The Secret.

Home coming.

It had been 3 days since Matt had talked to Nicole last, he was anxious for her arrival, to take his mind off it he had made some accommodations to his tire shack for Nicole, he added some furniture and a bathroom, everything was set, all he needed was her.
The day she would arrive finally came, Bam had offered to take Matt into Hoonah on the skiff. It was a chilly morning, the water was icy cold and very still. The ten mile trip to Hoonah felt like forever, Matt couldn't wait to see Nicole and meet her daughter. He wasn't sure how old she was, or even what her name was, but he knew he'd love her like his own.
Bam killed the motor and let the skiff gilde to the dock, Matt jumped out and left bam to tend to the boat.
"Wait here Bam, I'll be back in a little while with Nicole... okay?"

"Sure thing Matt." Bam gave him a reassuring smile and Matt was on his way.

He walked up the dock and into the pizza joint, he scanned the tiny restaurant and saw Nicole and her daughter sitting in the same booth they had their first date in. Matts eyes were locked on to her, she looked up from her daughter who was sitting across from her and made contact with Matts piercing blue eyes, he ran towards her and embraced her. Salty tears ran from her face and on to his coat,
"I missed you so much."
He whispered in her hair.

"I'm glad I'm finally here...with you."
She pulled back from his warm embrace and wiped the tears from her cheeks, "this is my daughter...Sarah, she's five."

Matt squats down and held out his hand.
"Hi Sarah, my names Matt."

Sarah stands up from the booth and hides behind her mom.
"Why don't you say hi to Matt, Sarah?"
Sarah cautiously moves out from behind the safety of her mother.

She shakes his hand and says
"I have a friend at my school, his name is Matt too, but I call him stinky, because he stinks."

Matt chuckles and says
"Well you don't have to call me Matt, you can call me whatever you want, my brothers call me jelly head."

Sarah giggled and scrunched her nose.
"That's a silly name."

Matt laughed and stood up,
"Well I guess we better get going, My brother Bam is waiting for us in the skiff."

Nicole nods her head
"Okay, um, I didn't have time to pack much, just the things I knew we would need..."

She hands Matt a suitcase, and hands sarah a small pink bag and a stuffed bear.
"Okay... were ready."

"Alright ladies, follow me."

They walked out the door and down the dock to the skiff, Bam put the bags in the skiff, and Matt helped sarah and Nicole in the tiny boat,
"Is everybody ready?" Bam asks

"I think so." Nicole said with a sigh.

Sarah looks up at her mom and asked
"Momma, where are we going?"

"Uhh, Matt and Bam are gonna take us to their home, and we're gonna stay with them for a while. Okay?"

"Why, we already have a home in Texas with daddy?"

Nicole bit her lip and looked up at Matt who was listening to their conversation, she looked back down at Sarah and said
"Well, we can't go back to our home with daddy, because... because mommy just needs to figure some things out, just don't worry about it okay."