Page 96 of Quietly Falling
And while I don’t think about it too much anymore, nights like these have me remembering how far I’ve come—how much good I’ve done not just in Blackstone Falls but in Tennessee and beyond.
Montana and Archer had given me an opportunity and I’d run with it, the impact healing my inner child while saving so many others. And not only that, my body had healed too, my migraines few and far between now.
“Are you all right?” Ella’s voice is soft and I smile before I even turn around, her shoulder leaning against the doorframe in a robe that’s just for me.
“I thought I wore you out.”
“And you know I hate sleeping alone,” she says, closing the distance and locking her arms around my back, her head resting on my chest.
“Just picking up a few things,” I tell her as I pull her in close and press a kiss to her hair.
“The girls have soccer in the morning, and Winslow wanted to make sure you remembered she wants French braids.”
I chuckle as Ella leans back so she can make sure I see her eye roll because there’s no question I’m still the favorite. Lana still tries to tease me about it, but I never missed one of Holland’s games or social events. She’ll be graduating from high school not too long from now and I’ll be damned if I tarnish my record now.
“She told me three times before bed.” I laugh, swaying us back and forth as she settles back against me.
And we stay like that, our hearts beating as one in the house we made a home, the gift that we’d received when Montana and Archer had walked through the door and handed me the key. The one with plenty of space for all the kids to come and stay.
The house we’d brought Faye home to from the hospital.
Winslow not long after.
And then we’d gotten a call for an emergency placement for three siblings in the middle of the night. Tate, Liora, and Cavan.
Two boys and a girl.
Like Mason, Audrey, and me.
It felt like a sign from the universe that we’d be destined to have them.They felt like they’d always been ours.
“What are you thinkin’ so hard about?” Ella says, her voice sleepy as she nuzzles her face against the cotton of my shirt.
“The night we got the call for Tate, Liora, and Cavan.”
“Kismet.”
“Since the day you knocked me on my ass, baby.”
“What?” She chuckles in disbelief. “That never happened.”
“It did.”
“When?”
“It was the night of the adoptathon and I was trying to bring the trays back to the Poppy Seed. You opened the door into me and I lost my balance.”
“I forgot about that.”
“I didn’t.”
“Is that why you wouldn’t talk to me after that?” she teases but I shake my head, leaning down and kissing her breathless.
“I knew you’d change my life and I just wasn’t ready yet.”
Because sometimes love comes out of nowhere and knocks you on your ass. And sometimes it’s just a patch of ice and an overzealous baker opening the door into your face.
Sometimes it’s a road trip and an unexpected detour.
