Dolly picked that moment to ram her head gently into Willa’s shin. Willa stumbled a step, looked down at the goat, and laughed again.
“Dolly.” I pointed. “I warned you.”
“She’s just saying hi.”
“She’s not. She’s establishing dominance.” I pushed off the fence. “Don’t let her win.”
Willa stared down at the goat.
Dolly stared back…then bleated and walked off.
Willa looked over her shoulder at me with her eyebrows up. “I think I just established dominance,” she said.
She went back to petting the goats, still smiling, and that was when I heard the screen door bang at the main house and the sound of Haven’s voice carrying down the hill.
“Forrest—oh good! You’re out here.”
She came around the corner of the yard at a quick clip, her blonde braid over one shoulder and her baby, Ethan, on her hip. He had Wyatt’s dirty blond hair and the makings of a strong jaw already, gnawing on a toy.
“I see the goats took to you,” Haven said with a grin. “The ultimate test.”
She held out a duffel bag to Willa, then, wrangling Ethan with her other arm.
“I brought you some clothes, some toiletries, a few creature comforts. Obviously I don’t know your shoe size, but I figured I’d bring some options over.”
“Thank you so much,” Willa said, her eyes darting to Ethan as she took the bag. “How old is he?”
“Ethan?” Haven snorted. “Sometimes I think he’s eighty, with how serious he can be. But really…seven months. Maybe he’s just remembeirng a past life.”
Willa laughed at that. “Seven months,” she repeated. “He’s beautiful.”
“You wanna hold him?” Haven asked.
Willa blinked. “I…yes. Please.”
Haven was already holding him out.
Willa took him like she'd done it a thousand times. One hand under his bottom, the other at his back, him settled against her chest before he'd had time to register the transfer. Ethan looked up at her, decided something, and grabbed a fistful of her braid.
"He does that," Haven said. "Sorry."
"I don't mind." Willa didn't try to detach him. She just tipped her chin down toward the top of his head and let him have it, her thumb moving in a slow absent circle on his back.
I watched her face.
She didn't know I was watching. That was the thing—she'd stopped performing, the way she'd been performing all morning, that careful steadiness she put on when she thought someone was assessing her. With Ethan she'd just gone somewhere else entirely. Easy and present in a way she hadn't been yet.
She wanted this.
It wasn't a small want, either. It was the kind that had been living in someone for a long time.
Ethan offered her his toy. She touched it to her lips and handed it back and he grinned at her with his two bottom teeth and she made a sound low in her throat, not quite a word.
"He likes you," Haven said. "He made Gage work for it for a solid month."
"He's got good judgment," Willa said.
Haven laughed. "Don't tell Gage that."