Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“I’m sure it’s not.”
“Okay, then maybe a little creepy,” she mumbled.
“Dru, out with it.”
Her eyes had fallen to his shoulder, but they came up to his, and she blurted, “After Mom died, after we met her, at the church, I used to make up dreams, before I fell asleep, that Nora would come back and make you happy again.”
Jamie grunted, the invisible blow she landed was so solid.
“I know, creepy,” she said quickly. “It isn’t like I didn’t miss Mom.”
“Of course not, darlin’,” he forced out.
“I don’t want you to think—”
“I don’t think anything but that you care about me. I used to wrack my brain to figure out what would make you happy too, after we lost your mom.”
“Did you come up with any ideas?”
He smiled through the sadness he’d never lose that he hadn’t bested that impossible feat. “No.”
She dropped her head to his shoulder again.
He rested his against it.
They sat together for a while and didn’t talk.
Dru broke their silence.
“How did she get the flowers there so fast?”
“I’ve no idea,” Jamie murmured.
“It was like magic.” She lifted her head again, so he did as well, and she looked to him. “I think that was why I fixated on her. It was all so…we were so…”
“Sad,” he supplied when she faltered. “Devastated. It was all so inconceivable.”
Her smile was small. “Yeah. All those. And then this woman in a pretty dress shows up and makes flowers appear out of thin air. So it seemed she had magic, and I guess, well…” She shrugged. “I guess we needed magic.”
Jamie could definitely see that, because at that time, they did need Nora’s magic.
“And now, she’s with you,” she whispered. “And it makes me happy. But it also makes me sad.”
And he could definitely see that too.
“I will never not love your mom and I will never stop missing her, even if Nora makes me happy.”
“She gets that. Nora, I mean.”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“It wasn’t a question, Dad. She gets it. I like that about her.”
“She liked your mom, and we haven’t had time to talk things through, but Nora is not the kind of woman to replace another woman. She’s the kind of woman to embrace another woman. We’ll never lose your mom that way, darlin’, and you don’t have to try to make things easier on Nora by hiding that part of you. Nora wouldn’t have that, and I won’t either.”
She pulled her lips in and rubbed them together.
“Did you worry you had to do that?” he asked.
She let her lips go and said, “You loved Mom a lot, Dad.”
“I loved your mom with everything I had that I didn’t give to Judge and you.”
Her face scrunched, and she hid her emotion by dropping her forehead to his shoulder.
“She knows that, right?” Dru inquired of his shoulder.
Oh, Nora knew that, for certain.
“Yes.”
“How does a woman come after something like that?” Dru asked.
And there was more of Nora’s magic.
“She understands that life keeps going, and love has no limits, and the man I am that she can love, Lindy helped create, so she’s grateful I had what I had with your mom. She’s grateful for me, and because she liked Lindy, she’s grateful your mom had it too.”
Dru nodded her head against his shoulder, before she mumbled, “I heard you laughing.”
“Sorry?”
She still didn’t raise her head when she said, “This morning. I heard you laughing.”
“As you know, Nora is funny.”
“Mom made you smile a lot. But she didn’t make you laugh. Not like that.”
Right.
“Darlin’, what I have is different with Nora because they’re two different women. One is not better than the other. It’s just different.”
“Okay,” she said softly, still not lifting her head. “And don’t get me wrong, I like she makes you laugh. Even before you guys sorted it out, I liked how happy she made you.”
And damn.
He’d been a total fucking imbecile.
“Things will be changing,” he warned.
She looked at him then, and the smile she gave his comment wasn’t small. “I guessed.”
“But you will always be a part of it, Dru. I might not have been able to adopt you, but you’re mine. You’re my little girl. You’re my daughter. I raised you. I claim you. And Lindy left me the most precious gift she had to give when she left you to me. I’ll always think that. Always, honey.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she said, “I know that, Dad.”
“Never forget it.”
She shook her head. “I won’t.”
“So, why are you out here by yourself?”
“Because I was feeling funny because I’m not really…you know.”
Yes.
Nora had been right.
“Tell me.”
“I’m not feeling it anymore.”
“Tell me anyway.”
She knew him, and when he was like this, she knew she wouldn’t get away with hiding anything from him.
So she rolled her eyes and said, “I just felt like a third wheel.” She glanced back at the house and her lips quirked. “Or in this case, a sixth.”