Page 51 of No Greater Love
"She said I needed feeding up. Apparently, I'm too skinny."
"Everyone's too skinny for Grandma Rose."
His thumb traced circles on the back of my hand. "Paige is having the time of her life. I haven't seen her this... free in a long time."
"She's a great kid."
"She likes you, you know. A lot."
The simple statement hung between us, heavy with implication. This wasn't just about Nate and me anymore. There was Paige to consider, her heart, her needs.
"I like her too," I said softly. "More than I expected to."
He nodded, understanding what I wasn't saying. "This is complicated, isn't it?"
"Very."
"Worth it?"
I looked at him—this serious, damaged, beautiful man who'd somehow become essential to me. Who'd shown me parts of myself I hadn't known existed.
"Yes," I said. "Worth it."
The kitchen door swung open again, this time revealing Paige, face flushed with excitement.
"Dad! Tasha! Come quick! Uncle Carl is bringing out the fireworks!"
Nate's eyebrows shot up. "Fireworks?"
"It's not a Williams family reunion without something catching fire," I explained, tugging him toward the door. "Consider yourself officially initiated."
As we followed Paige into the gathering dusk, I felt a strange peace settle over me. This day hadn't gone as I'd feared. There had been no disasters, no unforgivable faux pas. Just family, in all its messy, complicated glory, making room for two more people I cared deeply about.
And if my father's sidelong glances or Deanna's pinched smiles suggested not everyone was entirely on board—well, that was family too. The hard parts came with the good. Always had, always would.
Later, watching Nate laugh as my uncle's modest fireworks display went slightly awry, Paige safe beside him, I realized something.
I hadn't brought them here to get my family's approval. I'd brought them because, somewhere along the line, they had becomemyfamily too. A different kind, perhaps. Newer, more fragile. But family nonetheless.
And for the first time in a very long time, I wasn't afraid of what that might mean.
sixteen
nate
The house felt unnaturallyquiet after the chaos of the Williams family reunion. I stood in the kitchen, mechanically washing the few dishes we'd accumulated, while the events of the day replayed in my mind like a highlight reel.
Paige had lasted exactly thirty seconds in the car before succumbing to what could only be described as fun exhaustion. One moment she was chattering about the trampoline and her new friend Ayla, the next she was out cold, head lolled back against her car seat, mouth slightly open. I'd carried her into the house like a sack of potatoes, her arms dangling limply as I navigated the front door. She hadn't even stirred when I tucked her into bed, still wearing her purple reunion dress.
When was the last time I'd seen her that happy? That... free?
I dried my hands and moved to the living room, settling into my usual spot on the couch. The silence should have been peaceful, but instead it felt loaded with the weight of everything that had happened today. Everything that was changing.
Carl Williams clapping me on the shoulder, his weathered face split by an enormous grin. "A ‘Devil Doc’, huh? Well, I'll be damned. You boys saved more Marine asses than we could count." The unexpected acceptance from Tasha's stepfather, a man who'd seen his own share of combat, had caught me completely off guard. When he'd started defending my nursing career to anyone within earshot—"This man saved Marines in Fallujah, show some damn respect"—I'd felt something loosen in my chest that I hadn't even realized was tight.
Then there was Thomas Williams, Tasha's father, with his pointed questions about my career choices and his obvious disappointment that I hadn't "aimed higher." The condescension in his voice when he'd said the word "nurse" had been unmistakable. But Tasha had been watching, and when I'd delivered that old military line about working for a living, her eyes had lit up like Christmas morning.
The kiss she'd given me afterward—spontaneous, warm, proud—had been worth every awkward moment with her father. "You absolute menace," she'd called me, and I'd found myself grinning like an idiot.
