Page 95 of Your Soul to Keep

I nodded. “Like Marlena did for Nan.”

He settled back in his seat and smiled widely. “How do you feel about Marlena coming back onboard?”

Could it be that easy?

For weeks, I had agonized over leaving Nan’s pride and joy in someone else’s hands, finally concluding I couldn’t do it.

Then Tuesday morning, not even 2 hours after I left him, Gabe called to update me on his plans with Zoe.

Zoe, who we presumed to have gone home.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he murmured into the phone.

I closed my eyes as I clutched the receiver of Nan’s house phone in my hand. I preferred my cell, but Gabe got a kick out of calling the house phone, said it made him feel young again. Made him feel like no time had passed.

Zoe had decided to stay until Saturday instead of leaving this morning as previously planned. After he got off work, they planned to take Dylan down to the beach to have dinner at Krippy’s Chippy before walking to the carousel at Carousel Island.

Jealousy flared in my heart and seared my veins.

Because the three of them, no matter how I looked at it, were a family.

And as much as Gabe insisted Zoe was happy with the current arrangement, every cell in my body warned me she wanted her family back.

“Shae? I won’t go if you don’t want me to, but Dylan should know her. I can invite Zoe here, but I prefer to go out so we can go our separate ways when it’s time to put Dylan to bed. And I don’t feel comfortable with her taking Dylan down to the beach.”

My tongue was tied, my emotions tripping over each other in an effort to be heard.

He sighed. “I know this is difficult. Once you get to know her, you’ll see she’s harmless. She’s the last person in the world who wants to be a mother. But she deserves to know her daughter a little bit. In the long run, it’s the best thing for Dylan.”

Her daughter, not yours.

I would do well to remember that.

I finally found my voice. “It’s okay.”

For the next few days, he kept in close contact with me, reassuring me with his voice and the time he gave me that he wasn’t going anywhere.

In the morning when I was still in bed and he was at the shop with his dad, he called the house phone.

After dinner, when I was at Ayana’s, he video called with Dylan on his lap.

And later in the evening when things began to die down at Ayana’s, I sat in the office while he lay in bed ready to sleep, murmuring softly, his voice sleepy and warm.

It was during those conversations that we began to dream and map out a life together, one where I didn’t live an hour away.

I struggled with the idea of leaving Ayana’s and Nan’s house behind. But I wanted the life Gabe offered, too.

My past insisted I stay put while my dreams beckoned me into the future.

Zoe being in town for no other purpose other than to spend time with Gabe and Dylan complicated the issue and left my nerves raw and jittery.

A never-ending reel of anxiety looped in my brain.

What were they doing after Gabe finished work?

Would she stay late at his place?

Was he still attracted to her?

---