Page 78 of Thick & Thin

“How are you feeling?” I asked, tossing my bag onto the couch beside me.

I wasn’t much for carrying a purse, but when you have a kid, you needed something. Lilly bought me a camouflage diaper bag that did the trick just fine. Caleb was long out of diapers, but I liked it. The strap was comfortable, and it didn’t look like a purse whatsoever.

“I’m doing as well as I can expect.”

I didn’t push. Instead, I sat and chatted with her while she played and talked with Caleb. Seeing Caleb play with Josh’s old toys that we used to play with was unreal. Sometimes, he would look up at me, and I could Josh in his features. It sent me back to the days when we would play cars on his momma’s living room floor when it was raining outside.

I looked away, my eyes taking in my second home, and again, sadness swooped over me.

I missed Josh.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Mrs. Black said, taking my attention away from old memories. “I have something for you.” She stood, taking Caleb with her until she reached the small side table beside their stone fireplace. There was a single drawer in the table. One I knew used to be full of junk.

She pulled the drawer open and tugged out an old worn baseball mitt that had belonged to Mr. Black. I knew the mitt well. Josh and I were never allowed to play with it when we were growing up because it was Josh’s grandfather’s when he played professionally for the Braves back when they were in Boston. He played with them for almost two years before his arm went bad. The mitt was a treasured item in the Black household.

“Here you go, little man. Poppa wanted you to have this,” she said, handing the old baseball mitt to Caleb.

I stood from the couch, feeling the house shift around me.

I knew for a fact, aside from his family and his farm, the baseball mitt had been Mr. Black’s most prized possession.

“I can’t let him take that,” I said, reaching for the mitt before Caleb was able to get a good grip on it. “That thing meant the world to Mr. Black.”

Her eyes watered. “No. Caleb meant the world to John, which was only natural. Grandparents aren’t supposed to pick favorites, but a man has a special bond with his first grandson.”

I gasped.

If only she knew how close she was to the truth.

“I know, but I think you should hold onto it for—”

“We know, Jenny,” she said, cutting me off. She looked up at me and smiled sadly. “We’ve always known Caleb was ours.”

My knees went weak, buckling beneath me. The old brown couch behind me caught my fall, and I sat.

“What?” I whispered.

I was sure I heard her wrong.

“We didn’t say anything because you didn’t, and we weren’t sure how you’d respond. In so many ways, we had already lost our son. We didn’t want to lose Caleb, too, and we were afraid you’d keep him away from us. But once we laid eyes on that little boy in the hospital, we knew.”

My ability to breathe became hard, and a lump rose in my throat that was beginning to choke me.

“But how?”

Caleb looked like me. He always had. It was the main reason I was able to lie, and people believed me so easily.

Turning back toward the table, she pulled an old photo from the drawer and handed it over me. I took it and looked at it. Staring back at me was Caleb’s twin. The same sable hair. The same dark eyes and mischievous smirk. The kid in the photo could have passed for Caleb.

“Is this …?”

I couldn’t even say Josh’s name.

“Yes. It’s Josh. Before you guys met in school. He was only two in that picture, but the resemblance is uncanny.”

I had no idea.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, feeling tears dribble down my cheeks.

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