Chapter 21
Madison
The guesthouse was lit with a warm glow when Blair’s headlights swept across the driveway. Olive’s laughter reached me before the car even stopped, and in the next instant, she was tumbling out of the back seat, curls bouncing, Bunny clutched in one hand.
“Mommy!” she squealed, barreling into my legs. “Aunt Blair let me bake cookies, and I got to crack the eggs all by myself. And I didn’t even drop any shells this time!”
Her joy was contagious. I bent down and kissed her cheek, breathing her in. Flour, sugar, and the faintest trace of Blair’s lavender hand cream clung to her. “That’s my girl,” I whispered.
Blair came around the car, her smile soft but tired. She hugged me without hesitation, like we’d been doing it every day since we were teenagers. “She’s a natural in the kitchen. You’ve got a little baker on your hands.”
I laughed. “Or a mess maker. Either way, I’m not surprised.”
We walked Olive inside, where she immediately launched into another story about the cookies, and how Blair promised to teach her how to braid dough next time.
I tucked her into bed after a bath and one too many stories, and when I came back into the living room, Blair was sitting on the couch, her hands folded in her lap, eyes distant.
Something about her expression made me pause. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head at first, as if brushing it off, but then she let out a long sigh. “It’s silly. I shouldn’t even…” She stopped herself, biting her lip. “Greyson and I have been trying. For a baby.”
The words hung in the air. My heart squeezed.
Her eyes filled with tears, and she tried to blink them away.
“It’s not happening, Maddie. Every month I get my hopes up, and every month it’s the same.
I feel broken. Like my body doesn’t know how to do the one thing I’ve always dreamed of.
” Her voice cracked. “I want to be a mom so badly, and it feels like it’s slipping further away. ”
I crossed the room and sat beside her, taking her hand in both of mine. “Blair, listen to me. You’re not broken. You’re one of the strongest, most loving people I’ve ever known. And when the time is right, however it happens, you’ll be an amazing mother.”
Her tears slipped free, and she leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder. “I just feel like I’m failing Greyson.”
“You’re not,” I said firmly. “He loves you. He’s not measuring you by whether you can give him a baby. And even if it takes time, or if the path looks different from what you imagined, you’ll find your way. You always do.”
She let out a shaky laugh. “How are you the one comforting me when your whole house is torn apart?”
I squeezed her hand. “Because you’re my best friend. That’s what we do.”
We sat there in silence for a while, the kind of silence that wasn’t heavy but grounding. Blair eventually wiped her eyes, hugged me tight, and promised Olive a pancake breakfast before heading home.
When the door closed behind her, the guesthouse felt too quiet. I cleaned up the cups we’d left on the coffee table, turned off the lamps, and finally slipped into bed.
But sleep didn’t come.
I laid awake staring at the ceiling, listening to Olive’s even breathing down the hall, my mind spinning. The image of the insurance adjuster’s disinterested face, Seth’s steady hand on my back, Blair’s tears, all of it crowded together in the dark.
The worst part was how easily Olive had taken to Seth, and how quickly I was starting to lean on him, too. It scared me. People I cared about didn’t stay. My parents, the man I thought would co-parent with me, even the life I thought I had under my own roof, they had all slipped through my fingers.
And now, here I was, in Seth Cunningham’s guesthouse, with his shadow stretching into my life in ways I hadn’t expected.
I pressed my palms to my eyes, willing myself to breathe, to let it go. But the thought echoed, sharp and unrelenting. I couldn’t afford to let Olive get too attached to him. And I couldn’t afford to let myself believe he would stay, either.
Because when people left, and they always did, it hurt worse than the storm ever could.