Page 132 of The Kidnapped

“My show is this weekend,” Eden reminded.

“I know. We can go to the library during the day and then your show at night.”

It had been hard for Raleigh to let Eden out of her sight for months after she got back. When Eden was in the living room, Raleigh made sure all the doors were locked in the house and would just sit there, staring at her as Eden played. Eden knew Hollis worked at the library a town over from their own, and Eden, like Hollis, loved to read, but she didn’t understand that when Hollis was working, she couldn’t keep an eye on her there. Even though Raleigh had gotten a little better with her worry, it was still very much there, and Hollis knew that.

“Can I get a book from the grown-up section this time?” Eden asked.

“We’ll see, baby,” Hollis replied. “Are you ready? Kiss Mom goodbye.”

Eden gave her a quick kiss and a hug and returned to Hollis’s side.

“Hey, I get a kiss from you, too, right?” Raleigh said to Hollis.

“You can have a lot more than a kiss later, if you remember to lock the bedroom door,” Hollis whispered as she kissed her once on the cheek and then on the lips.

With that, they were gone. Hollis had her own child seat in her car now so that she could drive Eden, which freed up Raleigh sometimes to get more work in while Eden was in school. As she sat down in her office and opened her laptop to do just that, though, she thought about what Eden had said, and she decided it was time to start her search.

“Engagement rings,” she said to herself as she sipped her coffee.

???

Hollis waited until Eden was in the classroom with the teacher and other kids, with the door closed between her and the room, before she left the school. She’d managed to find a job at a small library only about thirty minutes away from home, so while it was a little out of the way to take Eden to school, she jumped at the chance when she could.

She loved being in the car with Eden and listening to her talk about random things. Gone was her love of green dinosaurs. It had been replaced with the solar system, and she’d asked Hollis that morning if they could make one together with Raleigh this weekend. The kid had a lot of energy when she was talking about doing stuff, but Hollis knew they’d spend an hour at the library and then go to the show, and Eden would crash right after. Later, Eden would spend the rest of the weekend playing in the backyard, where Hollis and Raleigh had built her a swing set and the garden in honor of Olivia. It had sunflowers, to be sure, but they’d also planted vegetables and some herbs.

Eden liked learning about gardening along with Hollis, and Hollis liked that they were learning something together. She liked it so much that it had her thinking about the years she’d missed with Eden. She’d met her when the girl was four, but so much had happened before that. Hollis wished she could just go back in time somehow and have more of it with her. Well, she wished she could have more time with a few people, her mother included.

Eden and Raleigh had helped with Hollis’s grieving, but nothing could stop it. Finding a job at a library, moving in with Raleigh and Eden, and finally visiting her father, who was serving his sentence in the northern part of the state, had helped, too. She hadn’t forgotten what her mother had requested, and Hollis made sure to relay the message to her father.

“She forgave me?” he’d asked.

“Yeah.”

He’d sighed and then asked, “What about you? Do you forgive me?”

“I’m working on it,” she’d replied. “It would be a lot easier if you could actually admit that what you did was terrible and wrong and that you caused people, including your only child, pain because you couldn’t figure out something else.”

He’d nodded and said, “I’ll work on that, too.”

Hollis didn’t know what kind of relationship she’d have with him when he got out. Luckily, Eden was still young enough that she didn’t have to explain anything about her father. Eden did know about Olivia, though, and when they’d told her, she’d asked if Olivia had been like her grandmother. Raleigh had said yes, and that had made Hollis cry.

Since Raleigh was picking Eden up from school, Hollis stopped off to get them dinner. Leaving work, she’d texted Raleigh that she didn’t have the energy to cook, so Raleigh had requested she grab something from a restaurant near the library. Hollis also picked up two bunches of flowers from a street vendor at a light and parked in the driveway next to Raleigh’s car. Moving in together had happened more out of necessity than anything else, but they’d also both been ready for it. They’d talked to Eden beforehand, and her response had made them both laugh.

“Doesn’t she already live here?”

Hollis recalled that memory as she grabbed the bags to carry them inside the house. It had been about three months prior, and Eden was right to ask the question. Hollis had spent multiple nights each week at Raleigh’s house ever since her mother’s death. As much as Hollis had wanted to keep the house, she just couldn’t be there without her mom, so they’d talked about it and decided they were ready to live together. Hollis had packed up the house, dressed up the garden in the back, making sure to say a few words to her mom about the garden she’d make at her new house with Raleigh and Eden, and then, she’d moved in.

“Hey, babe,” Raleigh said with a smile when Hollis walked in the door. “What are those?” she asked.

“They’re flowers,” Hollis replied, passing Raleigh a bunch. “For you.”

“For me? Should I be worried you have another girlfriend?” She pointed at the other bunch in Hollis’s hand.

“It’s true: I have two girls in my life.”

“Hollis is home!” Eden yelled as she ran down the hallway toward Hollis.

“I am,” Hollis said. “And I got these for you.”

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