Beach Baby. Joan Kilby

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      “Hold it there, Amy, so I can take a photo of you and Beebee to show my parents. Beebee looks a lot like my mother, your grandmother. Her name is Dora. She had red hair, too, which turned auburn as she got older.”

      “I never had grandparents that I remember,” Amy said. “Both Mom’s and Dad’s—I mean Elaine’s and Jim’s parents passed away when I was very young.” Amy adjusted Beebee’s sunhat so her face was visible then crouched beside the stroller so Nina could take their photo. “That’s why I came out west, to find my real family.”

      No sooner did she say that than she felt guilty. Despite her anger toward her mom and dad, she loved them and knew they were good parents. But what hurt her so badly—besides the lies—was that they couldn’t understand her curiosity about her biological parents. They seemed to think she was only doing it to get back at them. Nina’s silence as she lowered her camera and checked the photo she’d just taken made Amy feel ashamed. Would she get on her case the way Reid had?

      “I’m glad you came to look for me,” Nina said at last. “I’ve wondered about you over the years. What you looked like, your personality, if you were happy.”

      “We look similar, don’t we?” Amy said shyly, searching Nina’s face and finding no disapproval, only a near mirror-image of herself. “Like mother and daughter. We have the same heart-shaped face, the same dark blue eyes.”

      “For me it’s like looking in a mirror and seeing myself twenty years younger.” Nina held out a slender manicured hand adorned with an opal ring set in gold. “We even have the same fingers. See how narrow they taper and how the index finger bends in slightly?”

      Amy nodded, stretching a tanned arm tinkling with silver bangles next to Nina’s. Her skin was softer, smoother, but other than that they could almost have been twins. It was as though she’d found the piece of herself that had been missing all these years. Maybe. It was too soon to take anything for granted.

      “I want to take you to meet your grandparents,” Nina said. “They’re dying to get to know you and Beebee.”

      “I’d love that. Tell me about them,” Amy begged. “I want to know everything.”

      As they walked along the dike, Nina related details of her family history, about growing up in the small house in Vancouver’s east side, about her father almost losing his hand in an industrial accident, her mother’s gentle humor and her father’s pride. Amy listened eagerly, asking questions as rapidly as Nina could answer them. Their constraint vanished as their conversation wove a pattern of half-finished sentences and intuitive leaps of understanding punctuated by frequent bursts of laughter.

      The only thing they didn’t talk about was Amy’s birth. Nina seemed to shy away from the subject every time she came close. And she wouldn’t say anything more about her early relationship with Reid either. The burning issue in Amy’s mind was why Nina and Reid had given her up for adoption. The question was on the tip of her tongue more than once, but she was afraid her hurt and resentment would come out in her voice. Afraid that the truth might ruin the growing connection between her and Nina. And yet, wasn’t that the main reason she’d traveled four thousand miles across the country? To find out the truth?

      “Let’s see, what else can I tell you?” Nina said. “We’re all very healthy, with no hereditary diseases in the family. You’re lucky that way. You have good genes on both sides.” She paused and asked cautiously, “Have you met Reid’s parents?”

      “Reginald and Serena came out for dinner last Sunday. They’re very reserved and formal and they positively dripped money. They were nice to me and they fussed over Beebee but it didn’t occur to me they were her great grandparents.” Amy’s voice held a wobble. “Reid didn’t say a word about my relationship to them. I still can’t believe he lied to me. He was always so supportive, always encouraged me to follow my dreams. I trusted him.”

      “He loves you,” Nina said, stepping aside so a gray-haired woman could power-walk past. “He’s proved that beyond a doubt.”

      Amy brushed her hair out of her eyes and slowed to turn her gaze on Nina. “Does love justify the lies?”

      “He made a promise to the Hockings,” Nina said. “He thought he was doing the right thing.”

      “I don’t understand why you’re defending him,” Amy said. “I’ve been here over a week. He knew from the first day that I was looking for my biological mother yet he didn’t tell me who you were. Why?”

      Nina shook her head. “I can’t answer that. Maybe he thought I would give him away. Have you tried talking this out with Reid?”

      “I’m too angry to talk to him,” Amy said. “He went straight to work after breakfast and hasn’t come out of his office all morning.”

      A jogger ran by in a burst of pounding feet and spraying gravel. When he’d passed, Nina changed the subject. “What about Beebee’s father?” she said. “What does he think about you coming out here?”

      Head down, Amy shrugged unhappily. “I didn’t tell Ian I was leaving, much less where I was going.”

      “Why not?” Nina asked. “What happened to make you run away from him?”

      “We fought over his job at the meat-packing plant,” Amy said, avoiding Nina’s gaze. “We’re both vegetarians.”

      “Don’t you think he has a right to know where his daughter is?” Nina asked, gently, and Amy felt a hot burst of shame. “Is there another reason you left?” Nina added. “You can tell me. If you want to talk about it.”

      Amy hesitated; she’d been longing to confide in someone. Her mom and dad didn’t understand and she couldn’t talk to Reid. “Elaine and Jim want us to get married and Ian agrees,” she blurted out. “I just don’t know if I love him enough to settle down with him.”

      “I see,” Nina said. “Does he love you?”

      “He says he does,” Amy said. “But we’re so young. I’ve seen the statistics on teenage marriages.”

      “You have a child,” Nina said. “You could try to make it work for Beebee’s sake.”

      “That’s what Jim and Elaine say.” Amy lifted her hands off the stroller’s handles in frustration. “But Ian’s never actually proposed. I’ve never accepted. The decision to be together was forced on us when Beebee arrived,” Amy said, then added hastily, “not that I regret having her.”

      “I know what you mean. It’s complicated,” Nina agreed. “I’m not sure I’m qualified to give advice. All I know is, you need to be very certain about the choices you make now because they’ll affect you, Beebee and Ian for the rest of your life.”

      “That’s what worries me,” Amy said, feeling the familiar weight of uncertainty over the future pressing on her. “Right now I need some time out. I need to feel I can make it on my own if I have to. I need to find out who I am before I can become someone’s wife.”

      They came to a halt at the end of the dike. The trail sloped off in several directions through the grassy wetland. A park with barbecues, swings and a baseball diamond lay on the far side, next to a parking lot. To their left, a large gray bird wading through the shallows flapped away, its long legs trailing behind.

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