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“I don’t think Lucy wanted you to clean her up,” Nancy said with a laugh. “She managed to get her hand on a cinnamon donut hole every few minutes, even sweet-talking the owner to get freebies.”
“She learned how to manipulate. I think she got that from me.” Alyssa eyed Lucy lovingly.
“I remember when you first brought her here,” Janine said, “and you didn’t know her name.”
“We called her Cici,” Maggie said, her voice breaking. “I couldn’t believe how close her real name was!”
“It was like we could sense it,” Alyssa offered, locking eyes with her sister.
Nancy’s heart flipped over. Although she was close with her stepdaughters and closer than ever with Janine, she could never comprehend the love Alyssa and Maggie had for one another. They couldn’t have been more different: Maggie with her urgent responsibilities and Alyssa with her fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants mentality. Yet they loved one another endlessly, open-heartedly, with unlimited forgiveness and compassion.
Just after the Remington women finished swapping stories of Lucy’s time with them, the front doorbell rang. All the color drained from Maggie’s face as Alyssa snapped up, her hand over her pregnant belly.
“I guess that’s him.”
Alyssa disappeared into the house to fetch her high school boyfriend, the only man in the world she’d ever loved, as far as Nancy knew. According to Janine, Hunter had been a wonderful part of Alyssa’s life back in high school, and Janine had been sad when the two of them had broken up. A few months ago, Nancy had asked Janine if she thought Hunter and Alyssa would ever get back together, especially now that Alyssa had helped raise Lucy. Janine had said she wasn’t sure. “I think the romance part of their story is finished, and maybe that’s okay.”
As the handsome and six-foot-tall Hunter stepped onto the back porch, his smile broke open at the sight of little Lucy.
“Daddy!” Lucy jumped from Maggie’s lap and hurried to her father, whom she probably recognized more from video chats than from her own memories.
“Lucy!” Hunter lifted Lucy so that she could wrap her arms around his neck, then kissed her cheek, her forehead, his eyes sparkling. The reunion was so powerful that, eventually, Nancy had to look away. This man loved Lucy with everything. That was clear. But it didn’t make saying goodbye to Lucy any easier.
For a little while, Hunter sat with them at the breakfast table with Lucy on his lap. Maggie continued to scrunch the fabric on her thighs as though she was nervous now that Lucy was held by someone else. Alyssa smiled at him with a mix of confusion and joy, probably remembering him as the first boy she’d ever loved, sensing that he’d come through time to disrupt her life.
Hunter said and did all the right things at breakfast that morning. He doted on Lucy, talked about his new job and girlfriend out in Seattle, and showed photographs of the new apartment he’d rented, complete with a decorated bedroom for Lucy.
“What does your girlfriend do, Hunter?” Carmella asked.
“She’s in med school,” Hunter answered proudly. “I’ve never seen anyone work harder in my entire life. That said, she took plenty of time off from studying just to help me prepare for Lucy. That paint color in Lucy’s bedroom is obviously all her. I never would have gone for lilac.” He laughed gently as Alyssa’s cheeks turned a brighter shade of crimson.
Not long afterward, Hunter announced it was time for him and Lucy to go. Maggie stood, her face crumpling, then turned to the side so that Hunter and Lucy couldn’t see her. Alyssa jumped forward to hug Hunter first, saying quietly, “Having Lucy was one of the greatest gifts of our lives. But she’s missed her daddy. She needs you. I’m so glad you’re ready for this, Hunter.”
“I can’t thank you all enough,” Hunter said, his voice breaking. “I was in a dark place. A horrible place. I wasn’t sure where to turn. And it’s the biggest surprise of my life, maybe, that my high school girlfriend was the one who came through for me.”
Blinking back tears, Alyssa swatted him on the upper arm as Maggie composed herself enough to approach and hug Hunter and then crouch down to shower Lucy with kisses.
“You be a good girl, Lucy. Okay? And we’ll come out to see your new home soon. Okay?”
Lucy still seemed not to understand. Playfully, she grabbed Maggie’s hand and led her to the living room, where Maggie and Alyssa had arranged two suitcases and a backpack mostly filled with diapers and stuffed animals.
The Remington women followed Alyssa, Maggie, Lucy, and Hunter into the living room, where, one after another, they hugged Lucy close and wished her well. It was not clear how much of this time Lucy would remember. Probably, all of it would be lost. Nancy wasn’t sure how to deal with the devastation she was feeling, so she shoved it deep and smiled at Alyssa and Maggie lovingly. “You’re stronger than you know,” she whispered to Maggie, whose chin quivered.
But just after Alyssa and Maggie piled the suitcases into the back of Hunter’s rental, and just after they kissed Lucy a final time and buckled her into her car seat, Lucy squealed with confusion. Her cheeks were blotchy, and her eyes were lined with red.
“Why aren’t you coming?” Lucy demanded of Alyssa and Maggie with more authority than most three-year-olds should have been allowed.
Alyssa and Maggie held hands and spoked to Lucy quietly, again telling her what they’d told her perhaps ten times: that she was moving in with her father, that they would see her soon. But Lucy was inconsolable. Maggie squeezed her little hand, her shoulders shaking, as Alyssa kissed her cheeks and then locked eyes with Hunter.
“You should go,” she said. “She’ll be okay. We all will be.”
Hunter was white as a sheet. He shut the door of the rental, which echoed with Lucy’s wails, then got in the driver’s seat and eased down the driveway. Even when he turned the corner down the block, Nancy could still make out the sounds of that little girl weeping.
After the car was out of sight, Maggie and Alyssa turned and hugged one another, their eyes closed against the immensity of the moment. One after another, Janine, Elsa, Carmella, Mallory, and Nancy retreated into the house, sensing the girls needed space alone. In the kitchen, as Janine stacked the dishes in the dishwasher with shaking hands, Nancy cupped her elbow and whispered, “Take the girls to Italy.”
Janine nodded. “It’s the only way.”
ChapterThree
