“It’s okay,” she said, setting her fork down. “My sister’s a lot older than me. She was nineteen when I was born.”
“That’s a pretty big age gap.”
It did make sense—when I met Nora’s parents at the college gymnastics meets she and my sister had competed at together, they had seemed quite a bit older than my own parents. Probably in their late sixties.
“Did Lucy never tell you that Ky and I are adopted?” she asked gently.
I frowned, searching my memory. “I don’t think so.”
Which surprised me since I’d always thought Nora looked so much like her mom. Same curls. Same freckles dusted across her nose. And Ky had his dad’s build and sharp jawline.
“My parents were actually my grandparents originally,” she explained, seeming to read the confusion on my face. “My sister is my biological mother. Her name is Becca.”
“Ohhh.” I nodded, the pieces starting to make sense.
“Becca got pregnant with Ky when she was fourteen,” she said. “She and Ky lived at home the first few years of his life, but after high school, she took Ky with her to Georgia to move in with a guy she met online.”
“That’s quite a ways from home,” I said, surprised, since moving away from family with such a young child would have been out of the question for me. “Don’t your parents live in Massachusetts or something?”
“They live in Amherst.” She nodded. “So yeah, it was a bigmove. My parents didn’t see Ky or Becca for a few years after that. They didn’t even know I existed until I was two.”
“That’s pretty young to be on your own with two kids,” I said. “I had a hard enough time suddenly taking care of one kid when I was twenty-eight.”
“She wasn’t exactly the best-equipped parent,” Nora said, swallowing and looking down at her plate. “Hence the reason why she lost her parental rights.”
“That makes sense,” I said, feeling bad for making the comparison, since of course the scenarios were different. “Sorry.”
She chuckled. “Don’t be.”
“Did she hurt you or Ky?” I asked, worried. “Is that why she lost her rights?”
Then, glancing at Charlotte briefly, I wondered if this was the kind of conversation we should be having in front of her.
People didn’t just lose their parental rights for nothing.
“I don’t remember a ton from that time,” Nora said. “Like I said, I was only two when we were adopted. Ky was seven so he remembers more. But…” She glanced at Charlotte then, as if trying to find a kid-friendly way to explain her story. “I guess you could say she got lost in her demons…” She put a hand to the side of her mouth to keep Charlotte from seeing her lips as she mouthed what looked like the worddrugs. “And CPS had to get involved after a neighbor reported that Ky and I were being left alone for days.”
“Oh man,” I said, shaking my head. “I-I had no idea.”
“Not many people do.” She shrugged. “Anyway, once my parents got contacted by CPS, they took us in and adopted us as soon as they could. Ky and I called them “Mom” and “Dad” since the beginning, so most people just assume they had us later in life—especially because we look enough like them. It’snot usually worth going into the details of how our parents were originally our grandma and grandpa.”
“Is Becca still part of your life at all?” I asked.
“Not anymore.” She swallowed and poked at a green bean on her plate. “She came in and out of our lives a few times before I was in high school. But we haven’t had contact with her since then.”
From her expression, I assumed there was probably more to that story, but since she wasn’t offering details on why they had no contact, I decided not to push her.
I took a sip of water, then set my glass down.
“So,” I said, deciding to shift us toward the conversation I’d originally planned to have over dinner. “I know we briefly texted about the nanny job earlier this afternoon, but I hope you know that if I’d realized you were at all interested in staying on more permanently, I would’ve been happy to talk about it sooner.” I paused, searching her face momentarily. “That is, if you’re still interested in the official nanny job and Charlotte didn’t scare you off with any tantrums this afternoon.”
She laughed at my attempt at a joke, a cute smile lifting the corner of her lips. “I’m still interested.”
“It’s a long-term position, just so you know,” I said more seriously. “Ideally, whoever I hire will stay until Charlotte starts kindergarten. So at least two more years.” I hesitated, not wanting to scare her off. “It’s important to me that she has stability.”
Charlotte had already enough tragedy in her little lifetime. If I could give her some semblance of normalcy and routine, it would be amazing.
“Totally understandable,” Nora said, glancing at Charlotte and giving her a small smile like she somehow knew exactly what I’d been thinking. She cleared her throat. “I want to stayin Eden Falls. And my minor was in early childhood development, so…” She tilted her head and lifted a shoulder. “This job would actually be a pretty good fit for that. And honestly, I’ve been thinking about getting my master’s degree anyway since I’ve been realizing it would probably help on the job front. So this might actually be a good time to do both.”