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Micah and I ot an apartment of our own I didn’t date because I didn’t trust anyone aroundfor a sitter e needed that s, like rent, day care, and food It didn’t keep o out with them Janell, the owner of the salon where I worked, said that the et It just made them more persistent

The truth was, I was lonely sometimes, but then Micah would smile and I’d see his father in him and I’d remember that for ten years of my life I’d had someone A very special so o from my mother to tell me about my father’s heart attack, I hadn’t knohat to feel He had never met Micah, and now he never would My mother had used Dad’s life insurance money to iven her house to Micah andher back on her only grandchild But the fact that she had given the house to usI only hoped one day she would realize what she waset a job in Sea Breeze working at one of theer Our life would be better in Sea Breeze Micah would get to grow up in the small coastal town that I loved

My only fear, and the one reason I al Micah Once I’d realized thatmy son, I sent a letter to Tabby Falco, Dustin’s mother

She never replied

The first year of Micah’s life I wrote them countless letters and included pictures of him He looked so much like his father I wanted them to see that Dustin wasn’t completely lost to us He had left a part of himself behind

Not once did she respond

A few times I’d almost worked up the nerve to call the to my letters, then they didn’t want to talk to me They didn’t want Micah It had hurt even worse thanhim I had hated the Falcos for their desertion But then I’d learned to let go Move on Be happy with my life With my beautiful little boy

"Momma? Where are we?" a sleepy little voice asked from the backseat of my twelve-year-old Honda Civic

"We’re ho into the driveway of the house that had once been ain

"Our new house?" he asked with exciteled in his seat to see better

"Yep, baby Our new house Ready to go inside and see it?" I asked hi out It was a two-door, so I had to lean my seat forward to reach him in the backseat He unbuckled himself, then scrambled out of his seat and jumped out of the car

"Do other people live in there too?" he asked, staring up at the two-bedroom wood-frame house ide eyes

"Just us, kiddo You’ll have your own bedrooht across the hall fro with amazement Even e had lived with my aunt Cathy, Micah and I had shared a room Once we’d moved into an apartment, a studio was all I could afford with day care costs This house was only twelve hundred square feet, but it was the biggest living space he and I had ever had all to ourselves The studio aparto see your new rooht need to paint it Not sure what color the walls are," I told him The last time I’d been in my old bedrooirls and wanted nothing to do with it

From my purse I pulled out the key thatwith the letter and the deed to the house I took a deep breath before unlocking the door Stepping back, I rin spread across his face as he took off running into the house, whooping as he saw the size of the living room Then he turned and headed down the short hallway I paused at the door, unable to ignore the house across the street any longer, and turned around to look at it I didn’t recognize the truck in the driveway, but then again, it had been six years I was sure the Falcos were still there Mother hadn’t mentioned that they’d moved

I wondered if they would speak to Micah when he played in the yard Or would they ignore him like they had since his birth? I wouldn’t tell him who they were I hadn’t told him about my parents He didn’t know this had once been randparents In preschool he had been asked to tell the class about his grandparents, and when he’d told them about Aunt Cathy, he had called her Aunt Cathy The kids in his class had teased hirandparent He’d corandparents were

I had just told him he didn’t have any

When he’d asked about his father, I had explained that God had wanted his father because he was such an awesoht him to heaven to live there with hih for Micah He hadn’t asked any e that his mother loved him unconditionally and that ere a family It had been hard for hie families, but once he’d understood that each family was different, he was okay with that

"Momma! Momma!" Micah called out in excitement "There’s a blue rooot toys in it already!"

Toys? I closed the front door behindinto the bedroom that had once been mine, I stopped and looked around ht, happy blue It had a full-size bed and awooden dresser There was a blue quilt on the bed with orange basketballs all over it, and in the center sat a basketball-shaped pillow A toy box under the as open, with pirate swords, a baseball bat and glove, a large red fire truck, and what looked like a big bag of Legos sticking out of it An indoor basketball hoop sat in the opposite corner, with a ball lying on the floor beside it