Chapter 12
[Trinity]
Two weeks have passed since Mirabelle arrived on my doorstep, and I canceled attending book club.
Which means it’s been more than a week since Dart’s arrival. A week where we’ve circled one another.
Despite my protests that he should leave the house, he settled in an extra bedroom. Since then, it’s been like a video game of avoidance, but Dart seems to be everywhere.
The hallway without a shirt on.
The bathroom project, his jeans dipping low as he worked on the plumbing.
And most recently, the backyard, measuring space outside the back door.
He’d catch me looking out the window at him, our eyes locking on one another for a brief second, before I’d spin away from the glass, feeling a hitch in my breath.
I’d catch him looking at me as well, when I’d be pacing with Mirabelle or playfully pressing kisses on her. His focus is intense, but his eyes are always soft. Possibly thinking the same things I do about Mirabelle. She is such a blessing.
Then again, I didn’t know what Dart was thinking, or what he was doing by tackling all these projects around the house.
I simply knew he was here, hovering when I made dinner or did the dishes.
His presence wasn’t so much ghost-like as we’d been in the past, but an awareness.
I sensed his nearness, felt it tickle my skin and rattle my thoughts, and I even sipped a little comfort from it.
Especially when he offered to hold Mirabelle or gave her a bottle or simply murmured something to her.
Which further unsettled me because I did not want to get used to him being present, or near me, or smelling like mountain pine with an undertone of fresh asphalt.
Dart would leave again. It was only a matter of time, I told myself.
Thankfully, we didn’t talk. He didn’t ask for more details about Mirabelle or her unknown father. We didn’t bring up the past. We just . . . circled one another.
It was frustrating as hell.
One night, a knock rattled my front door. Answering it, I’m met with the best surprise. Vale Sylver and Halle Reynolds, now Sylver, stand on my doorstep along with Mavis and Genie, also now Sylvers.
I have officially missed several book club meetings in a row, which is so unlike me, but the girls knew my situation. Mirabelle.
That first night, I’d sent a simple text in our group chat to say that something had come up. But by the next day, I’d shared more details about the crazy circumstances of finding a baby on my doorstep with permission to adopt her.
Of course, news traveled fast between Sterling Falls and Rogue River as neighboring small towns, especially when the sheriff is a member of their family.
“Surprise!” Vale announces, waving a bottle of wine and jazz hands at me after I open the door. “We brought book club to you.”
Vale is currently dating my older brother, Cortland. Cort and Stone Sylver were once inseparable friends, but they had a falling out. As Vale and I are the only sisters in either family, and both members of the Sterlets, we called a truce when the rest of the families had already pulled apart.
Now, this cornstalk-blond spitfire is going to be my sister-in-law, because I sense an engagement coming soon. Stone and Cort might not be best friends again, but they’ve formed their own truce because of Vale.
Vale helps herself to enter my house.
“Hey,” Halle offers next, holding out her arms for a welcome hug.
Halle is a lithe red-haired beauty and was my best friend in high school. She returned to Sterling Falls a few years ago as a newly divorced single mom and reunited with her high school sweetheart, Knox Sylver. The rest was a rocky road to happily ever after.
“Actually,” Halle drawls, holding up several gift bags that are obviously for a baby girl. “We’re throwing you an impromptu baby shower. Congratulations, lady.”
These women know my story. How much I’ve longed for a baby. How hard I worked to make it happen. And how much I lost.
While my throat grows thick, I’m too busy smiling at them, grateful for their presence. It’s been too long since I’ve had adult interaction outside of my own family.
Mavis follows Halle, holding another bottle of wine and offering me a hug as well.
Her tan skin and elegant bone structure enhance her dark features, which include deep eyes and long, midnight-colored hair with streaks of gray woven in it.
She’s tall like Halle, and married to Clay, the second eldest in the Sylver family.
As Clay and Knox work together in their family business, Halle and Mavis are close.
Mavis is also a nurse and works at County General like me, but in a different department.
She’s quieter than the rest of us and an excellent listener.
“Yes,” Genie Sylver announces, bringing up the rear, with a baby carrier in her hands. “Nolan will be asking Mirabelle to prom.”
Genie is the newest friend in the mix. Married to Judd Sylver, who is the chief financial officer for Sylver Seed & Soil, she’s a new nursing mom, so baby Nolan is with her. She has a short, wavy bob with stripes of blonde and brown in a style that seems to match her bubbly personality.
