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“I didn’t know that. Why didn’t I know that?”

“Oh, don’t sound so put out,” she said, leaning closer for a kiss. “What did she ask?”

“The hard questions. Where Holly went when she left. Holly came back with some crap that she didn’t remember, it was too long ago.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “She didn’t remember where she went when she walked out on her husband and child?”

He pointed his finger. “See. That’s what Bella said. Mini you.”

“Now I’m really proud of her.”

“I told her that too when we left. Holly basically avoided or deflected. She whined she wasn’t perfect and was clean and trying to make amends. She alluded to looking for a job, then finding a place on her own, transportation. All the right things that said she was sticking.”

“That makes me sick. Do you believe it will happen?”

His eyes were tired, his head shaking slowly, his breath escaping. “No. Or maybe it’s me not wanting it to be true, but I honestly don’t see it.”

“Is she using again? Could you tell?”

“Her eyes were glossy. She looked hungover. Getting drunk in her mind might not be the same as getting high.”

“It’s not,” she said.

“Addiction is addiction,” he argued. “You know that.”

“I do. But it sounds as if Bella is smart enough to see the important things. What’s the next step with her and Holly?”

“They exchanged numbers. Bella is still undecided, but she left the lunch in a good mood.”

“Sometimes kids bounce back more than we can give them credit for.”

“I thought the same. We had a few laughs and she said she really wanted to be with Tiff. I was on the fence about Bella’s friend early on.”

“Why? I find her inquisitive and delightful in her own way.”

“She is. I guess. She’s just so much more outgoing than Bella.”

“Hey,” she said, narrowing her gaze. “You only knew the Bella who came to live with you after your father died. A trauma like that, added with the fact of living with a stranger. Of course she was going to be different. More withdrawn. Quieter. Think back. The girl she is now, she’s different from two years ago, right?”

“Very.”

She inched closer to him, put her head on his shoulder. “Then give yourself some credit for helping with that change. Or bringing some laughter into her life. And if Tiff is that different from her, it’s not a bad thing either. Some would say we aren’t the same.”

His hand moved down her arm, just his fingertips grazing, teasing, lighting her body up.

Not always in arousal, but in something much deeper.

Something that touched not just her heart, but the tingling in her gut. The one she got when she knew what right felt like.

For years she followed her gut in her career, but never gave herself the chance to do it in her personal life.

And now that she was, now that she found the one…

Everything was magnified tenfold.

She just had to make sure he believed it also.

“We aren’t,” he said. “You made that clear years ago.”