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Would I be here if Eli were still alive?I don’t know. Probably not.
Mabel jumps up from her spot on the floor and rushes toward me, throwing her arms around me. I end up with some light brown hair from her ponytail in my mouth, so I pull it away. “She’s beautiful, Dee. She looks like you but also has some of Mom’s features.” She pulls back, and her hazel eyes shine with unshed tears, causing mine to mist up.
“Thanks. It seems she’s taken with you all.” I nod in the direction of Olive. Tally races back to the kitchen from where she stood in the doorway. “I just wish I could figure one person out.” I sigh.
“Don’t worry about her, she’ll come around. She felt like you abandoned her when you left, and she had to try to move past that. It seems that you coming home has caused all those old feelings to resurface, and now she has to sort through them.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just be there for her. Chat to her like her mood isn’t bothering you. That’s hard, but I’m sure you can manage it.” Mabel winks and turns to go back to the group.
Isla comes to my side. “This is going well,” she whispers.
Folding my arms, I say, “Yeah, I guess the real test will be when Dad meets her. Has he come looking for everyone yet?”
“No, I asked Hudson, and he said that he had to go to town this morning. He must have left not long after you and Harley went to the horse sales, going on the information Hudson gave me.”
“Come on. Let’s get her things from your car, and I’ll let you make your escape before things blow up,” I half-heartedly joke. She nods, and we head back outside.
“How are you feeling about all of this?” She waves her hand around the entire ranch.
“I’m still processing. I think it’s good for me. I need to heal, and working with the horses and having Olive be around the family feels right. Everything’s kind of falling into place, even if some people here are still annoyed with me.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll move past it eventually. Oh, my goodness, that was Sebastian King before, wasn’t it?” The excitement in her voice rises a notch as we head to her car.
At the mention of his name, my stomach swirls. “Uh… yeah, it was. He actually approached me when I was putting the horses away out back.”
She stops and grabs my arm, swinging me around to face her. “Tell me everything.”
I fill her in on our conversation, and then I tell her about my thoughts on his wife. “I think my new heart came from her. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I was really lucky because the day things spiraled for my health, there was an accident. I’d heard the nurses talking, and then I had a heart available to me, and even though the outcome was sad for the family of that person, I received my new heart froman accident. It was the same day his wife had her car accident. So, I’m kind of guessing, but it seems possible.”
Isla’s mouth hangs open. “You’re kidding, right? Is there a way we can find this out?”
I shrug. “I have no idea, and I’m not sure I want to know. He’s a really nice guy, and I don’t want to invade his privacy. It doesn’t feel right.” We get to her car and start pulling Olive’s bags and port-a-crib just as Dad pulls his car up beside hers and climbs out.
His gaze dances from our arms full of baby stuff and then to the trunk of the car. “Hi, Isla, do you need a hand?”
She smiles. “I don’t, but Dee does. This is all her stuff.”
His brow furrows, but he comes over and collects the port-a-crib without saying another word.
Isla shuts the trunk, and we head back into the house. One-on-one therapy sessions are still going on, and I wish I knew how Dad would take to Olive. The cooing voices echo out to the porch, along with squeals of happiness followed by laughter.
We step inside, and Dad drops the crib on the floor by the door and stands in the doorway, staring at his family. I come up beside him and follow his gaze right to Olive.
“Dad.” I walk over and pick her up. Her arms wrap around my neck, and I go back to stand in front of Dad. “This is Olive… my daughter.”
Dad rubs his hand down his shirt and then over his face. His eyes don’t leave Olive. Without hesitation and rather surprisingly, she leans out to him, her little hands grabbing hold of his shirt. I move to pull her back, but he takes her from me instead. Her little fingers find his face and smack at it. He tosses his head back to pull out of her reach. Then he comes back and pretends to munch on them. This makes her giggle, and tears fill my eyes.
This wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. If anything, I expected him to take one look at her and walk right past her. I quickly swipe away the tears as they slip down my face.
“Olive, did you say?” he asks, without taking his eyes from her.
“Yes, after Mom.”
“She looks like you as a baby, which means she also looks like your mother… spitting image,” Dad says. Olive keeps trying to grab his face, which he pulls away from.
“Isn’t she adorable, Dad?” Mabel steps up beside him, and it’s like he just realized everyone’s in the room. In a rush, he hands Olive back to me and then turns his icy gaze on everyone else.