I laugh at Genie’s comment. “You haven’t even seen Mirabelle yet.”
“Don’t need to see her to approve.” Genie winks at me. “I already know she’s perfect.”
Perfect. That’s exactly what I think of Mirabelle, and these amazing friends of mine. We’re going to continue to grow older together, especially Genie and me, with babies roughly the same age.
Only a few months old, Nolan is so much bigger than Mirabelle, but perfect in his own right with a shock of dark hair and blue eyes, which are presently wide-open.
I need mom friends, something I haven’t thought about until this exact moment.
Especially friends going through this experience at the same time as me.
Not that Vale or Halle or Mavis have forgotten the baby stage with their children, but Mirabelle will need playdates.
I need my friends, and gratitude swells inside me.
“And whose fault is it that we haven’t met her?” Vale teases loudly over the others as they rush toward my living room, surrounding the bassinet where Mirabelle sleeps through the commotion.
I’ve been a little preoccupied and overwhelmed with Mirabelle’s arrival and . . . Dart’s.
Soft murmurs follow Vale’s playful chastising, keeping me in the present.
“She’s so sweet.”
“Look at her little nose.”
“What a precious angel kiss,” Mavis says about the harmless red birthmark near Mirabelle’s eyebrows.
“Putting it in my calendar now,” Genie says with a laugh. She’s a calendar creator. “Future prom dates.”
Vale chuckles. “On that note, wine and then presents.” She heads toward my kitchen, helping herself to the glasses while the other women continue gushing over Mirabelle until a masculine throat clears.
All heads turn sharply in his direction.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Dart says, glancing around the group of women he doesn’t know.
He probably doesn’t remember Halle, as she graduated high school with me, making her years younger than him.
Genie is roughly my age as well, but was not part of my friend group back in high school.
And Mavis is a transplant, moving in, then out of Sterling Falls, before settling here again, all in the span of Dart’s absence.
My ex-not-really-ex-husband looks freshly showered despite wearing black joggers that hang loose on his hips and a baseball-style shirt that hugs his chest. The ink on his arms is on full display.
My friends ping gazes from Dart to me and back to him. I can almost hear the questions suddenly in each of their heads.
Who is that? Mavis would ask.
You didn’t mention you had a man in your life. Halle would tease.
Yes, yes, yes. The last being Genie in all her enthusiasm.
But it isn’t until Vale re-enters the room, laughter in her voice while she juggles wine glasses. “Okay, let’s get this party started right with— Dart?”
She stalls out behind the back of the couch, blinking at Dart like she can’t believe he’s standing there.
I still can’t believe he’s here.
“With darts?” Genie says, confused, glancing from Vale to Dart.
“No.” Vale’s clarification is said low and long before she looks at me, compassion and fear mingled in her eyes.
“What is he doing here?” she asks, like Dart isn’t present.
“Everyone,” I begin, clearing my throat before casually waving toward him. “This is Dart. Dart Rivers. And it appears he was just leaving.”
I glare at him because I do not want him to crash my impromptu baby shower, especially since it just morphed into a truth-sharing session with friends.
Because they are going to have questions, and unfortunately, I still don’t have all the answers.
“Right.” He smiles with enough wattage to set all the lightbulbs buzzing. “I’m headed out to a baseball game.”
Baseball? Whose team? He can’t possibly mean Tate’s team? My older brother plays in an adult, men over thirty-five league during the summer months with some of the guys he’s been friends with since high school. The star gang, I used to call the five guys tight as brothers.
Only three remained in the area.
And I wasn’t aware Dart had been in contact with Tate.
“Looks like a party,” he keeps his voice light, while his gaze roams from friend to friend.
No one speaks, perhaps too stunned to find a man in my house.
After an awkward beat, Dart crosses the room to Mirabelle, rubs his hand over her little head, giving her a soft glance before stepping closer to me.
He leans in like he’s going to kiss my cheek. Like he’s forgotten my don’t-touch-me rule. Or maybe he’s acting out of some long-gone habit.
He always kissed me before he went somewhere.
He stops himself just shy of my cheek, slips his hands into his jogger pockets, and says, “Behave yourself, Forever.”
I absolutely hate the chill that ripples down my center at the soft brush of his breath and the heat of his nearness.
He must have showered because the pine over asphalt fragrance lingers when he pulls further away.