Page 7 of Wood You Knot

“Nix and his brother were just bringing us our new couch,” Sage explained. Daphne seemed to notice the couch for the first time.

“Where’s your brother?” she demanded with a frown, looking around. A moment later, Parker returned carrying the coffee table as if summoned. He walked inside, not missing a step, and put the coffee table down in front of the couch.

“That’d be me,” he said, grinning. “My name’s Parker. What’s yours?” He must have overheard her question.

“I’m Daphne.”

“How old are you, Daphne?”

“Six,” the little girl answered, her eyes going to her mother. Sage smiled encouragingly.

“I’ve got twin girls your age—Bella and Brielle. Are you starting school on Monday?”

Daphne frowned with concern. “Yes. I’ll be in Mr. Robertson’s class.”She didn’t sound too excited about it.

“That’s my girls’ teacher. You’ll love Mr. Robertson; he’s nice,” Parker told her before he looked at Sage. That seemed to perk Daphne up a little, though she still looked uncertain.

“Oh, isn’t that wonderful,” Sage said, smiling at her daughter.

“Why don’t you and Daphne come over for lunch tomorrow? That way the girls can meet each other before Monday,” he suggested, and Sage lit up at the idea.

“We’d love to! Wouldn’t we, Daph?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Daphne replied, sounding unconvinced.

“All right, cool. Do you have a piece of paper? I’ll write down the address,” Parker said.

“I think I do, somewhere…” Sage went to her purse on the counter, rooting through it. She found a pen and an old envelope. Parker walked over to the other side of the counter and took the pen, scratching out his address and directions to his house.

He lived in a century home in one of the original subdivisions. I lived there, too, in the bachelor apartment above the detached garage. “Bella and Brielle would love to meet you; they love making new friends.”

I kind of just watched this play out, shifting from foot to foot. Once he’d given Sage his address, we said our goodbyes and left. Neither one of us said a word until we’d climbed into the cab of the truck.

“Still got the hots for Sage, huh?” Parker finally broke the silence, a huge grin on his face. I punched him in the arm.

“Shut up.” I frowned, trying to process the last twenty minutes and how tongue-tied I’d felt over seeing her again.

“I did this for you, you know,” Parker told me, putting the truck in park. “Now you have an excuse to see her again.”

I could find a million excuses to see her again, but I kept that thought to myself. “Gee, thanks. But I think you did it more for Daphne,” I pointed out.

“You’re not wrong.” He nodded. “I can’t imagine having to uproot my kids and move them to a new town. It’s gotta be hard on the kid.” Parker had three kids—twin girls, ages six, and one boy, who was less than a year old.

“Yeah,” I trailed off, thinking about Sage’s green eyes and hesitant smile, and wondering what brought her here.

Chapter Three

Sage

From the large windows in the living room, we watched the black truck pull away from the curb and drive away. I placed my hand on Daphne’s shoulder, and she shrugged it off.

“I don’t want to go on a playdate with some kids I’ve never met before,” Daphne sulked.

“Oh, stop. You’ll be meeting a lot of new kids. It might make you feel better to know two friendly faces when you start on Monday.”

“I hate that I have to go to a new school and make new friends and meet new people. I like my old friends.” Daphne’s bottom lip trembled, and a wave of intense guilt hit me. It was difficult to breathe through, but I focused on drawing in a stabilizing breath before I crouched down so I was at face level with my daughter.

“I know it’s hard, Squirt. I miss my friends too. I know it’s not what either of us wanted…but I promise we’re both going to love it here just as much. Maybe even more than Guelph.”

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