Finding Home (18 page)

Tag turned to face him then, crossing
his arms over his chest.  “It is hard to hear her talk about them. 
She looks so much like our mother.  I know you’ve seen pictures but wait
until you see her in person.”

“You should know, she didn’t want to
find all of you at first.  I started looking into her adoption records
without her consent and when she found out…well, it wasn’t pretty.  Her
parents had told her that her mother gave her up for adoption.  She was
insistent that she didn’t want to know the sad story behind her
conception.  She was furious with me and left me for a few weeks over
it.  Once we discovered what really happened and she looked into the Baby
Christine Foundation, she was on board with our efforts.  She wanted your
family to have closure.”

“What did she want for herself?”

“For you not to think she wanted
anything from you…and monetarily, she doesn’t need anything from any of you,”
Colt informed him.  “As you can see, I’m more than capable of taking care
of her.”

Tag glanced around at the cabin then
back at him.  “Yeah, I see…but how is that?  You were a Ranger. 
Money isn’t this good.”

Colt shrugged.  “I was
single.  Lived frugally and socked away as much as I could.  And I’ve
been out long enough that I’ve done well in private contracting.”

“And your parents are big brass at
the Pentagon,” Tag said, letting Colt know that he’d checked into him.

“They are…and my late brother-in-law
was a broker.  Bottom line, I am well able to provide for Sarah.”

Tag nodded.  “Good to
know.  My dad will ask.   Does she understand that when this
hits, she’s going to be in the public eye?  Our foundation is well-known
in media circles.  All of us, my parents, my sister and I have been on
several news shows over the years.”

“She knows.  That’s why I
brought her here.  Sort of the calm before the storm.  She will be
OK, but it is going to be hard on her.  Those people were terrified of
being caught and having her taken away from them.  She did nothing to be
in the public eye.  Her job, that she’s had since she was sixteen, keeps
her at a desk and away from the public.  She’s not used to being around a
lot of people.  I think she’ll handle it just fine while doing it, but the
lead-up will be hard on her.”

“But you think she can handle it?”

“I think we’ll all be surprised at
what she can handle, including herself.”

Sarah woke when she felt a dip in the
mattress.  Colt was sitting beside her, his hand on her shoulder. 
She looked up at him, momentarily confused, then remembered that her brother
was downstairs.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“A while.  Baby, the Bainbridges
will be here in about thirty minutes.”

She drew in a deep, ragged
breath.  “OK.”

“I can tell Tag to have them wait
until tomorrow.”

“No, that’s all right.  I’d
rather get it all over with today.  How is Tag?”

“He’s all right.  He’s feeling a
bit numb and overwhelmed…probably like you.  Do you need anything, baby?”

“I could really use a hug right now,”
she said, sliding her arms around his neck.

He folded his arms around her and
held her tight.  She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feel of being in
his arms, of being this close to him.  He was her calm in the storm during
all of this.  Yes, he had begun this whole investigation, but now that
everything was turning upside down, he was there to keep her feet on the
ground.

“You wanna take a few minutes to freshen
up?”

She nodded, pulling back from
him.  “Just give me ten minutes and I’ll be back down.”

“’K.  I love you, Sarah,” he
said, cupping her face and kissing her before leaving.

She watched him go then got up and
brushed her hair and fixed her make-up as best she could.  Thankfully,
she’d planned ahead and put very little eye make-up on with no mascara because
she knew today was going to be full of tears.  Satisfied that she was as
together as she was going to get, she went back downstairs to join Colt and
Tag.

Colt greeted her at the foot of the
stairs with a kiss, then led her to a barstool in the kitchen, seating her next
to Tag and placing half a sandwich in front of her.  She looked down at
the plate then up at him, brow raised.

“Eat.  No arguments,” he told
her, making her smile.

“I’m not one of your men to order
around, you know,” she said, teasing him.

He winked at her.  “I was never
one giving orders, so that argument doesn’t fly.  Next?”

“Maybe I’m not hungry.”

“It’s been six hours since you last ate,”
he countered.

Her smile faded then.  “Six
hours?”  She turned to face Tag, “I’m so sorry.  I didn’t realize I’d
slept that long.”

Tag offered her a smile.  “It’s
OK.  I fell asleep, too.  How do you feel?”

“Honestly?  Like a steam roller
ran over me.”

He chuckled.  “I know the
feeling.”

“So, tell me about Vivian. 
She’s married and has kids?”

