“How are you feeling about that?”
“Weird. Good weird, I think.” She set down the spoon. “We talked last night. After the biscuit thing with Margo. She’s going to teach me Nana’s recipes. The whole thing. All the cards with her handwriting.”
“That’s a big deal.”
“Yeah.” Stella traced a pattern on the counter with her finger.
Fiona, letting go. A week ago, she’d been ready to drag Stella back to Sydney by force. Now she was passing down family secrets.
“She’s changed,” he said.
“She’s trying.” Stella met his eyes. “That’s different, but it’s still something.”
“It’s a lot.”
“Yeah.”
They sat quietly, in a way that had become easy between them. Outside, a car drove past. Someone’s dog barked. The ordinary sounds of a neighborhood waking up.
“I need to tell you something,” Tyler said.
Stella’s expression sharpened. “Good something or bad something?”
“Legal something.” He pulled out his phone, opened the document Lindsey had sent him. “Your mum signed the guardianship papers this morning. It’s filed. Official. Done.”
Stella went very still.
“You’re—I’m?—”
“You’re staying. Officially. Legally. Permanently, if that’s what you want.” Tyler slid the phone across to her. “This makes it real. Not just us saying it—real. On paper.”
Stella stared at the screen. Tyler watched her read through the document, watched her eyes move over the legal language that meant she belonged here now.
Stella’s eyes were bright. She blinked rapidly, jaw tight, trying to hold it together the way she always did.
“Hey,” Tyler said softly. “You’re allowed to feel things about this.”
“I know. I jus—” She pressed her hands flat on the counter. “I’ve been waiting for the catch. For months. Waiting for something to go wrong, for someone to change their mind, for the whole thing to fall apart. And now it’s not falling apart and I don’t know what to do with that.”
“You could try being happy.”
“I am happy. I’m also terrified.”
“Those things can coexist.”
“Since when are you wise?”
“I’ve been practicing. Margo gives lessons on Thursdays.”
Stella laughed—wet and shaky, but real. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“So I’m really staying. And Mum’s really okay with it.”
“Or she’s getting there. Same difference.”
Stella nodded slowly, processing. Then her expression shifted into something Tyler recognized — the look she got when she was about to say something uncomfortable.
“What?” he asked.
