“Tessa, I know what you’ve done for that little girl,” Lynda said. “But the statute protects her and gives her a chance to find a family and stable residence, which you don’t have right now.”
“What about Morgan?” Dusty asked. “Surely, she has a say in this. She wants us to adopt Olive. She was clear about that.”
“But she signed a paper stating the entire process would follow the state rules and that’s the only way a judge will agree and…” She gave a sad look at the house. “This home does not meet our standards.”
Tessa leaned over, gut-punched and finished with this conversation.
The girl who called herTess-Tesswas going to live in a house in Milton, Florida, and would call someone elseMama.And then she’d be adopted and gone forever.
Lynda closed the folio. She tucked it under her arm.
“Look, because of the arguably mitigating circumstances of a hurricane and your mother’s accident, I can extend the seventy-two hours to one week.”
“What day, exactly?” Dusty asked.
“Today is Sunday, so we need Olive returned to an approved location next Monday at eight a.m., not one minute later. And I need daily telephone contact, including two video calls, at least three in-person meetings with the child at the home where she’s staying, and confirmation next Sunday at five p.m. that she will be returned or you will be arrested and Olive removed by law enforcement.”
Blood drained from Tessa’s head, leaving her dizzy and weak.
“And if we buy a house this week?” Dusty asked. “Will that qualify?”
“Depends on the financial situation, insurance, and if it meets our standards.” She looked apologetic. “It won’t be easy after a hurricane. And…I’m sorry. I better go now.”
Tessa couldn’t muster a goodbye. The woman had just torn her heart out, stomped on it, and set a deadline to cut it in two. She stood stone still while Dusty walked Lynda to her car, said something quietly, then came back to put his arms around her while the sedan pulled out.
“Tess. Look at me.”
She looked at him.
“We are going to figure this out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet. But we are.”
She dropped her head against his chest. “My mother. My little girl.” She gave in to a sob that wrenched her whole body. “I cannot lose either of them and I’m going to lose both.”
“I know and we are in this together every step of the way, however it goes.”
Of course he couldn’t assure her they’d find a house in a week or that Olive wouldn’t be adopted or make any of the empty promises some men might make. She loved him for that, although any promise, empty or not, might have helped her broken heart.
So she just held him and cried.
Jonah pulled into the Summer House driveway at a little past eight on Monday evening, after a mercifully short shift at Driftwood. The restaurant hadn’t sustained significant damage, but Destin was still in a storm mindset, and Mondays were slow in the best of circumstances.
So, he made it home at the tail end of sunset, with the sky doing the soft pink thing with streaky clouds. It was pretty, but not as pretty as Pepper’s RAV4 in the driveway.
Of course, she was here. She’d shown up at three for her job like nothing had happened between them. Knowing traffic would be nuts, he rushed out without much more than a baby hand-off and a quick food and diaper report.
Hopefully, Atlas was bathed and asleep, or close to it, and they’d have a chance to talk. One thing he’d learned after seeing this driveway full of EMTs who carried a near-dead woman out on a stretcher—life is short.
Not that he, of all people, needed a reminder of that. But he wasn’t going to wait for her to share her secret. Whatever it was, he wanted to know so they could get on with the business of falling in love.
It was inevitable. Didn’t she know that?
He sat in the Honda with his hands on the wheel. A quick review of the other cars told him most of the house’s residents were gone, probably at the hospital. Even the apartment above the garage was dark, so Grandma Maggie, the poor thing, was probably there, too, even though her too-loud and too-bright red T-bird hadn’t moved.
Inside, the house was eerily quiet, with the only real light coming from the kitchen. He rounded the entry wall to find Pepper in there, behind the island, with Atlas on her hip, peeling a banana one-handed with her teeth.