“She married her college boyfriend,
Heath Carlton.  He helps me on the investigations side of the Foundation
and also helps out at the ranch, more than I do, actually, which is a little
bit of a sore spot with our dad.  They have three boys, ages nine, seven
and four.  They’re little monsters sometimes but for the most part they’re
good kids.  Viv and Mom run the Foundation.  They head up all the
fundraising, run the offices.  They are both huge multi-taskers.  I’m
usually in awe of all they can get accomplished.  Sometimes I think the
top brass in the military could take lessons from them.”

Sarah’s eyes widened and she looked
away from Tag to Colt.  He could almost read her thoughts, her eyes were
so expressive.  She was feeling intimidated by what Tag said about her
mother and older sister.  He winked at her and took her hand to raise it
to his lips.

“You’ll be fine, babe,” he told her.

Tag looked from her to Colt back to
her again. 

“Hey, don’t let what I said bother
you.  What drives them is in you, too, in your blood.  Doesn’t matter
how you were raised.  You’re stronger than you think you are, I promise
you.”

She shook her head.  “I don’t
know about that, Tag.  I’d never been out of Texas until Colt brought me
here.  Accepting a date with Colt has been the first out-of-the-box thing
I’ve ever done in my life.  I’ve only had one job in my life and I’ve been
there since I was sixteen.”

“So what?” Tag said, turning to face
her fully.  “You aren’t your job.  And the point is, you did step
outside of that box to take a chance with Colt.  Looks to me like that’s
working well for you.  Things are changing in your life, and all for the
better.  You’ve been alone all these years and now look at you: you’ve got
a good guy, a pretty awesome big brother, if I do say so myself, a big sister
who has made you an instant aunt, and two parents who never for one moment gave
up hope that they would one day find you.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. 
Colt came around the bar to stand beside her, kissing her cheek.  Sarah
stood and went to her brother, embracing him.

“Thank you, Tag,” she whispered.

“Don’t be afraid of them, kid,” he
told her against her ear.  “They’re your family.”

She nodded, taking a deep breath and
stepping back from him when Colt’s phone rang.

“Yeah?” Colt answered.  “Ten
minutes.  Got it.  Thanks.”

“Ten minutes out?” she asked.

“Yes.  So, take a couple of
bites of your sandwich so you aren’t going in completely on empty.”

She really didn’t want to, but she
picked it up and took a bite just to make him happy.  Colt leaned down and
kissed her shoulder, picked up her sandwich and held it up for her to take
another bite.  Sarah laughed.  She really couldn’t help it.  No
one had done something like that to her in a long, long time.

Colt looked over at Tag, saw him
smiling and winked at him.

“She’s got a great laugh, doesn’t
she?”

Tag nodded, “I’d have to agree. 
It’s the best sound in the world.”

Sarah took another bite then shook
her head.  “Don’t you two start up again.  I just got done
crying.  I don’t want to cry again for another ten minutes at least!”

“I’d rather you didn’t cry at all,”
Colt said, “but I’ll back off.  For now,” he told her.

“Thank you, baby,” she said, and as a
reward, took another bite of her sandwich.

They all looked over toward the front
door when headlights flashed into the house.  Sarah felt her pulse quicken
and hurried to swallow what was in her mouth before she tossed it all. 

“I’ll go out and greet them, give you
a chance to catch your breath a minute,” Tag told her, leaning down to brush a
chaste kiss to her brow.  “Relax.  It’s almost over,” he said.

Sarah nodded at him and offered him a
smile as he walked away.  When he was outside, she turned and wrapped her
arms around Colt’s waist, resting her head on his chest, needing that
connection to him.

“Look at me,” he demanded
softly.  She tilted her head up and met his gaze.  “You’re about to
make those people very happy.  Not many people have their prayers answered
the way they have.  I know you’re nervous but you have no need to
be.  Just the fact that you are alive is all they need, you get me?”

“Yes,” she replied.

He cupped her face in his hands and
tenderly kissed away the tears on her cheeks before giving her a brief, but
passionate kiss. 

“I love you,” he whispered just as
the front door opened.  He wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks with
his thumbs, kissed her forehead, then stepped back and laced his fingers with
hers to lead her out of the kitchen and into the foyer.

Sarah’s heart was pounding.  If
she’d had any doubts at all that she really belonged to this family, they were
erased when she saw her birth mother, Charlotte Bainbridge and her sister,
Vivian Bainbridge-Carlton.  With Vivian, the resemblance was enough that
there was no doubt they were sisters.  With Charlotte, however, Sarah was
looking at an older, mirror image of herself.

“Oh, my God!” Charlotte cried. 
“Buck!”

Sarah’s father, Buck Bainbridge, put
his arm around his wife’s shoulders, kissing the side of her head, tears bright
in his eyes.  Tag stepped forward then, holding one hand out to Sarah and
the other to his mother.

