“But she said he’s okay?”

“Yes.” She swallowed hard. “He’s in his seventies and diabetic. Ed, what if he shouldn’t be by himself? What if my mom being gone and my leaving set him into some kind of downward spiral?”

“You said he was a doctor, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then wouldn’t he know if something was wrong?”

Darcy knew that her father would never neglect his health or let his diabetes get out of control.

“You’re right.” She tucked the phone back in her purse and looked around. “I need to get on the next flight to Kentucky.”

“I’ll help you get that situated.”

Ed had been more than gracious to sit with her and wait until her flight had been called. He’d even paid for her ticket, which she’d wished he hadn’t done.

She had, however, talked him into only buying a one-way ticket. Perhaps now that she knew her way around town, she could convince her father to let her use her mother’s old car, and she could drive it back. She’d feel better if she had her own transportation.

As she flew out of Nashville, Darcy leaned her head against the seat and thought of the things Ed had told her about his aunt. She couldn’t imagine a woman loving a man who was that hateful. What had Regan seen in someone like that, she wondered?

But wasn’t it funny how things always worked out? Even her own father had been married before he married her mother. Oh, it had been a short-lived marriage to a woman, a nurse, who was also in the Army. She’d never asked him about her. Maybe now she would.

It gave her a moment of concern though. If her father had once remarried—and even Ed’s parents had once divorced and remarried, and then remarried each other—was Ed the man for her? Or was he a stepping stone in her life?

Oh, she certainly didn’t want to think like that. Was it possible to love the first man you truly knew in your heart was the right one? What if she’d made a mistake and missed the transitional person? What if she’d bypassed the right path when she bumped into him in Starbucks.

A bead of sweat trickled down her back.

You could make your own destiny, right? Isn’t that what her mother always told her?

And then, as if her mother had touched her shoulder, Darcy understood that very saying.

In a moment of uncertainty, Darcy had hired that investigator to help her find herself. He’d led her to Tennessee, where in fact she had found herself.

Ed Keller wasn’t just something that happened along. It was part of the destiny that Darcy was supposed to have. She was supposed to be part of the Keller family, and she was supposed to meet the man of her dreams while she was covered in a coffee drink.

When the plane touched down in Kentucky, she’d be able to actually tell her father that she had everything she’d ever wanted and that she was happy. That’s all he’d ever wanted for her.

The pain in her heart, from learning she was adopted and from her mother passing, was easing. Ed Keller would never treat her the way that man treated Regan. He hadn’t even made a move to have sex with her. This was the kind of gentleman her father would approve of.

It was all going to be okay. This new life she’d made in Nashville was the life she was meant to have.

When the plane landed in Ashland, Darcy collected her things and headed off the plane. It was a funny feeling, flying back. Usually when she’d walk through the airport, there was a feeling of coming home, but that wasn’t the case this time. Could Nashville have become her home so quickly?

When she collected her bags, she climbed into the taxi and told him to take her to King’s Daughters Medical Center. Oh, her father was going to be livid.

And he proved that he was the moment she walked into his room.

“You shouldn’t be here. Oh, that sister of mine can’t keep her big mouth shut, can she?”

Darcy set her suitcase on the floor and walked to the bed where her father sat. His head was bandaged and he had an IV in his arm, but other than that, he looked perfectly fine.

“It’s nice to see you too, Daddy.”

The smile he’d tried to keep hidden under the frown he’d worked up snuck through. “You spend all your savings just to come home and make sure my head was still attached? Just a few stitches, that’s all.”

“Then why did they keep you overnight?”

His brows narrowed. “Blood sugar.”

Darcy nodded. That was what she figured. “Did they say when you could go home?”

“When someone came to get me. But what about Carol? She was coming for me.”

“I presume she’s on her way. I happened to be at the airport when I heard you were here. I jumped on another flight, and here I am.”

Her father growled. “What did your boss think about that?”

“He bought my ticket.”

“Sounds like a nice man.”

“That he is.” She tapped her fingertips against her thigh and moved closer to her father’s bed. “Maybe we should call for a nurse so we can take you home.”

Darcy was a bit surprised when she walked through the front door of the house she’d grown up in. There were no more pictures on the walls, and the hallway was lined with cardboard boxes.

“Daddy, what’s going on in here?” she asked as he walked ahead of her and into the kitchen.

“I’m moving.”

“Were you going to discuss this with me?”

“Darcy, you left me. Remember? You moved on with your life, and don’t you suppose I should be able to do the same?”

“Sure. I just thought maybe you’d mention it first.”

Her father took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. He then took the bottle of pills they’d given him from his pocket, opened them, and swallowed one back.

“Your mother is gone. This is no more my home any more than that hospital bed was.”

Darcy ran her hand over a stack of papers on the kitchen table. “What are you going to do?”

“Aunt Carol says the community where she lives is a nice place.” He shrugged and set the glass in the sink. “She’s the only family I have left, besides you. I should spend the rest of my time with my family, don’t you think?”

She was sure guilt could eat you up and kill you quickly.

“I could move home,” she said, but her voice wavered.