We'll Always Be a Family Anthology Read online

  We'll Always Be a Family

  Anthology

  Marie Ahls

  Kimberley O'Malley

  McKenna Rogue

  Harmony Joy

  E.S. McMillan

  We'll Always Be a Family

  Copyright © 2019 Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

  About Our Charity

  The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is the only public nonprofit charity in the United States that is focused exclusively on foster care adoption. Through its signature program, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, the Foundation provides grants to adoption agencies to hire recruiters who use an evidence-based, child-focused recruitment model to find loving, permanent homes for children waiting in foster care.

  The Foundation works closely with child welfare advocates and policymakers, provides free resources about foster care adoption and raises awareness through social media campaigns, public service announcements and events.

  The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s mission is to dramatically increase the number of adoptions of children waiting in North America’s foster care systems. Their core beliefs are: every child deserves a safe, loving and permanent family; no child should linger in foster care or leave the system without a permanent family; and every child is adoptable.

  In 1990, Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, accepted President H.W. Bush’s invitation to be the spokesperson for a national adoption awareness campaign. In 1992, he established the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. In 1997, he testified before Congress to support an adoption tax credit that aimed to make adoption more affordable. He appeared in public service announcements, expanded his reach to Canada and led the initiative to create an adoption stamp, which was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2000.

  Dave Thomas passed away in 2002. For more than 25 years, the Foundation has continued its pursuit of Dave’s goal of finding forever families for children in foster care.

  Fiercely Entangled

  by Marie Ahls

  Addie Greyson just knew she and her husband Alec were so much better apart than they were together. They didn’t know it until the tragic loss of their only son that they couldn’t get along.

  They argued.

  They disagreed.

  They needed to get rid of their grief by getting away from one another.

  Addie needed a fresh start and to bid farewell to the name Greyson. As time passed and she attempted to find her way back t-o normalcy, life suddenly threw her a curve ball.

  Alec reappeared and was determined to make things right between the two of them. Will they be able to put their troubled grief-stricken past behind them? Or will the past be too much to overcome?

  Fiercely Entangled

  by Marie Ahls

  Chapter One

  The blank, empty eyes stared back at me as I straightened the little black dress, my fingers lingering at the hem as they tugged it to see if there was any more length to it.

  This was the third date. The first two were dates from hell. For the first date, the guy showed up with lipstick on the collar of his shirt, and, for the second date, the guy seemed like a nice guy until he started talking about his foot fetish. Don’t get me wrong or anything. I have no problem with feet, but this guy took it too far even for me. Two disaster dates didn’t leave much hope for number three.

  Number three bored me to death. His dull voice, dull life, and dull stories did nothing but make my head hurt. It was mean and horrible to think, but I would have done anything for my phone to ring so I could fake an emergency. The only saving grace was that the food was good, and when the plates were finally cleared, I almost shouted hallelujah, but I then contemplated getting dessert because the chocolate cheesecake looked delicious. Before the torture could go any further, I put the cheesecake idea to rest, promising myself that I would come back for one later. On my own. Without mister boring.

  My thoughts were disrupted when I saw my ex-husband, Alec, strutting towards our table. He looked good. Really good.

  The ink on our divorce papers was barely dry with only a year past, and the last time I saw him was when the judge’s gavel came down, making it all final. When our son died, our grief took us in different directions, and we weren’t able to reconcile. He wanted to honor our son by adopting another child and starting our lives over, but I couldn’t forgive him for wanting to put our little baby boy behind us. It tore us apart. The months after Caleb’s death were the worst of my life only followed by the weeks after Alec moved out. I went through the motions to get through it all and then stayed in bed for weeks. It was only when my friend Trina forced me to see that there was still life worth living that I crawled out from my hole and began the process of getting my life back together.

  Fast forward to me sitting across from mister boring, who was going on and on about something meaningless without even noticing that my attention was elsewhere. My hands went instinctively to my hair, trying to straighten it, and I corrected my posture in an attempt to hide the little bulge that had formed in my stomach when I sat down.

  “Addie? Am I early? I thought we had our date tonight?” Alec asked.

  That got mister boring’s attention. “What is he talking about?” Even when he should have been upset, he sounded stale, but I too wanted to know what Alec was talking about. He mouthed for my eyes only to just go with it, which is exactly what I did.

  I looked at my phone to check the time, though I knew exactly what time it was considering I had been watching the minutes tick by. “Oh yeah. We do have a date. John, right?”

  “No. I’m Alec.”

  “Oops! John must be my ten o’clock.”

  Mister boring looked back and forth between the two of us in bewilderment. Alec threw some money on the table. “That should cover her meal,” and snagged my hand, plucked me from the chair, and walked me hand in hand to the bar, where we both broke into giggles as we watched my date leave.

  Before I could ask what had just happened, Alec commented, “I know that look you get when you’re about to lose it. I thought I would put the poor guy out of his misery and save you at the same time.”

  “Well, thank you. I should probably go.” I pushed off from the bar to leave.