“Mom, this is Sarah.  Sarah,
this is our mother, Charlotte Bainbridge.”  With that, he gently tugged
each woman’s hand so that they had to take a step closer, then placed Sarah’s
hand gently into their mother’s hand.  Charlotte’s hand tightened on
Sarah’s and she stepped closer, placing her hand on Sarah’s cheek.

“My sweet baby girl,” she
whispered.  “I never thought this day would come.  I only had three
months to hold you, but I’ve missed you every day.  I love you so much!”

She pulled Sarah into her arms and
each one clung to the other as they cried.  Sarah’s heart ached for this
woman who had lost her baby but she was immensely grateful that Colt had
stepped forward with her and kept his hand on the small of her back.  He
knew she needed that connection to help her get through this.  She was
feeling a bit odd at the moment.  She knew she’d found her family…but her
heart was longing for her mother, Linda Sauter or whatever her name was.  Even
though it was wrong for the Sauters to keep her, they were still the only
family she’d ever known until now.

Charlotte pulled back and cupped
Sarah’s face in her hands, her eyes roaming Sarah’s face, as if memorizing
every detail.

“You’re so beautiful,” Charlotte
said.

“Thank you,” Sarah murmured, her hand
reaching back and finding Colt’s solid one.

“I just can’t stop crying,” Charlotte
said, trying to smile through her tears.  “I am not normally a crier, I
promise.  I just…I can’t believe I’m finally seeing you and you’re so
beautiful and you’re happy, and…” her voice broke and she once again pulled
Sarah into her embrace.

“Now, Charlotte,” Buck spoke up, his
voice deep and just a little gravelly.  Sarah decided she liked it
immediately.  “Give the girl a chance to catch her breath.  You’re
smothering her.”

Charlotte laughed. “I know.  I’m
so sorry, darling,” she said to Sarah after she released her.  “Vivian,
where is my handkerchief?” she asked her other daughter.

Sarah squeezed Colt’s hand so tight
her knuckles were white when Buck stepped up and placed his hand on her
cheek.  He was a big man, slightly taller than Tag, though still shorter
than Colt.  His hair was still thick, a dark rust color and showing signs
of greying at the temples. 

“We’ve missed you, little one,” he
told her.  “You don’t know how happy we were when Tag called and said
you’d been found, and that you were safe.”

“I can imagine,” Sarah told him,
“when I learned who y’all were, I looked up all I could on the Baby Christine
Foundation.  I know what you went through and how you used what happened
to you to help others.  I just wanted you to know, I am really, really
proud of all of you for how you’ve helped so many other families to find their
children.”

Buck pulled her into a quick, firm
bear hug, then stepped back, scrubbing his hand over his eyes.

“I don’t want to wrinkle you too
much,” he said with a wink.

Sarah laughed through her own
tears.  “That’s OK.  I don’t mind.”

Vivian stepped up to her then,
pulling her immediately into a quick hug.  “I finally have my baby sister
back to save me from all the testosterone I’m constantly surrounded by!”

Buck’s gaze settled on Colt, taking
in Sarah’s hand still linked to his, then settling on his face.

“And you are?” Buck asked.

Colt extended his other hand, “Colton
Harris.”

“Colt is Sarah’s boyfriend,” Tag
said, though a bit needlessly.

“I understand you are the one who got
the ball rolling on the investigation into Sarah’s birth family,” Buck said.

“Yes, sir.  Her…adopted parents,
for lack of a better phrase, passed away when she was eighteen and they had no
connections with any other family.  I thought she should know her birth
mother, at least.  Had no idea when I started looking that we would
uncover what we did.”

“We’re so glad you did,” Charlotte
said.

“Please, everyone, come in, sit
down,” Colt offered, gesturing toward the living room.

Tag led everyone in and Colt held
Sarah back, stroking a hand over her hair.

“You OK?” he asked.

“Overwhelmed,” she replied. 
“But all right.  They seem nice.”

He nodded.  “Yes, they do. 
You let me know if this gets to be too much, OK?  I’ll make our excuses
and get you away from them.”

“I’ll be all right, but thank you.”

He led her into the living room and
placed her in the recliner, then turned his attention to playing host, getting
drink orders.  Tag joined him, giving Sarah time with the others.

“How’s she doing?” Tag asked him when
they were in the kitchen.

“She’s hanging in,” Colt
replied. 

“She looks like a deer in
headlights,” Tag observed.

“A little,” Colt agreed. 
“She’ll power through it, though, just like before.”