41. Puzzle Pieces #2
My heart catches in my throat, a few special kisses and two little sentences from a five-year-old girl that sound identical to the ones a five-year-old Adam said some twenty-one years ago.
Adam joins me at the counter, tucking me into his side as we look out at our Christmas.
“Did you get everything you wanted?”
My gaze slides to Lily, and my heart patters against my chest as she helps Connor onto the couch, snuggles up with him and Deacon and Bev and the dogs.
The perfect fit.
Adam’s palm touches my lower back, gliding up my spine, his thumb moving over the nape of my neck. “You know what I was thinking?”
“What?”
“We have five bedrooms, and only two of them are being used.”
My chest rises and falls quickly. “Yeah?”
He looks at Lily, and when she grins at us, he grins too. “Yeah.”
* * *
“For fuck’s sake, Marco, I haven’t even left yet!”
I prop my fists on my hips in the doorway of my bedroom.
Oh sorry—Marco’s Zen Den. That’s what he’s calling it now.
I guess that’s why he’s changing my soft-glow white pot lights out for warm amber bulbs, why there are bamboo branches in a large ceramic vase in the corner, and why he’s currently plugging in a diffuser.
He fans the mist at his face and inhales deeply, then winks at me over his shoulder. “Gotta get rid of all the bad juju.”
“There’s no bad juju! Connor and I don’t have bad juju!”
Okay, so as it turns out, I’m more attached to this little apartment and this tiny bedroom than I realized. It should be simple to pack up and leave today, to officially begin the new year at my new home. And it is. But I underestimated the hold this place has on me.
This was our home. This is where I found out I was pregnant, and the couch in the living room is where Archie held me and assured me I’d be such an amazing mother.
This bedroom is where Connor slept when he came home from the hospital, and where I spent that entire night just staring at him, refusing to believe I’d created something so damn perfect
. This home is where he smiled for the first time, and these walls heard his laugh before I had to share it with anyone. He learned to crawl, learned to walk, and learned to love right here in this home.
“Oh God. Fuck. Archie
! Help! I made her cry!” Marco rushes to my side, pulling me into his chest. “I was joking about the juju, Ro. You have the best juju. No one does juju like Rosie Wells-slash-soon-to-be-Lockwood. No one
.”
“What did you do now?” Archie asks with a heavy sigh, entering the room.
“He didn’t do anything,” I choke out, flapping at my face. “I’m just—” hiccup
“—really gonna miss you guys!”
“Aw, Rosie.” Archie embraces me tightly, and Marco piles on top. “You know we’re not going anywhere.”
“You two are the only family I’ve known for so long. I don’t want to lose that.”
Archie swipes at the tears falling from my eyes. “We’ll always be family, Ro. And we are so proud of you, and so happy to see you growing your family. You are deserving of everything good you’ve found in this world.”
“You’re two of the best things I’ve found,” I murmur.
“We get that a lot,” Marco whispers, and I snort through my tears.
Twenty minutes later, I’ve got the last of my things loaded into my backpack. One bag is all I have left, because Adam and Archie already took everything over to Adam’s place— our place
—yesterday.
“Oh hey.” Archie stops me in the doorway after my fifth good-bye, handing me a folder from the bank. “Take this.”
“What is it?”
“A savings account for Connor. I opened it when you found out you were pregnant.” He rubs his neck, lifting a shoulder. “Been putting your half of the rent in there every month for his education.”
My chest cracks wide open, and my heart falls at my feet. I don’t have the words to tell him how much this means to me, so in true fashion of a girl who has too many feelings and has never learned how to properly express all of them, I hurl myself at his chest and weep.
He rubs my back, his breath catching in his throat. “If you don’t get out of here in the next ten seconds, I’m gonna cry, too, and I don’t wanna cry.”
“I love you, Arch. Thank you for being my best friend.”
“I love you, too, Rosie. Now get your ass on home.”
I can’t wait to, but it’s the new year, and I can’t let one of my favorite girls celebrate all on her own, so I stop at Wildheart on the way. The vet tech who got saddled with holiday duty waves at me from the cat den when I walk in.
“Hey, Rosie.” She follows me through to the kennels with one of the ten-week-old kittens from a litter someone found on the side of the highway. “What are you doing here today?”
“Just wanna see Piglet.” I haven’t seen her since we dropped her back off on Christmas Day, and I don’t think I’ve ever gone so long without seeing her. “I’m gonna take her for a quick walk.”
