Willa: I’ll see what I can do. Mark’s nice to look at, but you’re something special. Goodnight, Henry.
I drive home in my newly fixed car, and for the first time since moving to Valentine, my cottage doesn’t feel empty. It feels like a place I’m coming home to, not a place I’m hiding in.
I make myself dinner —actual dinner, not just crackers, cheese, and a nice glass of wine— and I think about Henry’s smile. About Ben’s enthusiasm. About the way it felt to be part of their world, even for just twenty minutes.
And that night, I go to bed smiling.
For the first time in two years, I don’t dream about Wally.
I dream about a baker with kind eyes and flour-dusted forearms, and a little boy who thinks I’m kind of a big deal.
Chapter 8
Henry
Ben is asleep by eight-thirty,worn out from his exciting day of scraping his hand and meeting his “new mom.” Definitely his words, not mine, and I’ve given up trying to correct him. Kids get something in their head and it’s hard to get them to think otherwise, and honestly, he’s got me thinking I’d like what he wants.
I’m lying in my own bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying every moment of the day. The way Willa smiled at me in the truck. The way she lit up with Ben. The way she said yes to the Valentine’s event without any hesitation.
My phone is on my nightstand, and I keep checking it like a teenager, hoping she’ll text again.
She doesn’t.
But that’s okay. Because tomorrow morning, she’ll walk through the door of my bakery, and I’ll hand her coffee, and maybe our hands will touch again.
And maybe, just maybe, this is the start of something real.
Something lasting.
Something that could heal us both.
I fall asleep with a smile on my face, and when I dream, it’s of sapphire eyes and a smile that makes me believe in second chances.
Chapter 9
Willa
Three days flyby in a blur of morning coffees and lingering glances. Henry and I text every night— nothing deep, just little moments that feel so real. Sometimes Ben’s latest dinosaur facts. Often a patient who made me laugh and another who peed on me— baby boys, you gotta be fast closing that diaper. I wasn’t. Hazard of the field. Henry.. a batch of cinnamon rolls that didn’t rise properly and how Mark decided Henry should take a vacation.
Apparently, he hasn’t taken a vacation in ten years. Ten. But I’m one to talk, I’m going on six.
This feels normal.
Easy.
Terrifying.
Now I’m standing outside Spice Spice Baby on Valentine’s Day early evening, second-guessing everything. The bakery windows are steamed up from the warmth inside, and I can see people milling around, laughing. The whole town seems to be here for the “Heart-to-Heart” fundraiser.
I should leave. I should get in my car and?—
“Dr. Willa!” Ben’s face appears in the window his hand going a thousand waves a minute. Then he’s bursting through thedoor, not even wearing a coat despite the February chill. “You came! Daddy said you would but I didn’t know. I’m excited you’re here!”
Henry appears behind him, shaking his head with a smile and holding out a fluffy winter coat much like mine. “Buddy, your coat.”
“Don’t need it. Too excited!” And with that, he darts back inside the bakery, leaving me and Henry alone on the sidewalk.
When it was texting, there was space and it seemed innocent. I could pretend it wasn’t something, but looking him in the face, it’s something and it’s close and real.
