“Is everyone cozy?” Jillian asked. “We should all be nice and cozy for this chat.”
Both girls nodded, serious expressions on their faces.
“Back when your dad first decided he didn’t want to be my husband anymore, I really, really hoped he would change his mind,” Jillian explained. “And I waited for a long time, too, because I wanted him to have a chance to come back to us. Do you remember the time we spent in the city when I had to work so much?”
They both nodded, and Jillian wondered how much Posey possibly remembered about the time before that. She had only been a toddler when her father left. Jillian had waited two long years for Alan to change his mind before she decided to come to Sugarville Grove.
“But he was very sure he didn’t want to be my husband anymore,” Jillian said. She’d told the girls this before, but this time she said it with a calm she actually felt. “So, I left my job, and we sold our condo, and the three of us came here to start our new life.”
“With Gram and Grampy,” Posey said.
“Exactly,” Jillian agreed. “We’ve been here only a little while. But is it starting to feel like home?”
“Yes,” Posey said with a big smile.
“Yes,”Mari said firmly.
Jillian’s heart gave a helpless squeeze at that.
“Now, your dad told you that he and his girlfriend broke up,” Jillian went on. “But that doesn’t mean he wants to be my husband again. He probably won’t ever want that. And it’s not really up to him anyway. The three of us have a life here that we like. It feels like home to us. And we never have to leave unlesswewant to.”
Mari nodded and scooted up to wrap her arms around Jillian’s neck, giving her a hug that carried more relief than Jillian would have thought possible.
“It’s nice that you’re home with us,” Mari whispered. “I don’t like you to be at work all night.”
Those extra shifts in the ER had been rough on all of them. She hadn’t really realized just how rough until moving here and reclaiming that time with her girls.
“I’m happy to be with you too,” Jillian told her. “And with you, Posey.”
Jillian tried to swallow past the lump in her throat, then Posey launched herself into the hug and the next thing Jillian knew, they were all laughing.
“You should go on a date with Tripp,” Mari said softly. “He’s nice. And we want to go to the Christmas stuff, right Posey?”
“Right,”Posey yelled.
They stayed cuddled and read a chapter ofPippi Longstocking,and then Jillian got in her own bed, leaving the girls drifting off together in Mari’s bed.
And as she waited for sleep to come, Jillian was filled with relief on morethan one front.
The conversation with the girls had gone as well as she could have hoped.
But their news about Alan had managed to disrupt her peace for a moment.
There was a time not so long ago when hearing something like that would have sent her into a spiral of hope that he might finally be coming back. She had married him after all, so she thought that was what she was supposed to hope for.
But as her eyes went to the girls, with the dark hair they got from their father spread out on the pillows, she couldn’t help questioning everything she had believed before.
Because as much as she had prayed for their father to come back for their sake, they really werehappyhere with their great-grandparents. And they were happy with a mother who worked normal hours and could spend time with them, not just scramble for a paycheck.
The three of them were at peace in a way they probably hadn’t been even before Alan left.
If she was honest with herself, she knew that was because Alan had never really been happy with her or with his role as a parent. She had always tiptoed around his barely hidden resentment, trying to take care of the girls’ needs on her own.
And as Jillian finally drifted off, one thing became suddenly clear to her.
For the first time since he left, she didn’twantAlan to come back.
Not for the girls, and certainly not for herself.
