This time, he made his way to the couch and very skillfully let himself down on the cushion. Obviously it wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with crutches. She was sure that if he hadn’t been on pain meds, he would have tried to have gotten them himself without her assistance.

“Can I get you anything?”

Christian pulled his leg up onto the couch and adjusted it to rest on a pillow. “I could really use another pain pill and a piece of toast.”

Darcy nodded and turned toward the kitchen.

“By the way,” Christian called out, and she turned back to him. “The pills are behind the peanut butter.”

Darcy smiled. “How do you know that?”

He laughed. “I know her too well. She’s my mom, after all.”

She shook her head and walked into the kitchen to make him up some toast. As she reached into the cupboard for the pills, a pang of regret filled her chest. She missed her mother.

She’d been so angry about finding out she was adopted and then about her mother getting sick—she’d forgotten to appreciate her for a long time.

The first tear broke loose.

If her mother were still alive to take care of her had she been hurt, she’d have sat in that chair next to her the entire night. There’d have been a little light on in the corner and a never-empty glass of water next to her on a table.

The flood gate opened and she sobbed.

Had she been a good enough daughter that when her mother died she felt as though she’d done a good job? She hadn’t been a troublesome kid. Darcy was a good student and well-liked, but was she as kind to her parents as the Kellers were to theirs?

And now, how did she honor her? She was in Tennessee digging around as if her mother had taken away her life by not telling her she was adopted. Perhaps there was a reason behind that.

Darcy covered her mouth and tried to stifle the sobs, but it was no use.

“Darcy, are you okay?”

She’d never been a quiet crier. She sucked in a breath. “Yes. I’ll be out in a sec.”

Darcy hurried and made him a slice of toast, filled a glass with water, and poured out a pain pill—making sure to put the bottle back behind the peanut butter.

When she walked back into the room, Christian was sitting up on the couch, but in the shadows of the lamp, he looked so much like Ed her heart ached a little more.

“Were you crying?” Christian asked as she handed him the piece of toast and his pill.

“I was having a moment. I’m sorry.”

She handed him the glass of water, and he swallowed his pill and looked up at her as she took the glass and set it on the table.

“Why are you sorry? What’s wrong?”

Darcy tried to shake it away, but there were still more tears to fall.

“Oh, come here.” Christian pulled her down beside him and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “What’s going on?”

“I’m just missing my mama.” She wiped at her cheeks. “You said you knew your mom well enough to know where she hid the pills, and it made me miss my mom.”

Christian smoothed his hand over her hair. “Your mom—is she…”

“She died of cancer last year.”

“Oh.” He let out a long sigh. “I’m so sorry. My mom had cancer.”

“Ed told me.”

“Did she suffer long?”

Darcy shook her head. “She went within a year. And if she was suffering, you’d never have known. She occupied herself with my well-being.”

Christian chuckled. “She sounds like my mom. She went through a double mastectomy without telling a soul.”

Darcy turned and looked at him. “She was alone?”

He shrugged. “You’ve met this family. Do you think they’d let her get away with that?”

Darcy shook her head.

“She and my dad were divorced back then, and my step-dad had left her. We didn’t know that then. But she thought she could go through that alone, and no one would worry about her.”

“She needed people. That’s a major surgery.”

“Uncle Curtis saw her being wheeled into surgery and called my dad. He was by her side every moment.”

“Was she grateful? Or was she mad?”

“Both, but in the end it bonded our family back together. They’re happier now than they ever were.”

Christian wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her next to him.

“It’s okay to miss her.”

“I know. I just hope I was the daughter she’d always wanted.”

“I can’t imagine you let her down.”

Darcy let out a sigh. “I was angry when she got sick, but not just because she was sick.” She bit down on her lip. It was okay to talk about it, she decided. “The year before they had told me I was adopted.”

“You’re adopted?”

“Yes, and I felt like my whole life was a sham. That was something I should have known from the start.”

“Would it have made a difference?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I was so upset that I was angry with her while she was dying. Then I left and came here to find my roots.” Now she’d said too much.

Christian pulled her closer. “You came to Tennessee to find your birth parents?”

He was quick, and she wasn’t sure she wanted that at two-thirty in the morning. “It was a thought.”

“I’m laid up. Maybe I can help.”

She patted his chest and sat up. “Thanks. I’m rethinking it now. I should honor the parents I had, not try to find new ones. Besides, if I’m honest with myself, they gave me away because they didn’t want a baby. So why would they want an adult?”

Saying that aloud nearly made it impossible to think she’d even wanted to find them. But had she not made her journey, she’d never have met Ed Keller. She missed him terribly at the moment.

Darcy scooted off the couch and looked down at Christian, whose eyes were growing heavy.

“I’m going back to bed. Yell again if you need me.”

“I will.”

She turned to walk away.

“Darcy,” he called after her, and she turned back to him. “Some of the very best people I know are adopted, and they don’t know their birth parents. It doesn’t make them any less important to this family.”