Ridge took a step closer to his door, still in disbelief. He swore that these things only happened in movies, not in real life. But it was happening to him.
An arm wrapped around her favorite pink teddy bear and her giraffe teether wedged in her mouth was his sweet baby girl, Delilah. She rested in the carrier Ridge had splurged on without a care in the world. And when their eyes met, she squealed in delight.
Ridge knelt in front of his daughter and sighed when he noticed the envelope pressed between Delilah’s leg and the carrier.
“Come on, little one. Let’s get you inside.”
Ridge lifted the carrier, noting that there was no diaper bag left behind. He guessed he would have to make a trip to the store now; he could only hope that Delilah had been fed recently.
He quickly unhooked his daughter from the belts strapping her to the carrier and lifted her into his arms.
“Hey, baby girl. I missed you,” Ridge cooed as he rubbed his nose across her soft cheek, savoring the way she giggled at his touch.
As he settled her on his hip, Ridge reached down for the envelope with his name scrawled across the front in Penny’s writing.
It didn’t take him long to read the note. Penny had left with her latest fling and didn’t want the burden of Delilah any longer. She wasn’t a fit mother, she noted toward the end and attached signed documents giving up her maternal rights.
He was astonished and almost lost his grip on Delilah as he read through the short note one last time.
Penny had been so excited to find out she was pregnant, explaining to him that she wouldn’t spend her nights alone. But five months before their daughter graced the world, Penny had served him with divorce papers. He didn’t fight it sine he knew that he wasn’t giving Penny all of his time and attention and wouldn’t be able to do the same for his daughter.
But now, he was given no choice just as his required leave was about to end.
Delilah chose that moment to reach for the papers in his hand. Looking down at the daughter in his arms, he didn’t have time to wonder about Penny’s motives, though he was worried about the way she worded the letter. He was used to her typically girly lettering, but the note seemed hurried and rushed.
Reaching into his back pocket, Ridge did the only thing he could think of; he dialed the first number on his speed dial.
“Chief? I need your help.”
***
River blinked back the tears as she watched her neighbor load the last box into the car. Her grandmother had lived in this tiny house outside of Asheville, North Carolina since she was a little girl. It was also where River had grown up after her hippie parents left her on the doorstep.
The breeze knocked the For Sale sign back and forth and River sighed deeply at the notion that she and her grandmother were really leaving. Not that they were given much choice. An equity loan had been taken out on the home when River started college, though she hadn’t been aware of it at the time, but when she graduated and moved in to help her grandmother, the unpaid bills didn’t go unnoticed. It didn’t help that her grandmother was slowly losing her way. Spouts of dementia and a stroke over the summer had left her grandmother worse for wear. River did the best that she could, but she was failing miserably.
And for the first time in her life, she asked for help.
Being self-sufficient and independent was something that River prided herself in, but she knew when she had reached her limit.
But an angel had been looking down on her and her grandmother when she was at her wit's end and knee-deep in fear and chaos. In the early morning, a phone call the same day she had planned to quit her job at a private school changed her outcome. An assisted living facility in Carson had an opening for her grandmother. The facility was located in the valley of the mountains not far from where they lived. It was about an hour's drive from Asheville, so they didn’t have to travel far, but it still left them having to sell the home her grandmother cherished.
Looking over her shoulder toward the porch where her grandmother sat in a rocking chair, River found herself wishing that things were different, but there was no turning back. She couldn’t fix the fact that her grandmother was forgetting more and more every day and that River was stretched to her limit.
“Everything is ready, Ms. Matthews,” her neighbor called out as he closed the tailgate to the utility truck.
“Thank you, Hank,” River said to the older man that had been like a grandfather figure to her after her own passed away when she was six. She tried to fight the tears that had been threatening to fall through the afternoon, but she knew it was a lost cause when the first one crested her lower lid.
“Now, don’t go doing that,” he admonished, his voice turning gravelly as he fought against his own emotions.
“I’m sorry. I’m going to miss you. I’m going to miss this house and everyone in this neighborhood.”
The giant of a man wrapped his arms around her shoulders and River found herself settling against him. He was massive against her small frame, but he felt like a warm marshmallow.
“We’ll be thinking of you and your grandma. Make sure to keep in touch, okay?”
“I will, Hank. And I’ll be sure to get you Grandma’s information once she’s settled.”
“You do that. Now get on your way,” he urged as he stepped back and opened the passenger door. She watched him walk up to the porch toward Grandma Sue and gently guide her toward the truck.