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And then what?
She and I would come to our end?
Panic threatened to drop me to my knees.
Mom was suddenly there, shifting me around and pulling me two steps away from where Kane and Maci stood, her arms wrapped fiercely around me as she whispered, “You can do this, Emery. I know it’s difficult…painfully difficult…because I’m having the hardest time forcing myself to leave right now. But give him a chance. He might be exactly what she needs.”
“Or the absolute worst thing that could happen to her.” I gasped it as I clutched her to me.
She edged back a fraction so she could see my face, and she reached out and brushed back a lock of hair that whipped in the slight breeze.
Compassion and faith filled her expression, her head canting softly to the side as she tried to reach me. “I’ve always been a believer that things work out the way they’re supposed to. That the right path will be found, even when it feels like we’re lost when we’re wandering around trying to find it.”
She squeezed the outside of my arms in emphasis. “But you have this opportunity to make sure. To watch and listen. Trust your gut and your heart…they both count, but in order to do that, you’re going to have to peel away the anger you have toward him. It’s not his fault he didn’t know her.”
But how did we know that? None of us had any idea what had happened when Emmalee had found out she was pregnant. Maybe she’d come to him, and he’d turned her away.
Except, I’d seen the shock on his face when I’d told him, and I’d only be lying to myself if I tried to maintain that he’d known.
Blowing out some of the heaviness, I inhaled a shaky breath. “I’ll try.”
Mom lifted her hand and set it on my cheek.
Warmth spread.
Her love for me intense.
So real.
There was no love like a mother’s.
Pain clamped down when I thought of Maci having to live without that.
“If you need me at all, you say, and I’ll be on the next flight.” It was a promise I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to keep.
“I know.”
Then she hugged me again. Hard. Her own sorrow gushed out. “I love you so much, Emery Voss. You can do this.”
Emotion thickened my throat, and I wheezed, “I love you, too.”
My mom stepped back, swiping beneath her eyes before she inhaled a steeling breath and turned around, feigning brightness in her voice when she moved for Maci. “Okay, Grammy has to go now to check on Grampa Ted, but I will talk to you soon!”
“You better go make sure he’s drinkin’ his milk. All he ever wants is coffee, coffee, coffee.” Maci hooked her hands on her waist and stamped her foot.
Mom choked over a soggy laugh. “I will absolutely tell him.”
Then she scooped Maci up and hugged her close as she swayed her from side to side.
Breathing her in, swimming in the same turmoil that I was, only she had already come up to that end.
She was leaving her granddaughter here with a man that none of us knew.
Maci squeezed her arms around her neck and wiggled in her hold. “Bye, Grammy! I love you so much like all the stars in the whole sky.”
“Every single one of them,” Mom whispered before she finally set Maci onto her feet.
Her face was so full of tears that she didn’t say anything else before she rushed around to the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut.