My father reached across the table and covered both Holly's hand and mine with his own. "Couldn't be happier for all of you."
My mother dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. "Well, this calls for a celebration. Should we order dessert before our meals even arrive?"
"Absolutely," my father agreed. "Rules don't apply on days like today."
As my family chatted about which desserts to try, I found myself looking around the restaurant with new eyes. A young couple sat nearby, clearly on a first or second date, nervously fumbling through conversation. A family with three small children was attempting to keep chicken tenders from flying across the restaurant. At the bar, a middle-aged man in a business suit checked his watch repeatedly.
Six months ago, I would have been cataloging details, creating stories, looking for signs of deception. I would have wondered if that man at the bar was waiting for someone other than his wife. I might even have slipped my phone out to take a surreptitious photo, just in case.
But that day? I felt nothing but contentment—and maybe a touch of compassion for these strangers around me, each living their own complicated stories that had nothing to do with me.
The wound that had driven me to play detective had finally healed. Not because time had passed, but because love had filled the space where hurt once lived. Holly, Drew, my friends, my parents—they had helped me build something beautiful from the broken pieces of my past.
"Earth to Mom," Holly said, waving her hand in front of my face. "You're spacing out again. Dad texted—he wants to know if we want him to pick up ice cream on his way home."
Dad. She'd called Drew "Dad." The casual way she said it, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, made my heart feel like it might burst.
I smiled at her—at my daughter—and felt the last piece of a puzzle I hadn't known I was solving click into place.
"Tell him absolutely yes," I said. "And tell him we love him."
"Already did," Holly replied with a grin, turning her phone to show me the string of heart emojis she'd sent.
Our food arrived, and as we passed condiments and shared bites from each other's baskets, I knew with absolute certainty that I would never again feel the need to follow strangers or take covert photographs. I would never again feel the itch to intervene in someone else's broken story.
I had my own story now. Not a beach read with a predictable happy ending, but something far more complex and beautiful.
Something real.
ELYSE
"I still can't believe we're doing this," Holly said, fidgeting with the sleeve of her navy blue dress as we walked up the courthouse steps.
It was adoption day. The culmination of months of paperwork, home studies, hearings, and waiting. I smoothed a hand over my own cream-colored dress, trying to calm the butterflies in my stomach.
"Having second thoughts?" I asked Holly lightly, though my heart clenched at the possibility.
Holly rolled her eyes. "As if. I'm just nervous. What if the judge asks me hard questions?"
"Like what your favorite Avengers movie is?" Drew teased, adjusting his tie. "Because that would be a dealbreaker."
"Dad," Holly groaned, but the tension in her shoulders visibly eased at his humor.
I still felt a thrill every time Holly called Drew "Dad"—the casualness of it, the rightness. It had taken longer for "Mom" to feel natural on Holly's lips, but lately it had been slipping out more frequently, each instance a gift I treasured.
At the top of the steps, my parents waited with Cat, Grace,Sarah, Paige, and Jenna, the entire support system that had carried us through this journey. Even Ben was there in his dress uniform, standing beside Paige with obvious pride.
"There they are!" My mother called, rushing forward to envelope Holly in a hug. "The woman of the hour!"
Holly's face flushed with pleasure as everyone gathered around her with hugs and good wishes. Jenna had brought a small box of specially decorated cookies (little gavels and hearts) while Grace was already dabbing at her eyes with a hot pink monogrammed handkerchief.
"If I'm this emotional now, I'm going to be a disaster in that courtroom," Grace admitted, fanning herself.
"Good thing I brought reinforcements," Sarah said, pulling a travel pack of tissues from her purse and distributing them to everyone.
The courthouse doors opened, and our lawyer, Ms. Chen, emerged with a clipboard and a warm smile. "Bennett family? We're ready for you."
Bennett family.The words sent a shiver of joy through me. I reached for Holly's hand, finding it already stretched toward me.
