“How do you do it?”Grace had asked her father.
“Do what?”he’d countered, filling a watering pot from the spigot.
“Keep yearning for each other even after thirty-five years?”
He’d pushed up the sweat-stained baseball cap he wore when he wasn’t on the job. And for a few seconds he’d considered his answer. Eventually he’d said,“Sometimes your heart makes its home in someone else. And it doesn’t matter how many years pass or how far you travel or even how long you’re apart from that person, your heart always yearns to return home. My heart yearns for your momma, even when she’s just twenty feet away.”
It'd been a beautiful sentiment. But it wasn’t until this very moment, here with Hunter, that she truly understood it.
Her heart had made its home in him.
And even though she knew he couldn’t possibly feel the same, even though she knew what they’d shared would likely beallthey would ever share, she wanted him to know how she felt.
Honesty was always the best policy, wasn’t it?
Besides, it’s never wrong to let someone know they’re loved.
“Hunter?” She pushed back and frowned when his handsome features swum in front of eyes.
“Yes, Grace?”
“I want you to know I—”
That’s as far as she got before her world faded to black.
33
Northwestern Memorial Hospital,
Chicago, Illinois
Eight days later…
Hunter stepped inside Grace’s hospital room in time to hear her little sister, Felicity, say, “The automatic paper towel dispenser in the bathroom refuses to recognize me as human. It just ignores me as I stand there in front of it, gesticulatin’ like an idiot.”
“Maybe it’s mistakin’ you for a blimp.” Merit smirked. “Ow!” he added when his wife, Rachel, who sat next to him on the uncomfortable love seat, wacked him on the back of the head. “What was that for, Rache?”
“What have I told you are the two things you’re not allowed to joke about?”
Merit’s expression was that of a scolded child. “Death and pregnancy.”
“Exactly.” Rachel nodded.
Hunter thought Grace’s younger sister looked less like a blimp and more like she’d swallowed a ripe watermelon. He was glad they were already in a hospital because the youngest Beacham sibling appeared as if she might go into labor at any minute, despite her having assured him she still had six weeks before her due date.
When Rachel punched Merit on the shoulder, giving him a look, he threw his arms in the air. “Nowwhat did I do? I was just sittin’ here!”
“Exactly.” Rachel nodded. “While your heavily pregnant sister whose ankles swell the minute she hops out of bed in the mornin’ is standin’.”
“If you’re waiting for me to care,” he said with a sniff, “better pack a lunch. It’s goin’ to be a while.”
Rachel punched him again.
“Fine!” He grumpily pushed to a stand. “But I want it put on the record that even though I’m not an astronomer, I’m pretty sure the Earth revolves around the sun and not Felicity. Besides, why are we all feeling sorry for her? She did that to herself.” He gestured toward Felicity’s round belly as she waddled by him, headed for the seat he’d vacated.
“I like to thinkIhad a little somethin’ to do with it,” Brandon, Felicity’s husband, leaned against the doorjamb. He wore a self-satisfied grin and a T-shirt that read:the man behind the bump.
“Yes, yes.” Felicity rolled her eyes, awkwardly lowering herself into the love seat. “You did an excellent job, honey. And thanks to that”—she pointed to his T-shirt—“the world knows it.” She turned from her husband to her brother. “Hey, Merit? Mind kickin’ that stool over?”
