Garrett Taylor—Austin Elizabeth

Garrett Taylor’s relationship with Austin Elizabeth is shown at the end of the novel as an affectionate father-daughter bond, part of the family he shares with Brett Bohlinger. The story does not stage a separate account of Garrett becoming Austin’s father; instead, it makes their relationship legible through a handful of intimate details in the epilogue: Austin calls him Dada, he calls Brett Mommy in front of her, and the family is together on a day that marks a new beginning for the adults. Their bond is therefore presented not as an isolated legal fact but as part of a lived household, made visible through language, touch, and shared belonging.

The Family Austin Joins

Austin’s place in the family follows Brett’s promise to raise her. When Sanquita Bell dies after giving birth, Brett tells a court that Sanquita woke on the evening of the birth and asked her to keep the baby. A notarized statement, dated March 5 and written before Sanquita’s death, confirms Sanquita’s wish that Brett receive sole custody. The judge grants Brett temporary custody while adoption procedures are finalized. These circumstances establish the care and loss around which Austin’s family life begins: Brett takes responsibility for her, and Austin grows up as Brett’s daughter.

The evidence about Garrett and Austin focuses on the family that exists after this upheaval rather than on the steps by which it was formed. The epilogue identifies Austin as Brett’s daughter and places Garrett beside her as her father. It does not describe Garrett’s participation in the court proceedings or specify a separate legal adoption by him. What it does show is a settled domestic relationship in which he is not an occasional presence: he holds Austin, speaks to her with ease, and appears as one of the two parents around whom her attention and affection turn.

Garrett’s Commitment to Brett

The epilogue’s family scene follows Garrett’s return to Brett after their relationship has been interrupted. He cancels his plans permanently rather than merely postponing them, brings her weatherworn flowers, and tells her he has missed the funny teacher he came to know over the telephone. He recalls being drawn to her on the train, at the apartment building, and on the jogging path, and says he came because he could not bear to let another chance to be with her pass. Brett steps into his arms and tells him that he was the person she hoped to catch, not the train. Their kiss marks a mutual choice to resume their relationship.

That reconciliation matters to the father-daughter bond because the epilogue presents Garrett and Austin within the family that follows it. The later image does not explain the intervening steps, but it establishes the outcome: Garrett is Brett’s husband and Austin’s father. His commitment to Brett is no longer framed as a promise or a missed opportunity. It has become a shared life in which Austin is present, included, and loved.

A Domestic Bond in the Epilogue

The epilogue begins in Brett’s former bedroom, now altered by pieces of her new life, while the house still carries her mother’s memory. From the nursery down the hall—Brett’s old bedroom—Austin’s laughter reaches her. The details connect a family’s present to the rooms and memories of Brett’s past: the former bedroom has become a nursery, and the home that once offered comfort in bereavement now contains the sounds of her daughter. Garrett’s fatherhood appears within that transformation, not as a separate announcement but as part of the daily life that has taken root there.

When Brett asks who has her big girl, Austin answers, “Dada.” Garrett kisses her cheek and points out Brett’s pretty white dress, asking Austin if Mommy is beautiful. Austin giggles and buries her face in his neck. The exchange gives their relationship its clearest evidence: Austin knows Garrett as her father, he responds to her with physical affection, and he draws her into celebrating Brett. The scene is playful and ordinary in its gestures, but it also makes the family’s shared attachments unmistakable. Garrett and Brett are not merely present in the same frame; they address Austin as parents together.

Significance

Garrett’s relationship with Austin completes the epilogue’s portrait of Brett’s family without erasing the circumstances that brought Austin into it. Sanquita’s written wish and Brett’s promise are essential to Austin’s place with Brett; the closing scene then shows that place as part of a family that includes Garrett. The novel distinguishes the origins of the caregiving arrangement from the emotional reality presented at its end: Austin is Brett’s daughter, Garrett is her Dada, and the three are bound together in a household.

The scene also gives the relationship a quiet narrative weight. Earlier, Garrett’s renewed declaration to Brett is expressed through urgency and the fear of missed time. In the epilogue, their connection is no longer only romantic anticipation: it is visible in the way he holds Austin, kisses her cheek, and shares a moment with her about Brett. The family’s future is suggested through those concrete gestures rather than explained in a separate account. When Brett leaves for the newest shelter for women with children, she describes her husband and baby girl as the loves of her life. Garrett and Austin thus stand together as the family waiting for her, confirming that his bond with Austin belongs to the life he and Brett have built.