Page 118 of Love Notes & Lifelines
I glance up at Beck to get his take, but his lips are moving with no sound. Whatever’s bothering him has taken over his mind for the moment. “I bet the girls would love it if you came over and told them yourself. How about on Wednesday?”
The woman absolutely beams. “Cally would have really loved you,” she whispers before stepping away.
“I’m sorry I never met her. Thank you…for letting us know…everything.”
She nods and is gone a second later.
“Are you ready?” I ask Beck.
He smiles down at me, but it’s troubled. “Yeah, sweetheart. Let’s go home.” He leads me out of the courthouse in silence and doesn’t speak until we’re in the car.
“Cally was trying to tell me something. First in the letter, and then here. Something about stars shining bright, but I can’t make sense of it.”
I take his hand in mine and lift it to my lips. “We’ll figure it out.”
His gaze softens when it lands on me. “We will,” he agrees. “I just hope we’re not too late. There’s no doubt in my mind Danica will take the house the first chance she gets, and I have no way to stop it.”
“I know it holds memories, Beck. But a house is just that, a house. It’s the people you love who make it a home.”
As soon as the words leave my mouth something unlocks in my chest and it’s as though I’m taking a full breath after spending too long underwater.
I’ve spent a lifetime trying to feel safe in a home built of glass. But it was never the home that made me feel unsafe. It was the instability. Whatever happens, Ruby and Emmy will never have to move every other month or worry about where their next meal will come from. It’s not the same.
Beck leans forward and his lips meet mine in a kiss meant for comfort. Our breaths mingle, and whatever we have here in this bubble settles the runaway fuse that sparked through my body searching for an explosion earlier.
His forehead rests against mine, and he cups my neck tenderly with one hand. He’s holding me to him, but he’s also holding on to me like a lifeline for us both, and I recognize that in him now. “We will make wherever we are home, Stella. We have to.”
“Let’s go do something fun with the girls this afternoon,” I suggest. “Tabby’s probably ready to bake something by now.”
His chuckle fills the car as he starts it. Before he pulls out of the parking lot, he turns to me. “One battle down, a few more to go.”
Together, Stella, together. I chant that mantra the entire way home. We will do this together. He flashes me that crooked grin that melts my heart. If this is me falling into another bad situation, I’m too far gone to stop it even if I wanted to.
“We’ve got this,” I finally say.
He holds my hand the entire way home. Not for show, not because he had to, simply because he wanted to. These are the moments to remember—these are the moments that tell me this is real.
I just hope Silas hasn’t messed me up so much that I won’t be able to keep it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
BECK
“It’stime to bring in a forensic accountant,” I tell Elijah over video chat. “Teddy is a wonder kid, and I appreciate the hell out of him, but we’re hitting too many dead ends and we’re running out of time. How does someone his age get as far as he did anyway?”
Elijah laughs. “He also has a master’s degree in accounting. And he told me the same thing this morning.”
“Damn. Is he willing to move too?”
Elijah has located multiple building options within a thirty-mile radius of my childhood house. The commute will suck, but moving my headquarters is the only option now. My priorities have shifted. Keeping the girls in Sailport Bay is a necessity. It’s home to them, and that means making some pretty substantial changes, at least for now. I’m still fully committed to my company, but my family comes first.
My family. The words cause a brain freeze. Never in a million years did I expect those words to rattle around my mind and not cause a tidal wave of hurt.
“He might be. He’s going through a bad breakup,” he says.
“Hmm. That sucks.”
“I’ll have a list of people willing to relocate by next week and then we can start the hiring process after we secure a building.”
