Rhett was already on his feet. “On it.”
“I’m gonna go run her a bath,” Willow added. “See if we can soak some of this baby rage out. Silas, do you mind…”
Before she’d even turned, Silas was on his feet, rising to take Hazel. He extended his arms and Hazel went to him like she’d been waiting for exactly this moment—likefinally, someone was giving her exactly what she’d wanted after all this time.
And Willow stopped in her tracks—because Hazel calmed down instantly.
“Okay,” Willow said. “Well…maybe she doesn’t need a bath. Maybe she just needed Uncle Silas.”
Hazel let out one last, pitiful hiccup of a sob, then melted into Silas’s chest like butter on warm bread. Her cheek squished against the flannel of his shirt, one tiny hand fisting in the fabric.
Silas didn’t say anything—just shifted her higher, one hand supporting her back, the other curling protectively beneath her legs. He swayed slightly, patting her back.
“Yeah…take a beat, sweetheart,” he murmured. “You’re good.”
The whole room relaxed with her, conversation pickingback up again, laughter humming. I’d been recounting the incident at the church to Willow and Rhett before Hazel imploded—but I couldn’t be bothered to go back to my story.
Because I was looking at Silas.
He wasn’t trying to perform anything…wasn’t making a show of it. He was justthere, being his steady, calm, quiet self.
And I was smitten.
“Down girls,” Delilah murmured to me with a soft laugh. I looked over at her, frowning.
“What?”
“Your ovaries,” she chuckled. “Although…I gotta admit, there’s somethin’ about seeing a big, burly man holding a baby like she’s the most delicate thing in the world, right?”
I opened my mouth to argue—I’d never been baby crazy, hadn’t even come down on a firm decision regarding kids—but the words dried up on my tongue.
Because Delilah wasn’t wrong.
I loved Silas…and seeing him like this? It felt so right. I could imagine him holdingour baby, the magic, soothing force to calm any child.
My chest felt tight…hopeful.
“You know,” Delilah said, “you’re gonna need a place bigger than the parsonage if you wanna start a family.”
I snorted in disbelief. “Delilah, I don’t think we’re even close to being there yet.”
She shrugged. “Just sayin’…Cooper Wright came into the library the other day to post about a place for sale. You could call.”
I shook my head, trying to laugh it off. “I’m notbuying a house, Delilah,” I said. “I mean…I just got here, I have barely any savings—turns out divinity school doesn’t pay all that well—and me and Silas are so new…”
I was arguing with her, but I could see it all too easily—me and Silas in a little cottage a block or two from the church,walking to services on Sunday, coming home to a cluttered home office filled with notes on sermons…maybe Silas hammering away at a half-finished crib in the next room.
Delilah bumped my shoulder gently.
“It’s not a bad place,” she added. “Cooper and Jamie own it, the guys from the bookstore? A nice little starter home they lived in before they got a bigger place when they adopted their second.”
I let out a breathy laugh, shaking my head. “You make it sound so easy.”
Delilah gave me a look. “Sometimes,” she said, “thingscanbe easy, June. Or at least…clear. Doesn’t mean you have to jump into escrow tomorrow, just means that if your heart wants something, you don’t need to talk yourself out of it.”
I hated how badly I wanted to believe that.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me this place is basically paradise?” I asked. “I mean—affordable homes, good people…?”
