Page 92 of Always Right

I offered him a smile, lacing my fingers with his. I loved the feel of his skin against mine, the comfort it brought to my heart when he was near me. His voice soothed my senses which tended to be in overdrive nowadays, even if I kept it hidden.

We took the girls out of the car, glancing at the gray clouds that covered the midday sky, but didn’t dwell on it as we headed to Evie’s backyard. Little Lily ran up to us, jumping into my arms so hard that had it not been for Derek’s firm hand on my back, I was sure I would have fallen. I laughed, holding my precious niece in my arms for a little longer than usual.

“Aunty Hannah, you took very long to get here. Why did you take so long? I was waiting for you!”

“How much chocolate have you had?” I laughed, kissing her forehead.

“A lot, but shh, my mommy doesn’t know.”

Deborah approached us, rolling her eyes as she pried Lily off of me and waved her away with a smile. Derek gave her a hug and then the woman turned to me, offering me one of those beautiful motherly smiles she always reserved for me.

“How are you holding up, dear? Nathan told me what happened.”

Derek excused himself with a wink in my direction and walked toward Carter, who sat on the other side of the backyard.

“I don’t know. Some days I think it’s going to be okay and others I’m not so sure.”

Deborah hummed, thoughtful.

My heart sank because if she didn’t know what to say, I wasn’t sure if there was anything that could fix this.

“It’s a pretty bad situation, isn’t it?” she finally asked.

“Yeah...it is.”

“You know you don’t have any fault in this, though, right?”

I scoffed, sitting on a step of the patio. Deborah followed, placing a comforting hand on my knee.

“And let’s say the root cause of this is everything you did—"

“It is.”

“Okay, the root cause of this is what you did. You still have no say as to how others handle it. It’s been years, Hannah. Please don’t feel guilty.”

“It’s hard not to,” I whispered, looking over at Derek. He laughed with Carter, each of them holding a baby in their arms. The sight was precious...perfect. “They don’t deserve this.”

“For the record, neither do you. You turned your life around...that’s not you anymore. I think you deserve more credit than you give yourself.”

I shook my head, but didn’t say a word, unsure if I’d be able to keep it together if I spoke.

“Besides...you have to have done something right to have those two beautiful girls and a man who’d lay his life on the line for you, don’t you think?”

Maybe it’s just luck.

“And it’s not you getting lucky.” I narrowed my eyes at her, hating that she knew me so well. “You have a good heart, dear. You deserve every good thing that comes your direction. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

“Did you hear about my sister drama, too?”

At that, Deborah laughed, and the sound made me smile. “Ah, that Evie. She means well, but sometimes her feelings get the best of her.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Complete opposites, you two.”

“Polar opposites.”

We sat in silence, looking ahead to the family surrounding us. There were so many of them that the air we breathed was charged with love. Despite the differences and uncertainty, there was so much love there that I could barely handle it. Deborah placed her hand over mine and squeezed.

---