  “Addie. Wait?” His hand went out to my wrist to stop me, and my eyes met his. “At least stay for a drink. I mean, I did save you after all.” He winked. I hesitated. “Oh, come on. One drink isn’t going to hurt you,” he growled.

  Chapter Two

  Date number four left me waiting at the table. He didn’t even bother to call or text.

  “Stood up?” The voice was so familiar, it was recognizable anywhere. Alec.

  “Seriously! Are you following me or something?” I exclaimed as I turned in my seat to face him. Twice in one week.

  “Nope. I just happen to have awful dates too,” he answered matter of factly.

  “Ahh. You got stood up as well?”

  “You got it, but I think we shouldn’t waste a good reservation. May I join you?”

  It’s just dinner, I told myself, and spending the evening with my ex couldn’t be worse than the dates I had already gone on. Besides, it would save me the embarrassment of eating alone. Again.

  “What’s wrong with us?” I asked with exasperation as we waited for our dinners. “We’re both a great catch, so why do we have such horrible dates?”

  “You know, Addie, I have to say...You look like you�
�re doing well. Are you doing well?” He asked seriously and with concern.

  “It’s been a long road, but I’m doing a little better every day,” I answered him honestly. He knew me, so it felt pointless to lie, and it was the truth that every day was better. I didn’t know if I’d ever be the same Addie I was before Caleb. That little guy, along with the divorce, had changed me, and the fact that I was still even remotely functioning as a person was still shocking to me. I followed up with, “You look good too, Alec. Real good.”

  He flashed the smile that always made me weak in the knees and sat back in his chair, looking smooth and relaxed. “Good, huh?” he responded with a soft, flirty tone. He had always taken things in stride; carefree, breezy, and easy. That was part of what had been our downfall. I wanted him to be sad and emotional with me after Caleb’s death, and it had taken me months after he left for me to realize that we all grieve in our own ways. Just because I wanted to curl up with Caleb’s blankie and cry didn’t mean that Alec needed to do the same thing. I should have let him be my strength, but instead I got angry and pushed him away.

  “You don’t ever change, do you?” I teased, knowing full well that he had always been confident in every aspect of his life.

  “Why change something so perfect?” he teased back as he gestured to himself, and I had to admit that he did look perfect. He was leaner and more sculpted than I remembered. And more confident, if that was even possible. Maybe it was the time apart or that he looked like he had been working out, but it was clear he had taken good care of himself. Again, I tried to straighten up to hide my flabby stomach, and my hands ran down my front in an attempt to smooth my dress.

  His eyes turned dark, and his hand reached over the table to my arm that was still running over my dress. “Don’t,” he reacted. His touched burned me. The air left my lungs, and my hand slowly left my front. As my eyes lifted from his hand to his eyes, my thoughts wandered to what was happening. Spooked, I stumbled over my words as I excused myself. “I’m sorry. I have to go.” And I left Alec staring after me while I ran from the restaurant.

  Chapter Three

  That night my dreams were filled with Alec, yet as I woke, feeling desired and loved, reality hit. Neither of those words described my life. The soft mattress engulfed me, and the low hum of the fan made a comforting sound over my thoughts, while my arms wrapped themselves around the pillow on the opposite side of the bed. The empty side. After seeing Alec twice in a short period of time, it felt like it hadn’t been so long ago that we had lay in this bed together, sharing our dreams.

  We had wanted a house full of kids, but that wasn’t in the cards for us. Pregnancy didn’t happen, and when we tried in-vitro fertilization, it took a toll on Alec. He felt like he was failing me by not being able to give me what I wanted the most. Even though I tried my best to make him understand that it wasn’t anyone's fault and that in the end it didn’t matter how we got a baby as long as we got a baby, he couldn’t shake the feeling of failure. It started with that feeling and merged into resentment, and every month when the test came out negative, a piece of our relationship died.

  The phone ringing had interrupted the sleep that came hours after lying in bed thinking about what had happened between Alec and I. One glance at the phone showed me that it was an unknown number. I let it go to voicemail, and when I got around to listening to it later, it was actually from Alec. “Umm, Addie. I didn’t mean to scare you off last night. It’s been nice seeing you. I was wondering if you’d like to meet up for coffee. At our place. Tomorrow at 9?”

  “What the fuck?” went through my head. Why was he calling me? What did he want?

  ***

  Against my better judgement and with a feeling of doom, I showed up at our coffee shop. It was where we had met in a sort of “meet cute” way. He had smashed his jelly donut right in the chest of my silk dress when I was on my way to a wedding, only to run into him again at the wedding. It turned out he was a friend of the groom. He proceeded to get my number and called for a date.

  The smell of coffee overtook my senses as I walked into the shop. It was the best part about coffee; the smell. The memories of Alec also came rushing back. It had only been recently that I had been able to set foot in here without being too overwhelmed by emotion.

  It was the scent of the coffee that I remembered so vividly from the day we sat across from Dr. Peterson when she first told us about the brain tumor our little guy had and that the placement of the tumor made it almost impossible to operate. Three short years was all we had with him. It all seemed unfair at the time, and it still did on my toughest days.

