Page 130 of Breathe Again

Rhys answered, “Hey, Mara.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek and she blushed. “I’ll fix it as soon as I confirm the paint color with you. I just ran in ahead of Rebecca and Olivia to give you a heads up that Olivia’s on her way in.”

“Thanks, but, what happened?”

Zale answered, “I’ll tell you later. Olivia is coming up the walk.”

He moved in beside Mara, unsure how Olivia would react and feeling an intense need to protect both of their feelings. He needn’t have worried. Mara was a mother first, and Olivia’s feelings always took precedence.

Olivia walked right up to Mara and studied her face. Mara smiled down at her, giving her time, letting her assess the situation.

“Hi, little bird. I missed you.”

“Are you better?”

“Not all the way, but I will be.”

Olivia leaned in, resting her forehead on Mara’s chest. Mara wrapped her hand around the back of Olivia’s head.

“I missed you, Mommy.”

Mara looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “I missed you, too. I’m home now.”

“Auntie Bex’s dogs are loud when they’re hungry… worse than the baby birds in our tree. Did you know we have baby birds?”

Mara’s pleasure shone from her face. “No, I didn’t know that! Which tree?”

Olivia went on to explain and after she’d satisfied herself that her mom was okay she wandered off to the sunroom to play in her Zen Garden.

Mara stood still, looking pensively at the floor, in almost the exact same spot she stood when Rhys held her through her breakdown. She looked up in the sudden silence, searched out Rhys’s eyes, and whispered, “Thank you.”

He nodded to her, his expression serious, and kind as always. “I’m glad I could help.”

Zale watched as she swung her gaze around to Bex and winced. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she admonished briskly, her eyes bright.

“I wouldn’t have liked that,” Mara admitted.

She shook her head. “It’s okay, Mara, I’m glad he was here. He knew what to do when we didn’t. He helped me to help you for a change. That meant the world to me.”

Zale moved closer to her, still wary of her reception of him.

She shuddered and grasped his arm. “I’m sorry, Zee.” Her gaze landed somewhere around his ear. She refused to meet his eyes. She would have been devastated had the roles been reversed.

He took advantage of her reaching out to him and drew her into his arms. “No, I’m sorry, gorgeous. You were trying so hard, and I let you down. It won’t happen again.”

He watched as the meaning of his words sunk in, and noted that they brought her no relief, and realized how much work he had ahead of him to gain her trust. Every few minutes, it seemed, he was reminded that she was hurting, and it was a hurt to which he had contributed.

Willa came over and put her arms around both of them and he opened his arm to pull her in close for a moment.

Willa took Mara’s hand. “Girl time?”

Mara pulled away from him, dragging her hand across his abdomen, not breaking contact with him until he was out of reach, though she still wouldn’t meet his eyes. She followed Willa to where Bex was standing waiting for her turn to welcome Mara home.

Zale and Rhys escaped to the back deck, beers in hand.

Zale broke the silence. “She’s a mess.”

Rhys looked down, his voice subdued. “Yeah.”

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