Page 82 of Make Room for Love

Mira was taken aback.She loves you a lot.“Well, thank you. It was nice to run into you. Congratulations on your engagement.”

“Thanks.” Grace glanced at her ring and smiled to herself. “I appreciate it. I’ll be coming back to check up on Isabel, so I’ll see you again soon.”

36

Isabel was,mercifully, intact and lying lengthwise on the couch. When she saw Mira, a hesitant smile spread across her face. “I thought you’d be gone all day.”

“I wanted to come back and be with you.” Mira dropped her bag on the floor, rushed over and kneeled on the rug, and carefully took Isabel into her arms. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Isabel rested her forehead against Mira’s, her voice tight with emotion. “I talked to Grace today.”

“I know. I ran into her as she was leaving.” Mira stood up. “Will you tell me about it while I make tea?”

“Oh.” Isabel seemed knocked off course. “What did she say?”

Mira filled the kettle with water and turned it on. “She said she was still a little angry, but that you had a good talk.” She returned to Isabel’s side.

“She told me that, too. I can accept that. But what I was going to say is this.” Emotions warred on her solemn face. “I apologized and had a real conversation with her for the first time. Everything you said to me last night… I needed to hear that. I’ve been making the same mistakes over and over again. Trying to take care of other people when I was hurt. Trying torun away from my own problems instead of actually doing right by other people.”

Isabel wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m sorry that I saw us that way, that I needed you to depend on me. The truth is that I needed you.” Her voice shook. But a smile broke through. “Also, Grace asked me to be her bridesmaid.”

Mira held onto Isabel tighter, as tightly as she dared in Isabel’s fragile state. “That’s wonderful. Oh, Isabel, I’m so happy for you. Did she apologize to you for what she said?”

Isabel huffed a laugh. “Yeah, she did.” She told Mira about their conversation. “It’s going to take time for both of us. But I can accept that. I haven’t been respecting her feelings enough.”

“I’m proud of you.” Mira stroked Isabel’s back. “I know you didn’t do it for me. But I’m so glad you did it. And I have something to say to you, too.” The water in the kettle started boiling. “One moment.”

Mira got up, took Isabel’s glass teapot from the shelf, and set it on the coffee table on a coaster along with two mugs. She returned with the kettle and rummaged in her bag for what she’d picked up on her way home.

“What is that?” Isabel asked.

“Chrysanthemum tea. You can’t be drinking a gallon of coffee every morning if you’re trying to rest and relax all day.” Isabel started to say something. “Don’t argue with me. Anyway, Frankie used to make this for me when I was crashing in her apartment. I thought the flowers would be perfect for your teapot.”

Isabel’s face wobbled, and she looked down. “Is that okay?” Mira asked.

Isabel nodded. “Thank you,” she said, very softly.

Mira tipped the dried flower buds into the teapot. She poured water over them, and the flowers blossomed, bobbing in thewater in the clear glass. She kneeled by Isabel on the floor and took her hand.

“I haven’t been fair to you, either,” Mira said. “I put you on a pedestal for a long time because I thought you were so strong and brave. And you are. But I don’t think I let myself see how scared you felt or how much you needed.” She took a deep breath. This was it. “Isabel, I want to stay with you. I want to keep coming home to you, and I want to keep falling asleep next to you and waking up next to you. I want to build a life with you. Not the version of you that’s tough all the time. The real you.”

A sweet, cautious smile lit up Isabel’s face. She made a hiccupy sobbing sound. Mira went on. “I want to keep taking care of you while you’re healing for as long as it takes. I want to keep hearing about Alexa and the rest of your family. I want to know everything you want to tell me.” This was what her heart had wanted all along, and she was finally brave enough to bring it into the light. “Even when it’s hard, and you think I can’t take it. I’m tougher than I look.”

Isabel’s face contorted—with joy, with tears. She didn’t try to hide them. “Mira…”

Mira gently massaged the tendons of her hand and stroked the calluses of her palm. “I got this tea for you to remind you that I’ll always be here to take care of you. And that if you tell me how you’re feeling, I’m not going to run away. Just make yourself a cup if you ever get worried. I think you can manage that with one arm.”

Isabel took a few shuddering breaths, tears falling down her cheeks. Mira stayed where she was. They were both too unaccustomed to good things, and Isabel was more stubborn than Mira, and she would need more time. “I will,” Isabel said. “Thank you. I…”

Mira kissed Isabel’s palm, and Isabel cupped her face tentatively, as though she were afraid Mira would vanish withthe slightest touch. “There was something you said last night,” Mira said. It was time to go all in. “You said you loved me.”

Isabel stiffened. “I do.” She relaxed when Mira kissed her hand again. “I’ve known since I woke up next to you in my bed the first time. It was a bad time to say it. I don’t expect you to feel the same way about me. But I’m not going to pretend I didn’t mean it. You’re too smart for that.” She smiled sadly. “I’m not good at taking things slow.”

Perfect calm settled over Mira. “I love you too, Isabel.”

Mira had once tried to convince herself that she didn’t need to fall in love. Love was sentimental nonsense, and real relationships were founded on pragmatism and sacrifice. Her parents—supposedly a love match—had been together for decades, and Mira had never heard them sayI love youto each other.

She had told herself all that when she’d been with Dylan. But the sacrifices in their relationship had always been hers to make, not his. This time, it was Isabel giving something up for Mira: the walls she’d put up, and her terrible reserves of pride and shame. This was real love, the kind that had carried Mira’s parents—two very different, strong-willed people—through three decades of marriage.Thatwas what Mira wanted for herself.

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