Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if I gave in, even if only for a moment.
I relaxed against his chest, my ear to his slow, steady heart. Juniper’s incident might have scared him, but it didn’t shake him. I was starting to think nothing did. “Thank you for saving her.”
“It’s what I do,” he said into my hair. “Plus, I’ll admit I have a vested interest.”
A half smile curved my mouth and the tremors lessened, but he didn’t let go. This is what he did, but I barely knew more than that about his real life. “Where do you live?”
“On Warren Street, about four blocks from your house. It’s the dark-blue one with the white door. Why?”
“I’ve never asked.” But I knew which house it was. I’d walked by it every summer when we headed to his parents’—Caroline’s—café.
“Hmm.” His strokes down my spine slowed. “Want to see it when we get back?”
It was a step in a direction that didn’t involve Juniper . . . or the deal we’d made. I closed my eyes and let the rhythm of his heart slow mine, and God love him, he didn’t push or press me to answer quickly. It made it easier when I finally nodded. “Yes. I’d like that.”
The rest of the day passed without anyone else nearly dying. We hiked, played cards in the pavilion until the wind picked up, and cooked dinner amid a chorus of laughter and chaos that I was beginning to adore—especially since Caroline wasn’t just being civil, she was . . . nice.
And really funny when she wasn’t hell bent on picking at me.
As the campfire died, Hudson’s aunts and uncles filed off to bed around the same time his parents headed to their cabin, leaving Caroline and me sitting on a log around the embers. I watched Hudson spin Juniper on a tire swing about twenty feet away, near the edge of the lake.
“He’s really good with kids,” she mentioned not so casually. “He’ll be a great dad. You know, if you want kids.”
Kids?
“I . . .” My mouth opened and shut a few times as I imagined Hudson holding a baby—our baby—and I clutched my Hydro Flask. What was that feeling hovering just below the immediate nausea that accompanied her comment? Was that interest?
“You look like you might vomit.” She chuckled. “It’s okay to not want kids. I was just saying Hudson is really good with them.”
“You don’t have to sell me on his qualities, I promise.” I sighed. “Having kids isn’t something I’ve really thought about. Most everyone I know waits until we retire. That’s actually what stopped Mom. She got pregnant with Lina and married our father.”
“Ahh.” She leaned forward and poked the embers. “Makes a little more sense as to why she seemed to drive you four relentlessly.”
I nodded. “Juniper is phenomenal,” I said to change the subject. “She’s headstrong, and witty, and smart. You’ve done a good job with her.”
Caroline sat back and stared down at Juniper swinging. “She’s reckless like Hudson,” she muttered. “Sean was like that, too, always jumping before he looked, but yeah, she’s more stubborn than I could ever dream of being and gives me a run for my money every day. Tenacity must run in her genes. Guess we’ll find out when she’s eighteen. She’ll probably march her butt down to the lawyers and ask for her file on her birthday.”
My throat tightened, and I took a quick drink. “Do you want her to wait that long? Aren’t you ever worried about stuff like medical history?”
“A little.” She nodded. “It will be good for her to have access to that information, or at least where to go to start asking the questions, but the adoption was closed for a reason. I don’t know her birth parents, or what they’d do if she . . .” She tensed. “Waiting until she’s eighteen protects Juniper, and it protects their privacy too.”
Lina was dead, but what about Juniper’s father?
Caroline sighed. “I know everyone thinks I’m horrid when I won’t let her run out searching for her birth family—”
“No one thinks you’re horrid,” I promised.
She scoffed. “They do. But no adult throwing their two cents in has lost their husband, watched the father of their child die in their arms because his body just couldn’t fight anymore. That pain belongs to me, and to Juniper.” A sad smile curved her mouth as Hudson spun Juniper on the swing. “I don’t think I could breathe through another loss like that, and the idea of anything happening to her makes me want to surround her in bubble pack. I can’t risk losing her, not when I’ve already lost Sean, and watching her grieve—” She took a shuddering breath. “Sean and I made promises, and I’m the only one left to keep them, to make sure she grows up safe and loved. Call me overprotective, but she’s only ten, and for right now, I’m okay with being horrid if it keeps her from feeling that kind of pain, that heartbreak again, and that includes ballet. Can you really tell me that dancing has never broken your heart?” She looked over at me. “Or your body?”