Page 188 of Wish You Were Mine
“What’s that?” Charlotte leaned over, curiosity lighting her face.
“It’s a game where you match the colors in bottles,” Nora explained.
“Oh fun!” Charlotte gasped. “I can help!”
Two minutes later, she was perched on Nora’s lap, chubby fingers pointing at the screen like she was the official strategist.
“Sorry,” I murmured, reaching to pull her back. “She can be a little overbear?—”
“She’s just fine.” Nora glanced at me with a conspiratorial little smile. “We’re a team now.”
By the time we were halfway home, the team was out cold.
Charlotte had begged Nora to trade her for her window seat, only to curl across Nora’s lap shortly after that. And somewhere in the rhythm of Nora absentmindedly running her fingers through Charlotte’s curls, Nora had drifted off, too, her head resting against my shoulder.
So with a quiet moment to myself, I pulled out my phone and opened the stack of applications I’d received for Charlotte’s new nanny.
Yep, daycare wasn’t working out, and I was hoping more one-on-one care might be better for her.
But after reading the same paragraph three times and not retaining anything, I knew the warmth of Nora pressed into me was making it impossible to focus on résumés and reference lists.
Especially since she was holding my daughter like she was made for the job I was trying to fill.
It had been almost two years since Alisha passed. Two years since I’d had a woman beside me like this. And the weight, the quiet trust. Well…it was doing things to my chest I hadn’t felt in a long time.
And when I glanced down at the way a loose strand of reddish-brown hair had fallen across her cheek, I noticed something I probably should have seen a long time ago—what a natural beauty Nora was. The faint spray of freckles over her nose. The fullness of her lips. Her petite frame, perfect for tucking beneath my arm like she belonged there.
Okay, you arenotgetting a crush on your little sister’s friend.I shoved the thought aside immediately.
Because,geez. I’d thought Owen was too old for Lucy and here I was, even a year older than him.
I sighed and went back to my phone, forcing my eyes to read the details of the application before me.
I was just skimming over the section that stated the candidate had a degree in early childhood development when the plane hit a pocket of turbulence. Nora stirred beside me, her lashes fluttering just a second before her eyes slowly opened. It took a beat for her to register where she was, and then she sat up straighter in a hurry.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She looked up at me, embarrassed, as she started to shift away.
“Don’t be,” I said quietly. “I don’t mind. Small quarters and all.”
“We did already establish how cramped it is back here.” She gave me a small, almost shy smile.
“That we did,” I said.
But instead of resting her head back on my shoulder like Isecretly hoped, she settled farther back into her seat, putting her AirPods into her ears.
And when she closed her eyes again, I let my gaze linger for a second, taking her in.
Just because I knew I couldn’t act on anything didn’t mean it was illegal to look.
EPILOGUE
OWEN
Six years later
I pulledalong the curb in front of the EFU gymnastics practice facility a few minutes after picking up Tate and Lennon from daycare. No matter how long the workday might have been, seeing Tate’s mop of dark hair and Lennon’s toothy grin were always enough to boost my spirits.
The second I unbuckled them from their car seats, my four- and two-year-olds were off like rockets, little sneakers pounding down the hallway of the gymnastics facility. I jogged behind at a slower pace, smiling at the trail of laughter they left in their wake.
