Janice Johnson - A Mother's Claim

“No. You know that isn’t true. I just wanted a little time for Christian—Gabriel—to become more comfortable with me.”

“A piece of advice.” His temper was in hand, but he didn’t feel as friendly as he had a few minutes ago. “You might want to decide what name you’re going to call him before you show up in person again.”

Except, he thought with a jolt of surprise, throughout the conversation she had been calling her son Christian. Had she even noticed?

“I’ll discuss that with him,” she said with dignity. “Goodbye, Mr. Gregor.”

He said goodbye as formally, shaking his head. Forget Gabriel versus Christian. The whole plan wouldn’t make it off the launchpad if the two of them couldn’t bring themselves to use first names.

Instead of going right back to work, Nolan stayed where he was for a minute, half sitting on his desk. Man, he felt a boatload of emotions that weren’t what you’d call harmonious. The anger, he understood. The relief that she wasn’t taking the legal route. The trepidation about telling Christian and the fear of losing him, Nolan got all that, too. The whisper of anticipation...now, that was an unwelcome surprise.

CHAPTER FIVE

AGAINST HER PARENTS’ OPPOSITION, Dana decided to drive.

“A lot of empty country,” her father said. “I don’t like the idea of you breaking down out there.”

Glad he couldn’t see her rolling her eyes, she retorted, “It makes no sense to sell a two-year-old car I’m really happy with. I’d lose bucko bucks replacing it with a new one.”

The surprise came when she called Nolan and Christian to let them know she was on her way.

“You’re driving?” Nolan said, not hiding disapproval. “Alone?”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“About what?” He sounded clueless.

“You sound like my father.”

“You won’t be on interstates most of the way. Just two-lane highways through some of the most unpopulated country in the lower forty-eight, and then there are the mountain passes.”

She explained again that she had a four-wheel-drive Subaru with barely twenty thousand miles on it and plenty of experience driving in snow. Which she was unlikely to need at the tail end of April. “You’re being sexist.”

“As a woman, you’re more vulnerable if you have to depend on help from a random passing motorist.”

“This isn’t open to discussion. I’m leaving in the morning.”

He wanted to know her route and grudgingly approved it. Like her father, he also extracted a promise that she would call each evening and at any time she ran into difficulties.

It would be nice to think his deep concern was personal, but she suspected he tended to be protective and controlling. Christian had bragged enough that Dana now knew Nolan had been in a specialized military unit. Yet he had given up that career because he believed his sister and nephew needed him.

Believed? They had needed him. After the death of Nolan’s parents, she could only be grateful Gabriel hadn’t been consigned to the foster-care system or left to live with a mentally ill woman. One Dana hated with every fiber of her being, a fact she would do her best to hide if and when Gabe said anything about Marlee besides a furious “I have a mother!”

She didn’t tell anyone how much she was looking forward to the several-day drive. Alone, driving through spectacular mountain country, she could let go of the stress she’d lived with since that miraculous, life-changing phone call. The amount she’d had to accomplish these past few weeks, working full-time and spending her evenings and weekends going through everything she owned, packing and cleaning, had left her drained.

Never mind the emotional swings, exacerbated by having to say goodbye to coworkers, friends, her parents and her brother. She’d see her family again, at least, but not as often.

All that vast and, yes, empty country proved soothing. North into Wyoming, then west from Cheyenne, the names she saw on road signs and markers spoke of the Oregon Trail and cattle ranching in the Old West. Past Medicine Bow, she crossed the famously muddy Platte River. She stopped for lunch in Lookout, Wyoming, just so she could say she had. Especially since she was headed to Lookout, Oregon. There was a certain resonance.

And every night, after checking into a hotel, she dutifully called first home, then Nolan and Christian. She kind of got the feeling Christian envied her the trip. He occasionally went so far as to ask a question or two.

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