When they entered the courtroom, Judge Bartlett looked flushed. It was an unusually warm Indian-summer day, and Wendell, too, was feeling stifled and uncomfortable in his suit. It was déjà vu, all the players back in their places. Julia and Pippa were there, along with Candace and Geoffrey Banks. Jamie Aldeen sat between the girls, only this time, it was Wendell’s hearing. He did not have a lawyer. He had Roberta.
“Good afternoon,” Judge Bartlett said finally. He rolled his sleeves up and clasped his hands, as he had that first hearing. Wendell found himself mimicking this, willing his hands to stop shaking. A bead of sweat ran down his shoulder blades.
“This application has been a challenging one,” the judge began. “I have been assigned not one but two children, who have lost both parents, and who have only one surviving family member to care for them.
“Add to that, the older child petitioned the court for emancipation because she did not feel it was in her or her sister’s best interests to reside with their appointed guardian.” He wiped his brow. “Now we have an application for guardianship.” He looked at Wendell, who nodded. “Who is not family, and does not have a family of his own, but who claims he possesses a family bond with said children.”
As Wendell listened, he had to remind himself that the judge was describing him. And to his ears, told as such, it did not sound like a promising situation. He took a deep breath, pushing the thought away.
“It has always been the position of the court,” the judge continued, “to keep families together when possible but, ultimately, to rule in favor of what is in the best interests of the child. In this case, children.
“Traditionally, blood relatives were given preference. It did not matter where they lived, how far the children might be forced to travel to relocate, or, often, how the children themselves felt about the relatives awarded custody of them. Family was family, and if it existed and could be located, that was where the children went.
“These days, however, the definition of family has changed. The state still recognizes the significance of biological family. That said, we also recognize the preferences and needs of the children. Attempts are therefore made to keep children in what I like to think of as the least restrictive environment. In other words, to keep their lives as normal and familiar as possible. In this case, Mr. Wendell Combs’s application for guardianship, we have a man who resides in the same town as the children. Who can keep them intheir same school district and maintain their existing bonds with friends and neighbors and community ties. This is also a man who has known the family for most of the children’s lives, a man whom they clearly feel comfortable and safe with, and a man who has expressed a sound desire to care for them until they are of adult age.” Here, Judge Bartlett addressed Wendell. “Am I correct in those statements, Mr. Combs?”
“Yes, Your Honor. I stand by all of those statements.”
“Very good. There are, however, challenges. You are a single man, which the court does not hold against you, but it does place added burden in that you do not have a partner or spouse with whom you can share parenting responsibilities.”
Wendell nodded, but his will began to sag. All of his years of staying away and staying alone might not be to his detriment alone.
“You have no children of your own, and I don’t think I need to tell you, Mr. Combs, that parenting is the toughest job you’ll ever love. As a parent of four, I cannot imagine doing it alone, or starting out as a brand-new parent, not of a baby but of a teenager and an elementary-aged child.” The judge held up a piece of paper. “Plenty was reported about you from the guardian ad litem. But I have only one question. What have you learned about parenting during this process?”
Wendell had answered this question before: during interviews with the guardian ad litem, with DCF, with Bertie, when she tried to help him prepare for this moment. But now he found himself speechless. “It will be a challenge,” he managed finally.
“Is there anything else?”
Wendell cleared his throat. “What I can tell you is that when I served my country in the National Guard, which is its own sort of institutional family, I learned basic principles to survive. The first was teamwork. I can only do so much as one. But as a team, I have members who count on me, as I do them, and who make mestronger as a result. When I returned from Afghanistan, I rejected that notion. I had lost loved ones, and I didn’t want to feel that pain again. So I cut myself off from the rest of the world. And as I was doing so, I came to meet the Lancasters.
“They wouldn’t let me cut myself off. Sure, they respected my privacy, but over time, Alan and Anne invited me in. And their girls—Julia and Pippa—well, they just wouldn’t take no for an answer. They would follow me through fields when I worked, or call on me to help when the horse bucked them off. No matter what I did, they were always hanging around, asking questions, telling me stories, testing my patience. Somewhere along the way, they got under my skin. They grew on me. When Julia asked me to be their guardian, I thought it was crazy. I thought I was better off alone and they were better off without me.
“But now, after all I’ve been through with them, I don’t want to be alone. I like the commotion and the chaos they bring. I like the quiet moments when Pippa grows heavy against my chest right before she nods off. Even the angry moments when Julia cries foul because she disagrees with a decision I’ve made. It’s raw and real. And hard. And now that I’ve had that experience, I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without it.”
Judge Bartlett listened to all of this, his face expressionless and still. Finally, he pushed his chair away from his desk, but he did not get up.
“I think I’ve heard all I need to. I will recess for fifteen minutes and deliver my decision.”
As the courtroom emptied, Wendell remained seated. He wasn’t sure whether he’d said the right thing or not, but he’d told the truth. He was not seeking guardianship of the girls out of honor or a sense of duty. He needed them.
Thirty-EightGinny
Six Months Later
Wendell Combs was always a private man, but she suspected he had very little privacy these days. He was also a traditional man who did not like change. But he had no hope of avoiding that any longer, either.
Wendell Combs had moved out of his family’s farmhouse on Weller’s Road for the first time since the day he came home from the hospital as a newborn in his mother’s arms. Ginny never thought that she would see it, and she was pretty sure if you had asked him, Wendell would have said the same. But Wendell had grown up and grown out in ways she also could not have imagined, and in doing so, he had finally outgrown his childhood home.
When Wendell brought Julia and Pippa home that fall, it was not happily ever after. First there was the before, and then came the after. At first Wendell was granted temporary guardianship of the Lancaster girls while their aunt sorted out the affairs of the estate. There were many to attend to, most notably the presence of a certain turtle in the wetlands.
When the development for White Pines eventually fell apart,the deal did, too. Scooter Dunham did not walk away from the deal; he ran. The main house was swiftly removed from the Feldman Agency’s representation and listed with another broker in town. But the market had slowed with the arrival of fall and then winter, and eventually, Candace pulled it altogether.
Ginny’s parents had been disappointed by the loss of the White Pines listing, but they also understood it was the right thing to do. “Your mother and I have been thinking of retiring for a long time now,” her father tried to reassure her. “Maybe this is a sign.”
Nina did not argue, though Ginny couldn’t help but feel she’d let them down. “You drummed up some good business for us this summer,” her mother insisted. “You reinvigorated the agency, even if we don’t stay open.”
But Ginny had another idea. “What if I stay on?” she asked.
“In Saybrook? Or with the agency?”