“Piglet? Did nobody tell you?”
“Tell me what?” I grab her leash off the hook, already reaching for her favorite treat in my pocket as I approach her kennel.
My feet skid to a stop, and my knees wobble, like they don’t know how to keep me upright anymore.
Then I read the sign hanging from Piglet’s kennel, and when my coworker whispers the same words, my heart shatters.
“Piglet’s been adopted.”
* * *
It takes me an hour to pull myself together enough to get behind the wheel.
An hour of convincing myself this was everything I wanted for my Piglet. A home. A family who will love her beyond a shadow of a doubt and treat her right. A family that chooses her for the rest of her life.
She deserves this, a forever family. The same as I found mine.
I guess I was just holding out hope that my forever family…well, that it could be hers too.
Ugly sobbing and snorting all kinds of snotty fluids isn’t quite how I pictured driving up to this house for the first time since it’s officially become my home. When Adam watches me from the front porch as I step out of the car, I can tell it’s not how he imagined it either.
It’s a mild day, the dusting of snow we got yesterday melting beneath the bright sun as Connor rides his new bike along the walkway. Adam’s gaze comes my way, and all the worry in his blue eyes steals his excitement as he stands from the front steps.
Connor stops the bike with his feet, climbing off and racing over to me. “Mama!” He hugs my legs tight, his big green helmet smooshed against my thighs. “I lub you, Mama.”
“I love you, too, baby.” The words come out super croaky, and when Adam takes my hand and pulls me into him, a fresh wave of tears falls.
“What’s wrong?” he whispers, rocking me side to side. “Did you change your mind? ’Cause you’re not allowed. I’ll lock the doors and won’t let you leave.”
I laugh a snorty, strangled laugh, then cry some more. “I’m fine. I’m totally and completely one hundred percent fine.”
“Uh-huh. You wanna try that again?”
“I-I-I-I went to visit Piglet on my way over and take her for a walk, but she wasn’t there. She-she-she—” I swipe the heel of my palm against my nose. “She got adopted! It’s so good, right? That’s so good. It’s excellent. It’s amazing.
She found a-a-a—” A choking sob hurls me forward, and I bury my face in Adam’s chest. “She found a family!”
Adam slips his hand beneath my sweater, his cool palm a heavy weight on my back as it glides up and down, over and over. He doesn’t say anything, just holds me close while I cling to him. Then, he takes my hand and my bag, pulling me toward the front steps.
“C’mon, Connor. Let’s show Mama how we filled our home today.”
I scrub at my raw eyes as Connor dashes to the front door. “What do you mean, filled our home?”
Adam smiles, and even in my borderline hysterical state, I recognize what a beautiful sight it is.
If home is a feeling, I feel it when I see that smile.
When he opens the door, a chorus of barks greets us as Bear leaps forward, showering us in kisses, soothing my sore heart.
And then a flash of brown and black fur catches my eye, and I look up as the most beautiful German Shepherd steps forward, happy pink tongue hanging out of her mouth as her gorgeous brown eyes blink up at me.
She takes three steps before leaping into the air, whacking Bear right in the face with her butt when she spins, and I drop to my knees as I wrap my arms around her neck and bury my cries in her fur.
“ Piglet
.”
A crocheted pink peony is fixed to her collar, and I take the heart-shaped tag with her name on it between my fingers. On the back is my phone number and a simple message: If I’m lost, please call my mom.
“You did this for her?” I whisper, staring up at Adam through blurry eyes.
He shakes his head. “I didn’t do a damn thing but fall in love with a girl and her dog one day in the forest. And then they brought me that little boy, and together, all of us, we made a family.”
“ Meow
!”
My head whips up at the tiny mewl, just in time to catch a tiny blob of grey fluff that launches itself off Bear’s head and scurries up my shoulder. The kitten nudges my jaw with its little head and then digs its piercing claws into my sweater, hanging down my chest and dropping into my lap.
Adam rubs the nape of his neck. “Oh, and, uh, that’s Dinosaur. We went to visit the cats while we were waiting for Piglet, and I, uh…well, Connor looked up at me with these hopeful eyes, and I…” He sighs, a sheepish smile as he shrugs. “He wanted to name him Dinosaur. I couldn’t say no.”
And then he grins, scooping Connor into his arms, helping me up, and tucking me into his side. He takes my chin in his hand, tipping my face, dropping the sweetest lips to mine as another puzzle piece slowly clicks into place.
“Welcome home, Rosie.”