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Are you okay? she mouthed.
I’m fine, he returned.
Her nod was slight before she swept her attention my way. “Hey, Savannah. It’s so good to see you again. I see you’re putting up with this one?”
Her head cocked to the side. A thousand silent questions rolled from the motion.
What happened?
Is he really okay?
I’ve been so worried.
And what exactly are you doing here?
None of it was judgement.
“I’m doing my best,” I said around the lump in my throat. My response seemed to be the only thing that had clued Ezra’s children into the fact that I was there because Olivia whirled around at my voice, and her eyes widened with glee.
“Ms. Ward, you came over? I didn’t even have to send you an invitation. I’m really glad you’re here.”
Sweetness dripped from her as she unwound herself from Ezra’s arms and came skipping my way.
Her brothers followed suit, bouncing on their toes as they crossed to the kitchen.
All blond hair and those cherub smiles.
“Hi, Miss Ward! Hi, Miss Ward! I missed you the most!”
Affection spread, a thrill that rolled through my spirit.
My knees felt a little weak when I stood so I could give each of them a hug.
Olivia then Oliver.
And my hugs, they were so tight, clinging to them because I realized I had missed them, too.
Owen was the last, and he looped both arms around my neck and let go of the weight on his feet when I bent over to hug him.
“I a kowawa.” He giggled as he swung.
“What, do you think I’m a tree?” I teased through the emotion clotting my voice.
He giggled again. “No way,” he said. “You is my S’vannah.”
His words struck me from out of nowhere. So hard and unexpected that I nearly wept.
I settled him back onto his feet, and the three kids stood grinning my direction, while I felt the eyes of the rest of the room searing into the top of my head.
I looked up.
Only this time, I didn’t get flustered and run.
I didn’t seek refuge in the restroom.
Because Ezra was watching me in a way that staked me to the spot.
Tender and fierce and devoted.
Is that what this feeling was? What I wanted it to be?
Devoted?
I jolted when the door opened again, and my attention snapped that way to find Ezra’s mother pushing through.
Terror held her expression, and the sparse wrinkles on her face had deepened with worry. Tears she’d likely been holding slipped free the second she saw Ezra sitting on the couch.
Dakota stood, intuitively knowing she needed a private moment with her son. “How about we all go out and play in the backyard?”
“Yes! This is the best idea ever. Only if Miss Savannah is comin’, too.” Olivia took my hand and beamed up at me when she said it, like we were a team.
Meant to be together.
A disorder of little voices filled the air, and Kayden toddled over and was immediately in the mix. “I wanna play outside! You’re it! I gonna swing! Me, too! Me, too.”
Olivia tugged at my hand. “Come on, we gotta go.”
I glanced at Ezra once more as I allowed his daughter to haul me to the door.
Energy keened between us, alive and humming and stronger than ever before.
It didn’t sever.
Even when I turned and helped to usher everyone out.
THIRTY-NINE
EZRA
With my mother standing just inside the front door, Dakota, Paisley, and Savannah herded the kids out the back.
Cody, Ryder, and Caleb held back, refusing to go, which didn’t surprise me a bit.
They were all itching to get any details about what had gone down last night, or maybe they were set on standing guard over me if the asshole had the balls to come around here again.
But it was the terror radiating from my mother that completely held my attention.
A bout of unease whispered through the air, and I was regretting that I hadn’t called her the second I’d woken up this morning. I knew well enough in this town the word was going to get out, and not because Savannah had let the cat out of the bag.
Anxiously, I roughed a hand over the top of my head. “Hey, Mom. I take it you heard.”
Her jaw clenched. “Yes, the neighbor told me there was some sort of disturbance in the middle of the night near your house, so I called Pamela ten minutes ago and demanded she tell me what happened. She tried to play it off, but I knew you were involved. Why didn’t you call me?” The words trembled from her mouth.
The rest of my crew retreated into the kitchen area under the pretense of getting coffee, stepping away to give my mother and me a moment.
My mother was the best. As loyal as they came. Her love unending. Protective to the extreme.
Shocker that I’d turned out the same.
She had never taken too kindly to being left out or kept in the dark, though. She’d told me a million times that strong families weren’t built on secrets. But some secrets were too big for the pure like her to hold.
