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“Is everything okay?” I grabbed her hand and stared up at her.

“Everything is great,” she promised. “He’s monitoring my weight closely and the baby closer since I’ve been so sick. It will be routine and Shep is meeting me there.”

“Promise to text me when you’re done, just so I know for sure?”

“I promise you both a text in the group chat and, if we’re lucky, I’ll even get a shot of baby on the screen. See you tomorrow at two at the park?” she asked us both and we agreed, waving as she headed to her office.

I smiled at Mel. “I’m glad you decided to go for it with the gazebo!” I forced excitement back into my voice. “I prayed so hard every night.”

She grinned and broke off a piece of crust from the blackberry pie, even though it was covered in raspberry jam. She popped it in her mouth and her eyes opened wide. “Holy crap, you might be onto something there,” she said, grabbing a fork and taking a bite of the pie, berries and all. “Oh man,” she moaned when she swallowed. “That’s …”

“To die for?” I asked, taking a bite myself.

She pointed her fork at me and took another bite. We finished the pie together in silence. I knew she was being a replacement for my mom just to make me feel better, and I loved her for it.

“It turns out, Mason wanted to get married there equally as much but was worried about my feet. Once I told him Shep had offered us the heaters he was all in. Holly danced around the living room for twenty minutes when we told her.”

My hands went to my chest and my awww meter went off the charts. “What a sweetheart. I bet she was so excited to have her mom and dad get married next to the big tree.”

She nodded, her smile firmly in place even though a bit of spark had gone out of her eyes. “She was, but now she says she isn’t so sure she wants to do the adoption ceremony there.”

“Or at all?” I asked, suspecting that was the real truth.

She shrugged and her eyes strayed to the kitchen where Mason was still working. “It’s killing him, but he won’t talk about it with me.”

I took her hand, knowing it was my turn to comfort her. “He knows she’s a kid and life has been rough for her. He doesn’t blame you or her. When I got here, he told me he’d marry you today if you or Holly would go for it.”

“He’s afraid of losing us. It’s been that bad. He thinks I’ll choose her over him because she’s my daughter.”

I waved my hand. “Wait, I thought you said he won’t talk to you about it.”

“He won’t, but I live with him, I can read between the lines. He loves her so much and she loves him like the moon loves the stars.”

“Then what’s the problem? She still feels guilty about your dad?”

“That’s all the therapist can tell me. Holly isn’t talking, to anyone. She’s constantly wound up tighter than a drum and hardly sleeps. She’s at school for the first time all week and it’s Friday. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t gotten a call that she wants to come home. The school is being good about it since the holidays are coming, but I don’t know what I’m going to do if we don’t figure this out soon. She’s losing friends because she doesn’t want to play. She went to a birthday party last weekend and it was a miserable disaster.”

I nodded as she stared out the window in thought. “Ellis told me he met her. He said she seemed to have a hard time connecting with the other girls, but she was the only one who focused on the actual yoga class.”

Her head snapped back to me. “You’ve been seeing Ellis again?”

“I never stopped seeing him,” I said, laughing. “But that’s beside the point. We were talking about Holly.”

She nodded and bit her lip. “She took an old bath towel from the cupboard after she got home and was practicing some of the positions she learned. I find her in her room doing some of them, just sitting there staring at the floor or the wall.”

“About that,” I said slowly, remembering my discussion with Ellis earlier in the week. “Ellis said he’d find room in a class if you thought it would help her.”

She leaned in at me, her momma bear eyes sparking. “You told him she was having problems? Why did you do that!”

I held my hand out to calm her. “I didn’t have to, Mel. He works with kids. He had her pegged the second she walked into his studio. He said she went from anxious and unable to focus, to calm and relaxed during the short lesson they had. He thought maybe knowing a few more poses would help her calm herself when she was upset. I never said a word.”

She rested her forehead in her hand and shook it. “Great, now perfect strangers can see there’s a problem with my kid.”

“Mel, I don’t think there’s a person in this town who didn’t realize Holly was going to have a hard time at some point. Coming to terms with what happened to her, and you, is going to take time. You’ve done everything you should have, from the therapist to giving her space and time to talk about her feelings. Marrying Mason is another big change, but you’ve given her a year to see you guys aren’t going anywhere. It might be as simple as she needs to see you get married in order to feel secure again. Then she’ll be ready for Mason to adopt her and for you to move on as a family.”

“And if she doesn’t?” she asked, glancing up.

“Then you keep finding ways to help her talk about her feelings.”