Not that Justin would be old enough, but he had that sort of face that was slightly weathered now from working outside in the sun, and people had a hard time telling how old he was.
Del…well, Del was somewhat of a celebrity.
Harper went around the house to the other side and glanced at Del’s studio building he’d had built some years into his YouTube career. The light above the door was red, but the door was slightly ajar. She sneaked up to it and listened.
“That’s it for today, folks! I’m going to take this quiche to the family, because Miss Harper turns eighteen today. Can you believe it? You won’t see this video until about a week after her birthday, but I’m sure she’d like some birthday wishes in the comments anyway. As always, I’ll see you in the next video, buh-bye!”
Harper grinned as she listened to Dad turn off the cameras. The “buh-bye” had been Wy’s signature thing back in the day. Wy hadn’t spoken much in the first couple of years, but the buh-bye had been his biggest contribution to Dad’s channel.
Wyatt had his Halloween cooking video with Dad every year now, and that had turned to something Wy ran and Dad acted as his sous chef. Dad’s fans loved those videos, and they’d been asking when Wyatt would start making more videos of his own.
They didn’t know Wy like the family, though. He was happy to take part in Dad’s videos when asked, but it wasn’t for him, fame and publicity. Wyatt was too shy for that sort of thing.
Harper’s phone pinged.
You still want the email? I can hold on to the photos until later. Happy Birthday, btw.
Aunt Abigail had told her a while back that soon after she’d gotten to know Justin and the kids, she’d done some sleuthing. She’d realized, when they were ready to move, that Justin wasn’t going to go looking for anything from the old house and that it would mean the kids wouldn’t have physical memories of their mom.
So Aunt Abigail had gone online and scoured social media for any accounts their mom might’ve had, and she’d found some photos. She’d saved them for safekeeping, and she’d asked Justin what he wanted her to do with them.
He’d told her to hold on to them and ask the kids what they wanted once she felt they were old enough, or once they turned eighteen. There was a lot of trauma there, after all, in the face of the woman who had given birth to them all.
Yeah. I’ll call Anita before I open them anyway. Thanks, Auntie.
Harper felt ready, or at least as ready as she would ever be. She couldn’t remember her mom’s face anymore, but she wanted to. The bad things she could remember were faded enough now too that she felt like she could replace them with something better to remember her by.
“Hey, birthday girl,” Dad said as he stepped out of the studio.
Holding the quiche in one hand, he wrapped her into a warm hug and held on for a long time.
She didn’t mind. Dad was safety and kindness personified, and she and her siblings loved him with everything they got.
“Morning, Dad.” Then, because it was a running family joke, she asked theatrically “What’s in the quiche?” in a “what’s in the box” way.
“You’ll see soon enough. Did you go through the kitchen?”
“Nope, I think Wy is frying bacon though, it smelled awesome in the house.”
Half a dozen dogs in various sizes suddenly dashed around the corner toward them.
“Everyone stay!” Lettie yelled at them from the direction they were coming from.
It was comical how all six immediately skidded to a stop and sat down.
“She’s really getting the hang of it,” Dad said thoughtfully. “She’ll rehome them pretty easily soon.”
Harper nodded. “And then it’s the next batch of dogs, yeah.”
Where Harper herself was someone who learned by reading and was academically gifted, her siblings were smart, yet definitely the type who learned by doing. Lettie had some issues with dyslexia and she was on the Autism spectrum, but she connected with animals in a way nobody had expected.
Ever since she was ten, she’d been taking in shelter dogs, training them, and then rehoming them to family friends first, then the horse owners and lately, strangers through her own website. There was always one dog that followed the pawsteps of their first family dog and would never be rehomed, but helping the other dogs was clearly her calling, and everyone respected that.
Lettie followed the dogs and caught up with Dad and Harper in the middle of the side yard.