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Did she have the right to mess up Addie’s life, if all was well and good with Jacob?
“I’m home!” Addie raced across the sidewalk as the bus driver gave a friendly wave. “And have I got papers for you, Dad! Like the best ones ever, and Miss Gilly says I might be the brightest little poppet she’s ever had the privilege to know!”
“She said that, huh?” He bent, grinning. “Gosh, I love how you talk, kid.”
“Well, that was what she said,” she explained in her adorable, take-charge voice. “But I’m glad you love it, anyway.” She handed him the papers, then did something that made Josie’s fears dance anew even as it strengthened her resolve.
Addie hugged her.
The spontaneous embrace felt so right. So very right. And even if it was wrong, it didn’t feel that way, so she hugged the little girl back.
Oh, her heart.
To hug her daughter, her precious child, her little girl after all this time.
She’d never imagined this opportunity. She’d thought about what she’d do if Addie ever came looking for her. Would she understand the choices Josie made? Or would she feel abandoned? Cast off?
She’d wondered that often, but right now, none of it mattered because she was holding her little girl. If science claimed a heart couldn’t physiologically grow, it was wrong. Dead wrong. Because her heart grew in that moment. And when Addie released her, Josie knew neither she—nor her heart—would ever be the same again.
Her phone beeped a message, and Josie used it for an escape route. “Gotta run. Jacob, thank you for all of your help. I’m going to head up the beach and get the rest of my stuff ready to move into my aunt’s apartment in town. Things will be easier here if I’m settled there.”
“You’ll get to live right near the ice-cream store?” Addie didn’t try to mask the delight in her voice or expression.
“A short walk away, and an even greater temptation,” Josie assured her. “Stan’s custard is a town favorite. That’s why I brought them on board at the Bayou. It made sense to help another local business, and gave people a proximity to the best custard around without having to drive twenty minutes north and hunt for parking.”
“That’s the same business mentality that brought you into the inn,” Jacob noted. “My dad calls it the restaurant overview, and not too many have it.”
Josie hadn’t thought of it that way, but he was right. And wrong. Because a big reason for her accepting the deal was standing less than two feet away. “Great minds think alike.”
“See you later, Josie! I love your hair!”
“I feel the exact same about yours, sweet thing.”
Addie preened, then slung her pink-and-silver backpack over her shoulder.
Josie walked back to her car, reweighing her choices.
Addie was delightful and self-assured for a reason. She didn’t have a clue about any early life shenanigans that might have occurred. She knew love. She’d been carried to term, given to a woman who clearly loved her, and was now with a man who doted on her.
Josie had no right to upset that. And yet…
How could she gloss over the original deceit that brought them all here? It didn’t sit right with her.
She climbed into her car, but when she got out onto the road, she didn’t go straight back to her apartment.
She needed help. She needed advice. And she needed it from people who should have known what was going on long ago. She hit the Bluetooth and made three calls: to Kimberly, to her aunt Kate and then the hardest call of all—her mother.
Cissy Gallagher thought she knew her daughter. She was about to find out that wasn’t the case, and Josie didn’t have a clue how to ease into any of that.
CHAPTER SIX
Jacob took the call from his father while Addie ran a stream of small cars along tiny roads she’d made in the sand. “Dad, hey. How’s it going?”
“It’s all right,” Bob Weatherly told him. “But already unseasonably hot, and your mother’s been craving some grandkid time, so we’re going to head your way next week and stay awhile. We booked a cottage across the lake from where you’re building. I haven’t seen your mother this excited for a while. It’s positively refreshing.”
