Picture Perfect Family

“Where they show her pictures for lots and lots of people,” Kaden explained.

Daniel kept his laugh in check. “Galleries?”

“Yep, that’s it,” Kaden said, then turned, obviously anxious to get upstairs. “That’s Aunt Mandy’s dream. My dream is a secret, and Aunt Mandy says that’s okay. I can keep it a secret if I want to.”

Daniel instantly wondered what dream Kaden had, but he didn’t ask. Instead, he answered, “Yes, you can.” With each passing minute, he grew more and more touched by Kaden’s relationship with Mandy. Why wouldn’t she be content to raise this amazing kid? But he’d read that email, and even if it wasn’t how she was feeling today, he believed that deep inside she still felt that Kaden was something of a burden. Daniel was certain that the email hadn’t been a misinterpretation of her feelings. Not entirely, anyway.

“Come on, and I’ll show you our house we made.”

Growing up, Daniel had known that Mia and Mandy lived above the photo shop with their grandparents, but he’d never seen the upstairs portion until now. It was small but neat and filled with antique furniture and an abundance of photos.

Some of the pictures were older, obviously taken by Mandy’s grandfather, the town’s only photographer when Daniel had been younger. But when they entered Kaden’s room, he found that his nephew’s walls were filled with photos that had undoubtedly been taken by Mandy. Pictures of Mia and Jacob snuggling a baby Kaden. Mia kneeling behind Kaden as he learned to walk, his chubby arms reaching out toward Jacob and his excited grin stretching across his little face. Daniel viewed several more photos of the happy family at various stages of Jacob and Mia’s four short years with Kaden, and then one more photo that caused Daniel pause.

Daniel and Jacob stood in the hospital hallway after Kaden’s birth. Beside the nursery door, they draped arms around each other and punched opposite fists in the air as they cheered for the arrival of Jacob and Mia’s beautiful baby boy. There were many pictures of the Brantley twins celebrating. Some were taken in end zones, others at home plate and others at center court. But none meant more to Daniel than this particular event.

He’d been so happy when Jacob had rushed from the delivery room to yell the news. A beautiful, healthy baby boy had joined the Brantley family. Daniel had looked forward to the day when Jacob would celebrate the birth of Daniel’s firstborn in the same manner.

Now that would never happen.

His heart clenched in his chest. He remembered that moment when the photo had been taken like it was yesterday. Before now, he’d thought he only had the memory. He had no idea Mandy had captured it on film.

“That’s you and Daddy,” Kaden said. “You were happy.”

He swallowed. “Yes, we sure were, because you were just born.”

“I know,” Kaden said matter-of-factly. “Aunt Mandy told me.” He pointed to the other side of the room. “There it is. Cool, huh?”

Daniel turned to follow his finger and saw a table covered from one edge to the other with the most elaborate log cabin he’d ever seen. With three full levels, it took up the entire table.

“It’s called a wilderness lodge,” Kaden said. “That’s what Aunt Mandy said. We found it in there.” He pointed to a thick book in a wooden chair nearby.

Daniel picked up the book. “Building Dream Homes with Lincoln Logs,” he read aloud.

“Yep,” Kaden said. “Look, we’ve got a gate over here and a place for our animals, but we haven’t bought animals yet. We were gonna make a barn for the animals, too, but we ran out of room, so Aunt Mandy has gotta get another table. Just a little one, since we’re already using a bunch of space in here and this is where I like to play.”

“I see.” Daniel did see. There was only one wall in Kaden’s room that wasn’t graced with family photos, and that wall instead housed bookshelves that were the width and height of the entire wall.

And the shelves weren’t empty. On the contrary, they were filled with all kinds of books on parenting; raising little boys; building sandcastles; playing baseball; learning to ride a bicycle; how to safely catch and raise frogs, turtles and lizards, and every other subject that might be appealing to a woman trying to raise a four-year-old boy. The bottom two shelves were filled with books for said boy, great bedtime stories. Daniel was thrilled to see that several of those books were Bible stories. David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale, Moses and the Ten Commandments.