  My eyes scanned the room and landed on the handsome face of Alec sitting at our table, the one in the back towards the kitchen door. We could see the whole shop from there and also out the window. We could read our newspaper and people watch. We would walk here almost every Sunday morning for coffee and breakfast. We’d play a game where we would make up stories for the people in the shop and those walking by. It was our thing.

  There were two cups of coffee waiting at the table, and I could only assume that one was my favorite black coffee with caramel creamer. The shop specialized in their own creamers, that took the ordinary cup of coffee to a whole new level. When we separated, this place was one of the things I missed the most, but I couldn’t work up the courage to walk in here on my own.

  His eyes wandered up from the paper he was reading. It had been one of the things that had made me love him so much; with our ever-evolving technological world, he still enjoyed a newspaper that he could hold in his hands. His eyes found me. In typical Alec fashion, he folded the paper and placed it neatly on the table, and he stood from his seat. He greeted me with a wide smile, a side hug, and then pulled out my chair for me.

  When the pleasantries were out of the way, breakfast sandwiches ordered, and I had taken a large gulp from my coffee, curiosity about why we were there got the better of me. “What did you want to see me about, Alec?”

  His smile turned serious. “I just wanted to see you. You look like you’re in such a good place. Alive again. I’ve missed this Addie.”

  “Please don’t.” I stopped him. “It’s taken a lot for me to get here. It hasn’t been easy, and I don't think I can go back there.”

  “I know. It hasn’t been easy for me either,” he countered with a flush of emotions crossing his face.

  “Really. It seemed easy to…” I stopped mid-sentence. I really didn’t want to go back there. I knew seeing Alec again would bring up some of our past. It couldn’t be avoided, our pasts were entangled, but I wasn’t going to relive it in the place where we had so many good memories. “If you asked me to meet you to rehash all our mistakes, then I’ll just go now.” I challenged him to prove me wrong.

  He looked down at his coffee and played with the cup, looking defeated and unsure, which was a new look for him. It softened my heart a little. He had lost and hurt too, and I needed to remember that. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.” My hand reached across the table to squeeze his, and he nodded in acknowledgement.

  Silence followed, and his free hand came up and covered mine, which was still squeezing his. His touch felt good, and despite my screaming mind that was telling me to stop, to back away, my body responded to his simple touch. It was that moment that the waitress showed up with our breakfast sandwiches.

  Our coffee date turned long. We ended up sharing what had happened in each other’s lives over the last year, and when we finally parted mid-afternoon, he asked to see me again, and I accepted. There was a new lightness to my step as I walked home that afternoon.

  Chapter Four

  He had told me to dress casually and in layers. Every piece of clothing that I owned was thrown across the bed before I finally settled on a pair of jeans and a casual pink tank top with a black cardigan. I finished the look off with a light dash of makeup and pink lip gloss, and then I straightened my hair, so it lay flat without any frizzy strands sticking out. Maybe that
was why my other date didn’t turn out so well? I had put more into this evening with Alec than any of my other dates, and I didn’t even really know if this was considered a date or not. What I did know was that there were butterflies in my stomach when I opened the door to find Alec smiling and holding a boutique of my favorite flowers, lilies.

  We made small talk on the way, and it wasn’t until we were pulling into the parking lot that recognition took over. We were going to the park where the outdoor movie was shown each month. It had been one of the things we’d enjoyed doing together. We’d tried to make it a monthly thing to see the movie. We’d bring a bottle of wine, a bag of trail mix to share, and a blanket so we could cuddle up under the stars together.

  Tonight, was no different. Alec was prepared and pulled out all the mandatory movie supplies from the trunk before guiding us towards a blanket that had already been placed on the grass, waiting for us.

  The night was beautiful, and the sky was clear with brightly shining stars. There was a small breeze that fluttered the loose strands of hair around my face, but before I could reach to tuck them behind my ear, Alec’s fingers gently did it for me. His touch was soft and light against my warm skin, and his fingers lingered along my cheek. My breath caught as our eyes connected. We stayed that way for what felt like minutes until the moment was interrupted by the start of the movie. We watched in silence while the movie played, but my body was humming with awareness that Alec was next to me.

  Ice cream and a stroll along the lake ended our evening, and when Alec pulled up in front of the house, I was disappointed that the evening was coming to an end. After so many flops, this had turned out to be a great evening out. A great date.

  ***

  The desk was cluttered with papers from my newest design collection. Six months ago, I took a leap of faith and left the designer I was working for to venture out on my own. Things started slow, but right when I was thinking about crawling and to beg for my job back, an opportunity to participate in the fall designer show came across my lap. It was a chance for my designs to get picked up by a buyer and have my own line of clothing. Before Caleb, my dream was to be a designer and maybe even have my own boutique, but when we adopted Caleb, I put that dream aside to be with the baby. When he died and I had put myself back together, I had gone back to the same designer I had worked for before in order to get my feet back into the business before I ventured out on my own again.