Page 74 of Hero for the Holidays

Like being fifteen then.

“Landry,” she whispered.

She heard a cheering sound, and they looked over in time to see that Daughtry had planted his hat on Lila’s head.

“There’s a whole audience over there,” whispered Landry.

“Yeah,” she said, stepping away from him.

“Let’s plan a horse ride with Lila. Maybe give it a couple days?”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

“I’ll see you then.”

“Yes.”

Like they were just civil acquaintances. Like they hadn’t both been looking at each other’s mouths.

And then he left her. Melted into the crowd watching Lila ride.

Fia stood back. Feeling torn, feeling separate. Wondering what all she was going to have to keep holding back to stay standing.

Because she couldn’t melt into Landry, no matter how much she wanted to.

She couldn’t give in to despair over what she felt for Lila. She had to be strong.

She’d been strong all this time.

She just had to keep doing it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THECOUPLEOFdays that Fia spent with Lila were great. Lila was in a little bit of an emotional state. After her breakdown on the swing, she’d been cheerful at the party, but teary, and that mood had continued over the next few days. But Fia didn’t mind babying her. It wasn’t exactly how she had imagined her intro into motherhood, but it was nice. To be able to care for her. To be needed.

She was an interesting kid. She overthought a lot of things. She cried over movies, but was far too interested in true crime for someone her age. She cared very deeply about animals, but also loved bacon. She talked quite a bit about her gecko and of course about Genevieve.

They had plans to go on a short trail ride today to get Lila used to her.

“Did you have a dog or cat before?” Fia asked, while they waited for Landry to show up with the horses.

She looked away. “Yeah. I had a dog named Sunday. But I couldn’t take her with me when I got moved into care. She went to a shelter.”

Fia kept thinking her heart had already broken enough times. But then something like this would prove to her that a heart was an endlessly breakable resource.

Lila, sweet, caring Lila who loved animals so much, had lost her dog along with her parents.

“Oh.”

“She was a lab. She was such a great dog.”

“Do you remember which shelter she went to?”

“Yeah. But it was a long time ago.”

Fia made a mental note that she was going to try to track that dog down. Of course, a well-behaved lab like that was likely snapped up quickly in a shelter, but she also knew that dogs went back to shelters often.

Landry texted her to check on Lila, and she ignored the way that her heart lifted.

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