Aurelie jumped in to save her friend.
“We offered our help at the clinic to get Sophie going.Over time, other people will volunteer, but for now, we’re all she’s got.I, for one, am happy to help.”
“Me, too,” Paige offered, not taking her eyes off the baby.
“You don’t think you’ve taken on enough?”he asked, pointing toward their daughter, then waved his hand behind him at the slew of half-done renovations they’d started on the farmhouse.
Paige met his gaze.“It’ll be a lot in the beginning, sure, but what if something happened to me or to Maddie?Wouldn’t you want us to be in a safe place like the one Soph’s building?”She smiled, teeth and all, and Aurelie fought the urge to chuckle.Instead, she ducked away, rewashing the knives Owen had just rinsed.The conversation had jumped above her pay grade.Paige and Owen would probably get into it later when she wasn’t around, but he would ultimately support Paige in whatever she wanted to do.
No one Aurelie had ever met loved anyone as deeply as Owen did his wife, a side effect of which meant he was a complete pushover when it came to granting Paige her every desire.
Aurelie’s chest ached with a longing she wished she could shove back into the deep, dark pit from which it came.It wasn’t like her to wish for herself the good fortune her friends or family found; normally, she just made sure she got what she wanted by working hard and not giving up.
This was different, though.
The stirrings of family called to her, but not the remnants of family she’d left behind in Turks.Building one of her own from scratch.And those stirrings, partnered with the fear that it might not happen for her—here, anyway—scared her numb.
Aurelie wanted someone to come home to, which conjured up an image of the man she’d met earlier that day.Jace-something-or-other.She and Paige had just seen him on the big screen a month before Maddie was born.Her stomach flipped, and she tried to put his strong jawline, the one that looked like it was chiseled out of stone, far from her thoughts.Like a cruel joke, his piercing gaze, his cerulean eyes, remained pinned to her subconscious.Where had he come from?And why, when she was imagining something so private and personal about herself, did his ridiculously handsome face come to mind?
Especially when all signs pointed to him being the culprit behind the land acquisitions that would shape Banberry’s future.Aurelie’s skin itched to share what she’d learned, but she needed them all to be together so they could attack their enemy as a united front.
The doorbell rang.
Brad and Sophie.Good.
Paige and Owen were still in whispered conversation about the clinic—Who would watch Maddie when Paige was there?What security measures did they have in place in case an incensed ex showed up at the door?—as the door opened, and Brad and Sophie strode in.
They, too, were in a whispered conversation with each other.They waved at Aurelie but didn’t greet her.Normally, she wouldn’t have cared either way.They were family, and family didn’t always stand on ceremony.
Tonight, though, the unintentional brush-off stung more than she’d anticipated.How was she supposed to get them united when they were all in their own insular worlds?
“I told you not to ring the bell.Look, she’s sleeping!”Sophie hissed at Brad.
“She’s not,” he said, but his almost-inaudible voice gave away his fear that he’d woken his niece.“She’s just eating.”
“Give me the bags, and I’ll go start the salad,” Sophie told him, her voice tight.He handed them over to his wife, throwing Aurelie ado-you-see-what-I-have-to-live-with?shrug and eyeroll.She bit back a chuckle, glad to be back in the fold.The conversation would have to wait until they were all seated, though, if only to give them time to settle.
Sophie came back and planted a kiss on her husband’s cheek.
“I still love you,” she said.
“Ditto,” he replied with a wink.
Aurelie sighed as he rested a hand on Paige’s shoulder, a contented smile on his face.Everything was as it should be, despite the ache in her chest that thumped against her ribcage, arguing that wasn’t entirely true.
She and Sophie chopped carrots, tore red leaf lettuce, sprinkled cheese into bowls, all the ingredients from their gardens and farms or traded from other locals.It was one of Aurelie’s favorite moments: the collection of foods they all contributed, the assembly of the family around the table for a good meal, the conversation that flowed as easily as wine.
“Who wants wine?”she asked the crew once they were ready to table the food.
Hands shot up, followed by laughter from everyone there.
“Of course you do.I don’t even know why I bothered to ask,” she teased.
“Do you need my help?”Paige asked her, her shirt back down, a peacefully sleeping infant in her arms, her husband nuzzled up beside her, cooing at his new daughter.
She shook her head.“Stay cozy.”Paige leaned into Owen, and Aurelie felt the jealousy from before dissipate.She’d have this someday; she just needed to concentrate on her job, on clearing her issues with her visa, and on the clinic, which she was more thrilled about than she cared to admit.Her mother had been beaten by her father, who was usually drunk and out of a job again, and Aurelie had wished every day of her childhood and beyond that there was a place Mum could have gone with her kids and been safe from his wrath.
She finally had the chance to make a difference in a way that was outside traditional OB, but would move the needle on local women’s healthcare in a measurable way.It was everything she’d wanted, just held behind two small barriers: her visa and the stranger threatening their town by turning it into a tourist trap.
