Page 103 of Happily Ever After

“I’m scared he’ll try to get custody,” Sophie said. The words came faster now. “Or partial custody. Or use the baby to control me. Or something. I don’t trust him. And I don’t know how to stop him.”

Silence settled over the table.

Essie’s instinct was to reach for Sophie, to reassure her immediately, but she held back. This wasn’t her moment and she wasn’t Sophie’s biological parent.

Frank leaned forward, his forearms resting on the table. “Listen to me,” he said. “Ryan will not take your child from you.”

Sophie looked at him, eyes wide. “You don’t know that.”

“I do,” Frank said. “Because I won’t let it happen. I will do everything in my power to protect that child.”

Essie felt tears prick her eyes.

Frank continued, measured and firm. “We’ll do this the right way. Legally. Calmly. With good counsel, which I can well afford. You won’t be alone in the fight either, not for one second. Essie and I will be right here with you.”

“We will,” Essie whispered.

Sophie’s shoulders sagged, her relief evident. “I don’t want to be a burden.”

Frank shook his head. “You’re not a burden. You’re my daughter. And that baby is my grandchild.”

The words seemed to hit Sophie harder than anything else that morning. Her breath hitched, and she pressed her lips together, nodding.

Essie reached across to her then, laying her hand over Sophie’s. Sophie didn’t pull away.

“You’re safe here,” Essie said softly. “And you’re wanted. So is the baby.”

Sophie squeezed her hand, just once. “I know,” she said. “At least, I’m starting to.”

Maple chose that moment to stand and stretch, then went over and rested her head on Sophie’s leg. Sophie laughed through her tears and scratched Maple behind her ears.

“See?” Essie said gently. “Even Maple’s on your side.”

Sophie sniffed and smiled. “She’s very persuasive.”

They sat there for a while longer, the food growing cold, but none of them in any hurry to move on.

Essie looked at them with love in her heart. At Frank, so steady and sure. At Sophie, still fragile but no longer building walls to keep them out. Essie felt a deep, quiet peace settle inside her.

Family, she thought, wasn’t about getting everything right.

It was about being there for each other. And being willing to accept each other, regardless of flaws and imperfections.

She touched the cross around her neck. This was what life was meant to be.

This was real happiness.

Chapter Forty

Maude sat in her recliner with the midday light coming through the windows that faced the Gulf side, the book for tonight’s meeting resting open on her iPad, which was on her lap.

Beyond the front windows, the nature preserve her street parallelled stretched wide in layers of green, darkening where the vegetation was thick. Besides the palms, palmettos, and the scrub brush, there was the occasional flash of movement she couldn’t quite identify.

A heron lifted off, wings beating slowly, deliberately. It would have been nice to be closer to the water, but she could see a slice of blue through the rest of the houses. Being near the preserve was nice, too. There was a lot of wildlife, birds mostly, but occasionally a racoon like the one she’d seen right after she’d moved in.

The book club book—Stillwater Summer by Helen Cormac—had left her thoughtful in a sort of lingering way that gave her ideas for tonight’s discussion. It was definitely the kind of story that left the reader with some questions and a little bit of discomfort. The book’s ending felt more like a pause in the story, and it was impossible not to wonder what might happen next to the characters.

She set the iPad on the side table. She needed to eat some lunch and maybe do some laundry. She’d done a quick run to Publix this morning for groceries and picked up a container of bakery cookies for the meeting tonight. She’d also decided what she was wearing to book club, too. Her embroidered wide-legged jeans with her favorite peasant top.