Page 83 of Letters to Molly (Maysen Jar 2)

“No. I couldn’t stomach one more hospital meal.”

“Okay. Food. Pills. Nap.” I pushed the chair forward slowly.

“Molly, I . . .” He ran his hand over his face. He’d grown quite the beard in his time at the hospital. I’d offered to shave him a few times—so had a couple of overeager nurses I wouldn’t miss—but he’d declined. He liked the low maintenance of the beard.

“What?” I slowed us to a stop.

“Thank you.” His blue eyes lifted up to mine. “You didn’t have to do this. I could go home. Hire a nurse. Mom said she’d stay with me for a while. This is a huge burden on your life.”

I walked around the chair and knelt so we were eye level. “Finn, you’re not going anywhere. Until you’re healed, this is your home. The kids need to see you. They need to see that you’re getting better.” So do I.

“I need to see them too.” He stretched his good hand over the arm of the wheelchair and cupped my cheek. “And you.”

I gave him a small smile. “We’ll be okay.”

David and Rayna would have done anything to help. The same was true of Poppy and Cole. But none had made the offer to bring Finn into their homes. Why? Because I made the decision to bring him here before they even had the chance.

He was here. At home.

Where we all needed him to be.

I pushed him up the ramp, his chair heavier than I remembered, but not unmanageable. When we reached the porch, I waved to Gavin, who was still standing outside.

He waved back before we disappeared inside.

“Tell Gavin thanks for mowing the lawn,” Finn said.

“I did.”

“No, tell him from me.”

“All right.”

I still felt awful for standing Gavin up for our date. He’d called the night we were supposed to have dinner, but I’d been at the hospital. Finn had just been taken off his sedatives and we’d all been waiting anxiously for him to wake up.

I hadn’t even realized what time it was. What day it was. Hours had blurred together, and when Gavin called, I went to a quiet corner. He asked me where I was. I crumpled into a heap of tears.

I cried hard, finally letting it go. Gavin stayed on the phone the entire time. When I pulled myself together, I told him about Finn’s accident. He l

istened and promised to be there if I needed help.

He didn’t ask to reschedule our date. I didn’t offer. We both knew there would be no date.

I’d learned something since the accident.

My love for Finn wasn’t going to stop. I could tell myself and others I wasn’t in love with Finn. It was all lies. I’d buried that love deep, shoving it down whenever it threatened to appear, but it was still there.

It had always been there.

Until I figured out how to deal with it, there was no room for another man in my heart.

“Dad.” Max came careening down the stairs as I pushed Finn into the living room. There was a stack of books under his arm. “Check this out.”

“What?” Finn forced the pain and exhaustion from his face. He had been trying his hardest since the accident to hide it from the kids.

“Grandma Deborah gave me all these books yesterday. You have to find Waldo.”

“That was nice of her.”