Tristan focused on the image and nodded. “I remember that day. Taylor and my father barely made it in time for the photographer to get the photo. Not that I was much better. My mother had reminded us every day for a week, but her need to have a family picture meant little to us.”
“You were a teenage boy. They never care about things like that. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“Look at her, Nina. She was married to a man who didn’t give a damn about her and actually gave the man she was cheating with a company, even though I don’t think he gave her one present after they were married. Even if he hated Karl, he treated her worse. And my brother and I weren’t much better.”
“Don’t do this to yourself, Tristan. You were a kid. I’m sure your mother understood that.”
He faked a tiny smile and nodded. “Anything else in there?”
Pushing pictures and frames across the bottom of the trunk, I lifted my head and turned toward him. “Not that I can see. I think we should move to some of the boxes and trunks around us.”
“Okay. I’ll check the boxes. Take a look at that trunk near the wall.”
Tristan silently moved toward the floor-to-ceiling stack of boxes nearby still wearing a frown from the news he’d read in his mother’s letters. I could understand. It’s as if he’d lived all his life thinking one thing, and now he had to grapple with the fact that what he’d believed wasn’t true at all.
The image of Tressa Stone’s sad eyes stayed in my mind as I searched through the second trunk. I admired her, even though I’d never met her. Whatever her life had been, she’d stayed for her sons, and to me, that made whatever else she did unimportant. That one son turned out to be a monster wasn’t her fault. The blame for that belonged on her husband, not her. And Tristan was proof that she’d done something right. That thoughtless teenager had grown into a wonderful man. Her influence was obvious, even if he couldn’t see it.
The trunk contained blankets and clothes, but as I pushed my hands through them to see if any papers were hidden there, I realized I was searching through baby things. Holding a newborn onesie up in front of me, I sat amazed at how tiny the little blue outfit was. Had Tristan worn this as a baby?
“You don’t look like you’re doing much searching over there,” he joked from behind me.
Turning around, I displayed the onesie for him. “Was this yours? It’s so cute!”
For the first time in nearly an hour, he looked happy. Reaching over, he took the clothing and held it up to examine it. “No, this must have been Taylor’s. See? His name is sewn into it just under the tag.”
I looked and there was the name Taylor sewn in on a tiny piece of fabric near the collar. “Is that how your mother told your clothes apart?”
Tristan chuckled. “Yeah. And it was more like that’s how the nanny knew whose clothes were whose.”
“A nanny, huh? I want you to know that I don’t plan to have a nanny for our kids. I hope you’re okay with that.”
He threw the onesie back into the trunk and leaned down to place a tiny kiss on the tip of my nose. “Our kids?”
“Yeah. I thought we should have some after we get married. You know, like lots of people often do.”
Twisting a strand of my hair around his finger, he leaned down and kissed me, this time on the lips. Smiling, he said, “Kids it is, but I can’t promise normal.”
I looked up into his face and for a moment thought I saw a trace of fear in his eyes. “No problem. I’ve got perfectly normal and average covered, so our kids will be fine.”
“Do you remember what I said to you that first night in the car?”
I thought back to that night for a moment. “No. What?”
He tucked my hair behind my ear and gave me that look that always made me feel like lava was pooling in my abdomen. “You said you were ordinary, and I told you you’re anything but.”
“Yeah, but you knew nothing about me then.”
“And I still saw it in you. So forget about this average business. You’re anything but, Nina Edwards.”
“Well, Tristan Stone, I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t let you forget.”
I loved seeing him like this. These moments when he was relaxed and playful were so infrequent, but when they happened, they made me realize all over again why I was so crazy about him.
“Did you find anything in those boxes?”
He shook his head and frowned as all the playfulness disappeared. “Not yet. We better get back to it.”
Something in the way his shoulders sagged when he turned back to begin searching the boxes again showed how much this was affecting him. I wanted to take him into my arms and tell him everything was going to be okay, but until we figured out how to stop Karl, nothing was going to be okay.