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Part 2: The Man at Table Six
Jake stared at his wife. He couldn’t speak.
Our parents had walked back over. Our mother heard the last part. She went pale.
Megan said, quietly, His name is Daniel Price. He’s sixty-one. He lives two hours from here.
She said, I found him three months ago. Through a DNA site. I’ve been talking to him ever since.
She said, Tonight was supposed to be the surprise. He was going to stay. Meet you at dinner. In front of everyone.
She said, He got scared. He left ten minutes before you all walked in.
Jake said, You’ve been talking to my birth father for three months? Without telling me?
Megan said, I wanted it to be perfect. You’ve wanted this for ten years.
Jake turned and walked out of the restaurant.
Megan followed him.
I stood in the doorway holding two receipts. My mother stood beside me. Her hands were shaking.
She said, quietly, Did you know about this?
I said, No, Mom.
She didn’t say anything else. My father put his arm around her. They walked to their car.
I called Jake that night. He didn’t answer.
I called Megan. She answered on the first ring.
She was crying. She said Jake was sleeping in the guest room.
I asked her about the bill. Why she made me pay.
She was quiet for a long time.
Then she said, We’re broke. Jake got laid off in March. He hasn’t told your parents.
She said, I wanted tonight to be special. I wanted it to be the night he finally met his father. I couldn’t afford it.
She said, I thought if I asked you, you’d say no. So I didn’t ask. I just slid it over.
She said, I’m so sorry.
I kept my voice calm.
Megan, I said, you could have told me. I would have helped.
She said, I know. I’m ashamed.
Then she said, There’s something else. Daniel gave me a letter for Jake. Before he left tonight.
He said, If I’m too scared to stay, give him this.
Part 3: Ten Years
I didn’t sleep that night. I sat at my kitchen table and let myself count.
Thirty-six years since Jake came home.
I was three. I remember my mother carrying him through the front door. Wrapped in a yellow blanket.
Mom and Dad adopted him at two days old. They tried for a baby for five years after I was born. Then they chose Jake.
They told him he was adopted when he was six. He asked a hundred questions. They answered every one.
Ten years ago, he started searching for his birth parents.
His birth mother passed away when he was twelve. He found her obituary.
His birth father was never named on the paperwork.
I counted the DNA tests Jake took. Three. Three different companies.
I counted the times he called me after a dead end. Seven. He always said the same thing. Maybe I’m not supposed to know.
Then I counted the last three months.
Jake laid off in March. Hiding it from our parents. Hiding it from me.
Megan finding his father. Hiding it from Jake.
Two secrets in one marriage. Both of them trying to protect each other.
Then I counted the dinner.
Six hundred ninety-two dollars. Megan’s bill and Daniel’s bill together.
Daniel’s part was seventy-four dollars. One steak. One glass of water. One untouched slice of chocolate cake.
The waitress told me he ordered dessert and never ate it. He just sat there looking at the door.
In the morning, my phone rang. It was Jake.
He said, Can you come over? Megan gave me the letter.
He said, I need you here when I open it.
When I got to his house, there was a car I didn’t recognize in the driveway.
And my mother was standing on the porch.
Part 4: My Mother
My mother was standing outside Jake’s front door. She hadn’t knocked yet.
She turned around when she heard me.
Her eyes were red. She’d been crying all night.
She said, quietly, Your father doesn’t know I’m here.
She said she had to talk to Jake. Before he read anything.
Then she started talking. Fast. Upset.
She said, That woman went behind his back. Behind all our backs. She found a stranger and planned a whole dinner.
She said, We raised him. We sat up with him every night when he had croup. We paid for college. We were there for every single thing.
She said, Now some man shows up after thirty-six years. And he gets a special dinner?
She said, If Jake meets him, I’ll lose my son. I know it.
Then she said the thing she’d come to say.
Tell Jake to throw that letter away. Please. He’ll listen to you. He always has.
I felt that one land. It was meant to.
Because I knew how scared she was. I’d never seen my mother this scared.
I took a slow breath.
Mom, I said quietly, you’re not going to lose him.
She shook her head.
You told him he was adopted when he was six, I said. You answered every question he ever asked. You drove him to the courthouse to look at records when he was nineteen.
You’ve always told him he could know where he came from.
My mother’s face crumpled.
I’m not going to tell him to throw it away, I said gently. But I’ll be right there when he opens it. So will you, if you want.
My mother stood on the porch, crying.
Then the front door opened.
Jake stood there. He was holding the letter. Unopened.
He looked at our mother.
He said, quietly, Mom. I’m not going to open it without you.
Then he looked past us. At the car in the driveway.
Megan was standing beside it. With a gray-haired man. Sixty. Same eyes. Same smile.
He was holding a small box. Shaking.
Daniel.
Part 5: Dessert
Nobody moved for a long time.
Then Daniel walked slowly up the path. He stopped at the bottom of the porch steps.
He didn’t look at Jake first. He looked at my mother.
He said, quietly, You must be his mom.
My mother didn’t say anything.
Daniel said, I was nineteen when he was born. His mother and I weren’t together. She didn’t tell me until after she’d signed the papers.
He said, I found out a month later. I tried to find him. The agency wouldn’t tell me anything.
He said, I’m not here to take your son. I just wanted to see him. Once.
Then he held out the small box to my mother. Not to Jake.
He said, This is for you.
My mother opened it with shaking hands.
Inside was a small silver locket. Old. Tarnished.
Daniel said, It was his birth mother’s. She left it with the agency. For his adoptive mother.
The agency sent it to me by mistake twenty years ago. I’ve been holding it.
He said, She wanted the woman who raised him to have it.
My mother opened the locket. Inside was a tiny engraving.
Thank you.
My mother put her hand over her mouth and sobbed.
Jake walked down the porch steps. He put his arms around her.
Then he looked at Daniel. He held out his hand.
Daniel shook it. Neither of them let go for a long time.
We went inside. All of us. Megan made coffee. Jake opened the letter.
I won’t tell you what it said. That belongs to my brother.
I’ll just tell you that he read it twice. Then he looked at our mother. And he said, I’m so lucky.
I’ve got two dads. And the best mom in the world.
Megan paid me back the six hundred ninety-two dollars over three months. I tried to say no. She insisted.
Jake found a new job in the fall. He told our parents about the layoff. They weren’t upset. They were just sad he’d carried it alone.
Daniel comes to Sunday dinner once a month now. He sits next to my father. They talk about fishing.
My mother wears the locket every day.
Last Sunday, Megan invited everyone out to dinner again. Same restaurant.
When the check came, Daniel reached for it.
My father reached for it too.
Jake took it from both of them. He grinned.
He said, My treat. Really this time.
Then he ordered one more dessert. Chocolate cake.
He slid it across the table to Daniel.
He said, You never got to eat yours.
