leaned closer to Hannah so the girls wouldn’t overhear. “I’m their father. You do plan on allowing me to tell them sometime soon, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course.” Hannah had the sinking feeling the next sixteen and a half years would be much harder than she’d imagined. He’d probably ask for a visitation schedule. She wasn’t ready for any overnight visits to his house and neither were the girls. “I’ve spent almost every day of their lives with them. I know what’s best. Trust me.”
Hannah introduced Noah to all sixteen members of her family—newly enlarged courtesy of her brother Clay’s marriage to Abby.
Once the girls were playing safely out of earshot, Hannah gathered her parents, brother and sister-in law together in the kitchen.
“I have something to tell you,” Hannah began. Her stomach clenched. “Noah isn’t just a friend of mine. He’s Charlotte and Cheyenne’s biological father.”
“Heaven help us.” Hannah’s mother reached for the counter to steady herself. “What does this mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything yet.” Hannah spoke before Noah had a chance to respond. “The girls don’t know and we need to take this day by day.”
Noah excused himself, and for a brief second, Hannah wondered if he was making a break for it. From the outside looking in, she could see how her clan could be a tad intimidating.
“Why didn’t you call me as soon as Noah made contact with you?” Clay demanded. “I need to run him through the system and make sure he’s legit. I assume you’re going to schedule a paternity test. Taking this man at his word isn’t smart or safe.”
Hannah reeled from her brother’s onslaught of questions and demands. It was the downside to having a private investigator in the family. “I’m quite certain he’ll want a paternity test. But I’m positive he’s the father. He was the only person Lauren had been with during that time. As for a background check, I’m fine with it. I don’t think he needs to know, though.”
“Where does he even live?” Clay asked. “And what are his intentions with the twins?”
“I don’t know.” Lauren and Noah hadn’t spent much of their night together talking. And Hannah hadn’t thought to ask during his visit yesterday afternoon. “He met Lauren in College Station and he learned of her death there, too, so I’m assuming he lives somewhere in that vicinity.” It wasn’t next door, but three and a half hours away would allow him to visit on weekends. Maybe after a while she’d even be willing to make up a guest room for him so he could spend more time with his daughters.
Clay rolled his eyes. “My naive little sister, things aren’t always as they appear on the surface. What’s his last name? I’ll have one of my associates begin working on it.”
Hannah hadn’t remembered him mentioning a last name. She groaned inwardly. “I have no idea. I took him at his word.” Maybe she had more of Lauren in her than she thought.
“I’ll handle it. Until we know more about him, you should limit his time with the twins and make sure someone else is there when he’s around.” Clay enveloped her in a hug.
“I know this is hard, kiddo.” Hannah’s father joined them. “We’ll help you through it any way we can. Clay’s right, though. Until we know more about him, you need to keep your distance. At the very least, have one of us there with you.”
They rejoined the rest of the family as Noah reappeared bearing a bouquet for her mother and a couple of bottles of wine for her father. Her parents appreciated the sweet gesture. Something Lauren used to say came to mind: “You can’t fake sincerity.” Hannah had always argued that fact, until yesterday. Noah seemed genuinely enamored with his daughters, which was what Lauren had always hoped for. She had always vowed to find him one day.
By the end of dinner, Clay had grilled Noah more than a steak on a barbecue. His last name was Knight...as in shining armor. Lauren would have howled at that. And his first name was William. But there had been so many Williams in his kindergarten class he’d asked the teacher to use his middle name instead. He went by Noah from then on. That explained why Clay hadn’t been able to locate a pilot named Noah when Lauren asked him to find the father of her unborn babies. His job as a helicopter-logging pilot sounded as cool as it did dangerous.
“Aren’t you concerned with deforestation?” Hannah’s father, Gage, asked.
“Heli-logging actually works in harmony with the environment. Instead of scarring the hillside by dragging the logs out or building new roads to transport them, I’m able to lift a telephone pole–sized log straight up.”
“So you’re not creating huge sections of missing trees?” Abby asked.
“No, we’re not clear-cutting,” Noah continued. “We’re also eliminating the soil erosion that can arise from traditional logging.” Noah reached across the table for the salt and pepper shakers and placed them in front of his plate. “Heli-logging thins the forest and opens it up by creating wide spaces between the trees.” He moved the shakers apart from one another to demonstrate. “You’re always hearing about forest fire devastation. A fire will whip through a thinned forest and rarely burn a tree because it remains on the ground. When a forest hasn’t been managed—” he moved the shakers closer together “—there are felled trees and overgrowth providing fuel that concentrates and intensifies the heat on the ground.” He placed his silverware and napkin around and between the shakers. “The fire doesn’t have a chance to flash through as it does in a managed forest. It’s never a matter of if there will be a forest fire, it’s when. Heli-logging helps control the burn before it begins. That’s just one aspect of the job.”
“I never knew any of that existed.” Fern offered him more sweet potatoes. “Your life definitely sounds interesting.”
Charlotte and Cheyenne had insisted on sitting next to him at the table and Hannah wondered if they instinctively knew he was their father.
What had surprised Hannah most was that he lived two thousand miles away in Oregon. She and the girls definitely wouldn’t be seeing him as much as she’d anticipated. That unsettled her. A weekly visitation schedule would be better for the girls. How could they bond with him if they were together only a few times a year?
“Noah,” her father said. “I don’t know what your plans are for the rest of the evening, but we have a tradition of cutting down a live Christmas tree and decorating it on Thanksgiving. We’d love to have you join us, since you’re the expert logger.”
Noah laughed. “I’d be honored, sir. But my team does most of the cutting on the ground. I’m more of a removal man. Hopefully you don’t choose a tree large enough for me to bring in one of my Chinook helicopters.”
Hannah hadn’t expected to enjoy decorating the tree when the men returned. She’d made up her mind earlier that she would duck out just after they left on their tree expedition. It was too painful without her best friend there. Her family’s high spirits kept the mood elevated even though everyone felt Lauren’s absence. The girls had fallen asleep shortly after they’d brought the boxes of decorations down from the attic. Thankfully, her mother had kept their cribs after Lauren left for Boston. They’d return to their old routine of staying with Nanny during the day once Hannah went back to work at the rodeo school. Her job had graciously given her time off while she settled the house and the girls’ routine.
“These
