“We’ll make a schedule, plan out the conversations, and I can update you on who’s who in town so you aren’t met with any surprises.”
“Thank you.” She looked away, frowning. “It’s not that I can’t handle it. I just?—”
“I know you can handle it,” I said calmly. “You wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t.”
She blinked at me, unmoving.
For a moment, I could see through her tough exterior. The walls she’d built up to keep herself and her kids safe.
And I respected the hell out of it.
But it killed me that she felt they were necessary, that someone had probably caused her to hide behind them.
“I know what you must think,” she said, staring at the tiniest sliver of space between her pinky and mine. “That I was weak. And maybe I was. I didn’t see the signs until it was too late.”
I grasped her hand and squeezed it. “You are not weak,” I growled. “Don’t ever say that.”
She nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
“You don’t owe me anything. You don’t have to tell me anything,” I added. Even if I wanted to know everything.
She’d never said it outright, but I had to assume the man she had those children with was a piece of shit. But I wouldn’t force her to share what she wasn’t ready to.
She squeezed my hand back and closed her eyes, blowing out a shaky breath. “Okay.”
She gently pulled away, and I immediately missed the warmth of her skin.
“Cozy hayrides.” She swallowed thickly and pulled her shoulders back. “I think we can do this.”
“You’re already doing it. I’m just supplying the tractors.”
The smile that spread across her face made my chest tight. This woman’s smiles undid me. They had to be earned, worked for. And when she finally rewarded me, they felt like the best kind of gift.
“Oh shoot.” She picked up her phone and frowned at it. “I’ve got to run. Julian has a birthday party.”
Adjusting my hat, I took a step back. “Fun.”
It was my lucky day, because she broke into another smile, though this one was a little more sardonic. “On the one hand, I’m thrilled he’s getting invited to these things. After so many years of being on the outside…” She sighed, her body deflating. “But I can’t say I’m looking forward to spending two solid hours in a room full of screaming seven years olds hopped up on sugar.”
We said our goodbyes and I walked her out. As she walked back up the road toward her cottage, clipboard and map clutched against her chest, it hit me. Our dynamic had shifted.
She’d asked me for help. She’d let me touch her. And she’d opened up.
She’d trusted me. And despite how little I knew about her, I trusted her too.
Chapter 16
Celine
This neighborhood had to be the number one trick-or-treat destination in this town.
The street was lined with impeccably maintained homes, each with a large, shiny SUV in the driveway.
And the party was impossible to miss.
The moment I turned onto the road, the pirate flags strung between the trees and the black and white sails fluttering cheerfully were visible. A hand-painted sign on the mailbox readAhoy! Jacob’s 7thBirthday, with an arrow pointing to the backyard.
The house was enormous, with white siding and a wraparound porch. Like all the homes around it, the plump shrubs and flowering bushes in the yard were perfectly manicured. It was the kind of house that was built for big family Christmases and tearful graduation photos.