Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Seth
Many months later…
Ella had been gone almost a year. There was no talk of her returning in our text exchanges, and I was terrified she was going to stay, so I didn’t ask.
Honey pecked at some bacon I gave her, and I stared at her avocado-printed diaper. “You think your mom left you with me forever?” I asked the hen.
She stopped eating and cocked her head to the side.
But then I thought of the letter.
Wait for me. And I mustered up hope that Ella just needed more time. We were in contact, texting pictures of the chicken or the twins. We even phone chatted a bit with Maggie, but I was giving her space.
Still, it was two weeks until the twins’ first birthday, and I was starting to wonder if Ella was coming back.
Maybe she’d healed and realized she wanted to move on from Idaho and all things associated with her late husband, including me.
My dairy business had taken off, and I was buying more acreage twenty minutes south, but I wanted more than business success. I wanted love and a family.
Please, God, I prayed as I stared at a recent picture of Ella and the twins. She’d cut her hair short in a Parisian bob and looked gorgeous. My heart ached to know what she was thinking and how she was really doing on a deeper level, but I was waiting for her to take the lead.