Chasing Charli - Kat Mizera Page 0,81

and heartache.

“Have you never made a mistake?” Miikka asked Denita, speaking up for the first time. “You are perfect?”

She met his gaze but didn’t respond.

“I am not a virgin either,” Miikka continued, his voice low but steady, filled with the quiet passion that was part of who he was. “I have slept with many women I didn’t love. Does this make me bad? Unworthy of love now that I found Char-lot?”

“It’s about more than sex,” Denita said after a moment. “It’s about self-respect and the fact that she gave away her child.”

“I wouldn’t have given him away if you’d let me stay home,” Charli said. “I had no choice but to give him away!”

“I couldn’t have more babies!” Denita cried out, her eyes filling with tears. “And then you just got yourself pregnant and gave it away like it was nothing, when we could have taken it and raised it!” She burst into tears and Charli stared at her.

What was she talking about?

“Denita, we kicked her out of the house,” Norman said, a frown of confusion on his face. “What else could she do?”

“But I told your father she could come home, that we’d raise the baby, and he said she refused.”

“What?” Charli was really confused now. “What do you mean? I never said any such thing. I didn’t even know you’d spoken to Grandpa. He told me you wanted nothing to do with me.”

Mother and daughter stared at each other.

“I reached out when you were about eight months pregnant,” Denita said, wiping the tears that had dripped down her face. “I told him we’d take the baby, and you, and we would raise it for you.”

“He never told me that.” Charli blinked away a fresh set of tears. “I didn’t want to give him up, but Grandpa didn’t want me at the house once the baby came, and I had nowhere to go.”

“Oh, Charlotte.” Denita and Charli both burst into tears.

Miikka was both relieved and saddened by the turn of events. Char-lot and her mother cried and hugged and sniffled through a lot of conversation but they were finally communicating without fighting. Miikka and Norman were quiet, though they exchanged glances now and then, as if understanding that the women needed to work this out together.

“I just have one question,” Charli asked her mother after half an hour of crying and talking. “Why did you lie to me about talking to Roy?”

Her mother looked startled. “I… How did you find that out?”

“He’s been stalking me here at the hospital, demanding I tell him where our son is.”

Denita lowered her gaze. “You and I weren’t talking much and I wondered if you knew where the baby was, how he was… I told Roy I didn’t know but maybe he could find out since he was the father. And then maybe I could see my grandson too. I’m sorry. I never thought you’d come here or run into him.”

“Denita…” Norman looked shocked as well.

Since Char-lot didn’t say anything about Dylan and their trip to St. Louis, he didn’t either. It would probably take a long time for her to trust her mother again after everything that had happened, and he thought it was smart not to tell her about Dylan.

“I’ve made a mess of everything. Again.” Denita sank into a chair and covered her face with her hands. “I’m a terrible mother!”

“I think you’re human,” Miikka told her. “Just as Char-lot is. You make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. The idea is to move forward and do better, and not make the same mistakes again.”

“You’re a good man, Miikka.” Norman nodded at him. “I’m glad you love our Charlotte.”

“Me too.” Miikka reached out to hug Charli.

They left a little while later because it was late and Norman was tired. They were going to a hotel tonight and promised to meet her parents back at the hospital tomorrow, when Norman would hopefully get released.

“How long do you want to stay?” Miikka asked her when they were in bed that night.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m emotionally drained. Mostly I want to go home, to our house and our bed and our friends. I want to finish the kitchen and maybe refinish the hardwood floors. I want to make love with you, like, five times a day, every day, until everything that’s happened in the last month is just a memory.”

“We can do this,” Miikka said softly, trailing his fingers along the curve of her face.

“Don’t you want to go back to Finland?” she