For just a moment, she let herself hope again. But Olive didn’t respond. She drifted off, her face relaxed, her body slack with sleep. Tessa stayed there longer than necessary, watching her breathe.
Dusty’s hand came to rest on her back, warm and steady, like he understood exactly what she was feeling without needing her to explain it.
The ache returned, sharp and familiar—the motherhood she’d never experienced layered with this new, fragile affection for the child sleeping inches away.
Dusty nodded gently toward the door, and they moved carefully out of the room, letting him snap the baby gate into place. Tessa leaned against the wall, troubled and wistful all at once.
“You’re doing a great job,” Dusty said quietly.
“Maybe we should take her to your friend, the expert,” she said.
“Not yet. Give it some time. She knows she’s in a safe place and that is all that matters now.”
Tessa swallowed, emotion welling. “It doesn’t feel like enough.”
“It is,” he said, his tone steady and sure. “I promise you.”
“Moments like that are hard for me,” she admitted. “Because I never got to be a mom.” She took a breath. “And now I have this chance to be…something. And I keep thinking her silence means I’m failing.”
Dusty shook his head. “That’s not what it means.” He grazed her cheek with his knuckles, his touch sure and loving. “She feels your care. Even if she doesn’t say it.”
Tessa let out a small, shaky laugh. “No wonder you’re such a good therapist.”
His mouth curved into a soft smile. “This isn’t therapy.”
She looked up at him, sensing the moment deepening between them. It had been a long time since they’d had a midnight wine on the roof or shared a meal punctuated with kisses or even walked the beach at sunset, hand in hand.
In the time since Olive arrived, their rhythm had shifted to something very different, something she genuinely enjoyed, despite her concerns for Olive.
“What?” he asked, searching her face.
“I was just thinking how much I like you,” she confessed. “Right here, in the hall, on the heels ofGoodnight Moon.”
“That’s funny,” he said, lowering his face to brush her lips with his. “I was just thinking how much I…”
He didn’t finish and Tessa didn’t breathe. Instead, she held his gaze, forgetting everything else in the world but this kind and good and wise man.
“Yes?” she prompted when he didn’t finish.
“I like you, too,” he finished, then laughed. “Which sounds lame.”
“Not to me.”
“C’mon, Tess.” He cupped her cheek, drawing her close. “I sailed past like a while ago.”
“You did?” Her heart tumbled all over the place. “And where’d you land, Dusty?”
Closing his eyes, he leaned in and kissed her lips. “Right here,” he murmured against her mouth. “With you, the woman I…” He chuckled and sighed. “I’m as bad as Olive.”
She inhaled and pressed against him. “Just say what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking that I’m falling in love with you, Tessa.”
She melted, tightening her grip. “Does that terrify or thrill you?” she asked on a whisper.
“It shocks the life out of me,” he said. “I didn’t…think I’d…”
He didn’t expect to love again after his wife died two years ago.
