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She didn’t say anything for several moments. Just as I decided she wasn’t going to answer me at all, the door creaked open, and Nan’s fingers wrapped around the edge.

One wide eye looked out at me through the tiny opening.“You don’t understand, dear. That other woman—your true grandmother—she must hate me for what I did.”

“You didn’t do anything,” I insisted, trying and failing to pull the door open wider. “My grandfather was the one who took Mom away. He forced your hand.”

“And I chose to keep you both hidden, even when she came looking all those years later.” She let out a shaky breath and cast her eyes to the floor. “If I were her, I’d hate me.”

“Don’t talk like that. Mom and I have both had great lives, thanks in large part to you.” I smiled wide, meaning each word with everything I had. “Plus, doesn’t time heal all wounds?”

She shook her head slowly on the other side of the door. I could just barely discern the motion.“Live long enough, and you’ll learn that’s not true,” she muttered eerily.

“But Nan,” I whined, not knowing what else I could say to make this better. I’d waited for months after finding out I had a secret grandmother—months for any clues to turn up and even more for the seagulls to locate her. I couldn’t justnot meet her. But I also hated to see Nan hurting like this.

“Please don’t ask me again,” she whispered. “You know I have a hard time saying no to you.”

“But I can’t do this on my own,” I insisted, not trying to burden her but rather to show how important she was to me—to this.

We both sighed.

“Then take Charles with you, or your mother for that matter,” Nan said before pressing the door shut between us.

The sound of overgrown claws scrabbled across the hardwood floor, then stopped.

“Mommy,” a small voice rose from beside me.

I glanced down to find Paisley staring up at me with a slowly wagging tail.

“I’ll go with you,” she volunteered before tucking her tail over her privates and dipping her head. “But I don’t think you should ask Nan again. She doesn’t like it.”

I sighed. Leave it to a dog to be more perceptive than me.“You’re right.” I bent down to scoop Paisley into my arms.

She immediately began to lick my face and make happy high-pitched noises.“I love you, Mommy.”

“I love you, too.”

Technically, Paisley was Nan’s dog, but that didn’t stop her from calling meMommy. It worked, considering everyone in town called my grandmother Nan, even those who weren’t related. Also, I was the only human who could understand her, and Paisley loved shouting the maternal moniker whenever she got a chance.

Her first family had abandoned her to the animal shelter, so I think she needed the added reassurance that when she called out for her family, someone answered back in kind.

I carried Paisley with me as I headed back downstairs. Nan clearly needed some time to herself to process everything, but I needed someone to talk it over with.

Mom was out of the question. Yes, it washer birth mother I was planning to go meet, but I wanted to make sure our missing family member was receptive to us before involving Mom. It would be a much bigger blow to her—should this other woman reject us—than it would be to me. Although that would be a sting I’d have a hard time recovering from as well. Still, I loved my mom, and I wanted to protect her if I could.

Yes, my missing grandmother had tried to approach Nan years ago, but who was to say that time hadn’t hardened her heart to us?

There were so many unknowns in this situation, and no one I could turn to for advice, either. Because nobody else had gone through a situation like this before—at least not anyone I knew. And the last thing I wanted to do was entrust such a doozy of a family drama to strangers on an Internet message board or social media site.

I didn’t want to bother Charles at work, especially since he’d just taken the long weekend off and this was his first day back at the office. I decided to shoot him a quick text:Call me when you get a break at work. No rush.

Much to my surprise, my phone began ringing almost immediately after I hit send.

“What’s up?” Charles asked when I picked up the call.

“Oh, hey. I didn’t mean that you needed to call right away,” I chided him. “You need to focus on your work. At least that’s what you’re always telling me.”

He chuckled at my attempt to scold him. I normally never gave him guff like this, but I’d also been hoping for some more time to sort my thoughts out for myself before attempting to share them with him.

“Yeah, but it will be good to have a quick break before switching client files,” he said. “Long day ahead. Probably a long night, too.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized without knowing why.

“Nothing to be sorry for. This is what I signed up for when I became a lawyer. And you know I love it. Also, I love you…” He paused dramatically, and I could just picture the big goofy grin that accompanied this silence.“Fianc?e.”

A tiny thrill rushed through me.“I love you, too,fianc?.”