my place.” She rubbed Autumn’s belly. “You will come and visit. Let me feed you. This baby is half Puerto Rican and must know hisabuela. Whatever happens between you and Daniel, I want to know this grandchild.”

Autumn nodded as tears welled up and relief flooded through her. There was zero judgment in her eyes. She only wanted to be included. “Of course.”

Carmen smiled, setting a hand back on Autumn’s stomach just as the baby sprang into action. “Oh, what an active little one.”

She laughed. “You have no idea.” Autumn pulled the sonogram photos from her bag and handed them to an ecstatic Carmen. “It’s a boy. I’m calling him Danny.”

They walked to the parking lot, Carmen’s arm wrapped around Autumn, despite the stares and whispers of most of the congregants who were left. Autumn sighed and stared at the ground, but Carmen told her, “Hold your head up. They can all go to hell, as far as I’m concerned.”

28.

Autumn scrolled through apartment listings online, wondering how it could be so difficult to decide where to live. It should be easy, right? Find an apartment you can afford and rent it. Done. But no, with a baby on the way, walking up multiple flights of stairs did not appeal to her. Not to mention having to carry the baby and all of his stuff up and down steps once he arrived was also not enticing, and ground floor options were limited.Maybe she could rent a house?No, those were out of her price range and there were very few of them around town.

“I would say you’re working too much,” Brandon’s voice startled her out of her head, “but I see you’re not working at all.”

“Yeah, you’re one to talk.” She leaned back in the desk chair, sighing as she rubbed her forehead.

“Why are you looking at apartments?” he asked while pointing to the screen. He leaned against the back of Autumn’s desk chair and pushed her back upright.

“I’ve got to get my own place. It’s past time. With a baby coming, there’d be too many people in that house.”

“Any contenders?”

She shook her head. “If only I wasn’t so lazy and not willing to carry this baby up and down a million steps.”

He pulled her desk chair back. “Well, I gotta run over to the house for a minute, why don’t you come with me?”

Autumn shrugged and went with him out to his truck. He drove the path toward the gate that separated the Huntington Farms business from the personal property he and Ben shared.

“You know,” he said, “we got all of this from an inheritance when my dad died.”

“I’m sorry.” She was shamed that she’d known Brandon this long and hadn’t thought to ask him.

He shrugged. “Pancreatic cancer. It’s an insidious bitch.”

“God, that sucks,” she whispered.

“I thought about what I wanted to do with it. I read an article about outdoor weddings in scenic places and barns were all the rage, so I thought it could be fun. I mentioned it to Ben, and he told me about beautiful properties out here. We came out and found this abandoned and overgrown farm. It’d been on the market for so long, it was a friggin’ steal.” He drove along the gravel road past the driveway of his house. “Which led to us being able to buy the land and house next to it, which is where we live. It also let us buy this.” He turned down a second gravel drive she didn’t know existed and pulled up to a small log cabin. “It’s not grand, but it’s a secure, well-built structure. Needs a little work.” He paused. “Wanna take a look inside?”

She nodded. “Sure, it’s cute.”

Brandon exited the truck and hurried around to help her out, though she said she didn’t need it. However, she secretly appreciated it. “And only two steps,” he pointed out when they got to the front porch, making her laugh. He unlocked the door and held it open for her.

The air inside was stale from the room being closed up. The front entry opened into the main room on the right with a wide-open space with a stone fireplace similar to the one in the farmhouse, only this one was smaller and sat on the far wall on the opposite side. The kitchen area was to the left, and it opened to the main room, but it needed a stove and a refrigerator. A full-size bathroom sat next to the kitchen and two bedrooms along the back of the cabin. Between the two bedrooms, a small hallway led to a door that exited onto a small, screened-in back porch where someone had installed a washer and dryer connection. Out the screen door and down two wooden steps was an open field that led to the tree line to the left and curved directly behind the property.

“We may be able to move the connection somewhere inside,” Brandon said, like he’d read her mind.

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