“They are so good,” Estelle said, then turned toward him. “Everything you grow is. You can tell when something’s been cared for properly.”
Leo held her gaze, hearing the weight beneath the words.
Estelle’s smile softened. “Not everyone has that gift. Nurturing things until they feel safe enough to put down roots, I mean.”
This is working,his bear roared happily.
It is,Leo agreed.
Chapter Fifteen – Estelle
Well, that was an experience,Estelle’s dragon said.
It sure was,Estelle agreed as she watched Adara playing with Fizz in the garden. Leo’s family had just left, their voices and laughter still echoing in her mind. Adara was arranging pinecones in a circle, a fairy ring, she’d called it, something Lucy had taught her.
I didn’t expect to feel so... raw afterward,Estelle admitted, wrapping her arms around herself as she stood on the porch.
That’s what real family does,her dragon replied.It opens things up that you thought were safely closed.
The Thornbergs had been everything Leo promised, warm, welcoming, respectful of boundaries, while still somehow folding Adara into their circle as if she’d always belonged there.
They’re nothing like Margaret, and yet...
And yet they make you think of her,her dragon finished.Of what she’s missing. Of why she clings so hard.
Estelle sighed. She hadn’t expected breakfast with Leo’s family to leave her thinking about Margaret of all people. But watching the easy affection between Leo and Eleanor, the way his mother looked so lovingly at each and every member of her family, had stirred something uneasy in her.
Margaret had loved Julian fiercely. Estelle had never doubted that. And she loved Adara too. That wasn’t the problem.
Grief doesn’t always make people cruel,her dragon said.
No,Estelle agreed.But it can make them hold too tightly.
Maris would have seen it straight away, the difference between loving with open hands and loving with your fistsclenched. She had always understood things like that before Estelle did.
She watched Adara carefully tuck a shiny pebble into the center of her fairy ring.I’m not excusing what Margaret did,she murmured.How she made us feel hunted. But I think I understand it better now.
Her dragon was silent for a moment.Understanding is not the same as forgiveness.
I know that,Estelle whispered.But seeing Leo with his family, seeing how connected they are to each other... it made me realize Margaret will never have that again.
Because she lost Julian,her dragon said.
And now she’s lost Adara.Estelle straightened, still watching her daughter.
“Mama! Come see my fairy garden!” Adara called, waving excitedly.
Estelle walked down the porch steps and crossed the grass to where her daughter kneeled in the garden. “It’s beautiful, sweetheart.”
“The fairies will come tonight,” Adara said with complete certainty. “Lucy says they only come when you’re sleeping.”
Estelle crouched beside her, running her finger along the edge of a pinecone. “Did you have fun with Leo’s family?”
Adara nodded vigorously. “Lucy and Aria said I can see their fairy garden and the treehouse, and Percy’s going to come too. And Eleanor said I could help make cookies with her.” Her eyes shone with excitement. “Can we stay here forever, Mama?”
The question hit hard. Estelle swallowed, buying time by adjusting one of the stones in Adara’s arrangement.
You can’t promise forever,her dragon cautioned.But you can’t keep running either.
