It hurts in me that I now feel her pain. "I do, which makes this all worse."
"When is the next time you see her?"
"In two days."
"Then you have two days to figure out how you will show her that you can relate and comfort her," he reminds me.
My lips purse out with a breath. "You're right."
"And you are also better than the man who let us down. I don't need to tell you that. You love her. It's so obvious but maybe not to her."
I now look at him peculiarly. "Where the hell did you get the basis of this pep talk?"
He grins and awkwardly scratches his cheek. "Apple lady is a romance writer. Might have read a few of her books to prove her wrong and show her that her books are sappy bull that doesn't happen in real life."
"Yet here you are using her wise knowledge."
Stone's face drops. "Shit."
"I'll let you know how it goes."
"Yeah, you will. I would hate to hear that Isla kicks you to the curb or throws you into that lake."
A glimmer of subtle smile hits me. "She won't. I'm not going to let her walk away from everything I will do to assure her."
28
ISLA
Hadley walks next to me as I lead an aimless path through the grocery store. She has Nora in the carrier against her chest.
“So,what are we doing here exactly?” she asks with caution.
“Diapers, bananas, hope,” I list with my voice, fatigued. My energy is a little low since the other day when Vaughn and I had what I wouldn’t say was a fight but a discussion that caught me off guard and cracked a little bit of my heart. Disappointment flooded me, and now I’m not sure what’s happening.
Hadley takes hold of the bar on the cart to stop our slow stroll. We’re alone in the cereal aisle, which is kind of off course for what I needed, but that’s beside the point.
“Isla, I think… you need to put yourself in his shoes.”
My face floods with disbelief at the audacity of my close friend taking Vaughn’s side. “What? How can you say that?”
“Because, well, given the circumstances, then maybe he deserves a little slack? Shock does a lot of things to people, and since then, he has only proven that he wants to be a dad and be there for you.” She’s delicate in tone but seems assertive with her theory.
“What is to say that he won’t change his mind? After all, he thought once that maybe he shouldn’t be involved.” My reasoning has to make sense to anyone who listens.
Hadley purses her lips out then rolls them in before she tips her head to the side slightly. “Isla, do you really believe that one day he will wake up and leave? You truly believe that?”
A few ticks go by while I search within me. “Most of me believes he is fully involved for our family. I just… can’t shake that tiny piece of fear.”
She examines a box of bran flakes, giving us a moment to let my admission float in the air between us.
“When is he back?”
I swallow due to the logistics of time. “Tonight.”
Hadley taps the cereal box with her nail. “You’re not the only human to have a wound inside of them.”
I sigh and look down at my daughter, feeling the crack in my throat as tears threaten to break out. “How could he even think…”
