“I don’t know. Maybe.” Hannah smiled at her softly. “It was a gamble.”
“He couldn’t do that. He’s worked too hard to build something important there. He helps so many people.”
“You’re not going to stay, are you?”
“I don’t know.” She gazed at the stand of trees so far across the field they looked like toothpicks. “I promised myself and my newborn baby that I would make a plan for us, for our life, and I would stick to it. That every one of my decisions would be for her.
“For a second I forgot that. It was Jake who reminded me. He told me I should come.” Because he understands me. Because he knows what I want and need. Because he loves me? If she’d told him she loved him, would that have made a difference?
“Sometimes men have a funny way of thinking they’re doing the right thing even when they’re stupid. Especially McKinney men.”
Paige couldn’t imagine any of the deeply devoted men she’d met acting stupid where their wives were concerned.
“Stephen had some warped idea that he wasn’t good enough for me, even that he was bad for me. If you can believe that.” She glanced back at her husband walking toward them with his son on his shoulders, the boy’s hands in his. “Selfishly, I want you here, Paige. You’re good at it, and it’s important to do something you love. But people are important too. Love is important.”
Paige attempted to smile, and Hannah wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I know it’ll all work out. Don’t forget about Joe’s birthday dinner tonight. Marge wants you and Casey there.”
Paige sniffed and wiped at her eyes before Stephen and Mitchell got close. The McKinneys had taken her in; Marge especially had embraced her and embraced Casey like she was one of her grandchildren. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
—
Showered and dressed in a casual blue sundress, Paige checked the brownies she was taking to dinner. She went to straighten the table and picked up two sheets of white paper Casey had colored on. She looked at the first one. There was a big figure with black hair and another one with yellow hair. Then a small figure standing in between them.
“That’s me,” Casey said, coming into the room and stopping beside her. “And that’s Jake.”
The little girl in the picture had two legs just like the man. There was no water or castle hiding them. “I love it,” Paige said, feeling tears gathering in her eyes.
“Me too.” Casey leaned against Paige’s leg. “I miss him.”
Me too. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life missing him. She’d only wanted to do the right thing for her daughter, but she was afraid she didn’t know what that was anymore.
“Mommy, can I tell you something?”
“Sure, sweet pea.”
“I love the horses, but I love Jake more.”
Paige knelt down and pulled her daughter close. “Me too.”
—
It was late afternoon when JT climbed the steps to Rachel’s home. He rang the doorbell and waited. He’d already secured a table at one of Virginia Beach’s finest restaurants and overnight babysitting for Casey with Matt and Abby. He couldn’t wait to see Paige, hold her. It’d only been seven days since he’d said goodbye, but still he felt like he’d spent the week under a shadow. That was about to change, he thought, smiling. But there was one more thing he needed to do.
He hadn’t seen Rachel in over eight years, not since that day in the hospital. She was married now, that was all he knew about the woman he’d once created a life with. Paige and Casey had already healed that wound. Casey had shown him the man he could be. Paige had made him see the man he was, but he needed to do this. He needed to look in Rachel’s eyes and tell her he was sorry. That’s all. Just that he was sorry because he’d never said that. It was the right thing to do.
A shadow passed behind the beveled glass before Rachel swung open the door with a dark-headed toddler on her hip. “JT.” She stared at him a long moment, obviously shocked to find him on her doorstep. She looked the same in a lot of ways, and in some ways so different.
“Hi.”
Her gaze fell to his right leg, and there was a second that she looked uncomfortable before she covered it. “Oh, sorry. Do you want to come in?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
She stepped back to let him in and closed the door. There was a staircase right off the foyer and a wall lined with photos. He followed her through the dining room and into a bright and airy kitchen with windows overlooking a perfectly green backyard.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, thanks. I’m good. I won’t stay long.”
She set the boy down, and he went to work pulling off the plastic letters that covered the refrigerator, dropping them to the floor.
“Cute.”
“Thank you. His name’s Lukas.” She smiled when she said his name, her eyes full of pride and peace.
That’s what was different. Where her eyes had always been wild with excitement or hot with anger, they were now just warm and…happy. Serene. “How are you?”