“Do you know where we can get the animals for the barn?” Kaden asked. “Aunt Mandy was going to take me to the store today after we went to the park, but then we ran out of gas. Do you know where to buy toy animals?”

“I’m not sure.” Daniel assumed the Tiny Tots Treasure Box was still the place to go for toys on the square, but he wasn’t certain whether Mr. Feazell carried the kind of animals Kaden would want for his wilderness lodge.

“That’s okay. Aunt Mandy will know.”

“Well, if she doesn’t, I’m sure she’ll find out,” he said, still surprised at the amount of effort she was obviously putting into raising Kaden.

A bell echoed through the home, and Kaden took off toward the stairs. “Customers,” he said. “Come on.”

Daniel followed him as he barreled down the stairs, through the kitchen and then through the studio-lined hallway to reach the main store.

“Oh, hey!” Kaden yelled.

“Well, hello,” a woman’s voice said.

Daniel caught up and rounded the corner to see Jessica Martin and her two children in the gallery. Her son stood by her side and her little girl slept sweetly on Jessica’s shoulder with her thumb hanging from her mouth.

“Well, hey, Daniel. I asked Mandy earlier if you were back in town yet. I saw in the church bulletin on Sunday that you took the job as youth minister. Can’t tell you how excited Chad and I were to see that.”

“Thanks. I’m pretty excited myself. Glad to be back home, especially with Kaden here.” He squeezed Kaden’s shoulders.

Jessica glanced around the shop. “So, is Mandy here?”

“No, we ran out of gas, and Uncle Daniel helped us, but now she’s getting the gas in the truck so she can come back here,” Kaden said, visibly trying to sound like the knowledgeable “big boy” in front of Nathan, who nodded as though he were the only one needing an explanation.

“Well, I’m glad you were able to help.” Jessica opened her purse and pulled out a card. “I remembered after we left that I didn’t think to give Mandy my cell number. Since the photos are a surprise for Chad’s birthday, I wanted to drop by and give it to her. Can you pass this on to her?”

“Sure,” Daniel said, taking the card.

“You want to go see my log house?” Kaden asked Nathan. “Aunt Mandy got this book to show us how to make it. It’s called a wilderness lodge, cause if it was real, it’d be in the wilderness. That’s what Aunt Mandy said.”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you to ask, Kaden,” Jessica said. “But I was about to head over to Scraps and Crafts to pick up a few things for the daycare. Maybe I can bring Nathan back sometime when he can play with you awhile, or maybe you could come over to our house and play sometime.”

“Okay,” Kaden said, his disappointment evident.

Jessica looked thoughtful. “You know, I’m going to be busy looking at things for the daycare, but Nathan will probably want to check out some of the toys she keeps at the back of the store. Would you like to come look at those with him?”

“Do you think they have farm animals? I need some for my wilderness lodge,” Kaden said.

“I don’t know, but you could check and see,” Jessica said.

Kaden turned to Daniel. “Can I go? Please?”

Daniel was taken aback at first that Kaden would ask his permission. He wasn’t his parent or guardian. But he wanted to be, very much. And he couldn’t deny that it felt good to have even a semblance of what that role would entail. “I think that’d be fine,” he said.

“Cool!”

“We’ll be back soon,” Jessica said. “Twenty minutes tops.”

“Sounds great,” Daniel said, then caught Kaden’s attention before he headed out the door. “Hey, Kaden, come here a minute.”

Kaden darted back to Daniel with a questioning gaze. “Yes, sir?”

Have mercy, he was a sweet kid. “Here you go, in case you find some animals that will work for your lodge.” He withdrew his wallet and pulled out a five.

“Wow, Uncle Daniel!” Kaden said, grinning. “Thanks!” Then he turned and joined Nathan near the door.

“We won’t be long,” Jessica repeated. “I still have to cook supper.”