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She couldn’t look at him. The brave man who was holding their family together without her. She’d tried to push him away and he’d withstood it. If she dug to the bottom of that intent, it wasn’t because she truly wanted him to leave and he probably knew that. She was scared. Hurt. Wounded. She was trying to protect herself by shoving back at him. Was it easier to be noble and release someone from their promise than pushing herself to find what she’d lost? Had she been trying to take the coward’s way out and calling it the right thing to do?
From this day forward, she’d stop shoving him away and try to start welcoming him in her life, not just as Onyx’s father, but as her mate. She’d relearn and she’d try, and she’d make the effort to find that emotion again. If she honestly couldn’t, then she knew he’d release her as a mate. But she’d had it once. She’d been so deeply in love with him that she’d made him her path. She’d had his child. She wanted to start a life with him. She was willing to leave her clan and family and go live with his.
“I’m so sorry that I’ve been grouchy and unhappy. That was never with you. It was only me being frustrated with me. But I mean it with all my heart that I’m glad you’re here. I don’t honestly remember talking to Sam and Lily that night we agreed to adopt you, but I remember waking up in the clinic and meeting you for the first time and I loved you on sight.”
“But I’m not yours,” Misty protested sadly. “I’m not like Onyx.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Taylee squeezed her hands and looked the little girl right in the eyes. “That doesn’t matter one bit. You’re mine now because we signed the papers to adopt you. Both me and Kier. Things happened and we have a lot to work out, but your adoption isn’t anything that’s in doubt. You’re our daughter now, and we are so, so lucky to call ourselves your parents. I’m relearning everything, Misty, and that’s how to be a mom. I know I’m not your birth mother, but I hope you’ll come to me as someone who loves you and will protect you no matter what. I want to guide you and be your friend. You don’t ever have to call me mom if you don’t want to, but I’m always going to think of you as my little girl.”
And that was true. She’d been so absent, so caught up with herself, so busy trying to fix her head and figure things out, that she hadn’t been around as much as she should have been.
“Every single day we’re going to make sure we spend time together as a family, after you’re done school,” Kier told Misty. He rocked Onyx, who was starting to get fussy with being held still for so long.
“And on the weekends too,” Taylee promised.
“But you aren’t going to live with us,” Misty said.
“Not yet,” Tay responded. “But that’s something that we’re going to work on. It’s hard being in two places, but our clans border each other. I know you’ve spent most of the time in Greenacre so far, but we’re going to work on that too. You’ll meet everyone here at Pinefall. My brothers. My family. My friends. I might not remember these people so well, but I’m trying. You’ll have to forgive every stumble I’ve made since we’ve met. That is only me trying to find my way and you are not to blame for one bit of that. We want you, Misty. We want you so much and we love you so much already.”
“Welcome to our family, Misty,” Taylee’s mom said from behind her. She produced a few brushes as if from nowhere, grinning broadly. “We’re very happy to have you here. Taylee is a great artist, but she has no idea. She doesn’t remember. I’m going to help her get that back, and I’m so happy you’re here to help and learn.”
Misty’s eyes widened in disbelief. They flicked to Kier. “Do I really get to paint?”
“Of course!” Grace took Misty’s hand and guided her to the table. She sat her down in front of the place she’d prepped earlier.
Taylee hadn’t helped because she kept telling herself this was silly and it wouldn’t make anything right. She’d been petulant and stubborn, but now she found herself staring at the empty spot with the blank canvas, the rows of paints in tubes, and the neatly arranged brushes that her mom prepared, and her insides got warm.
Misty sat down and looked over everything eagerly. She seemed to have accepted what Taylee told her as the truth and wasn’t worried about not belonging anymore. Taylee vowed she’d do her best to make sure this sweet girl never, ever had to worry about one thing again.
Kier took an empty chair and settled himself there, bouncing Onyx every so often. The baby was fascinated watching what was going on and she was content with her dad there to hold her and shelter her and love her.
Misty took everything in, smiling shyly, but then with more strength. She sat there and soaked up the love in the room like a plant soaking up sunlight.
Taylee felt a tremendous wave of trepidation well up in her chest as she sat down in front of that canvas. What if she was useless at this? What if she couldn’t do it?
But then, what did it matter? This was just something fun they could do together. It didn’t have to be about her. It didn’t have to be about her memory, or what she could or couldn’t do. Itwasn’tabout her. It was about family. It was very clear that she couldn’t make it without them.
She was never going to try to do that again. She wanted to be a plant too, soaking up all the love that was offered to her. From this moment on, no matter where she was living, no matter what she’d forgotten, she was going to make sure she made the kind of life for Onyx and Misty that she’d wanted for them before—the best one possible.
Chapter 4
Kier
“This is starting to become a habit. Third time you’ve been in in as many months.”
Rory shrugged. “Hazard of my profession, I guess. Being a butcher, you work with sharp implements all day, every day.” He didn’t seem to mind that Josephine was putting yet another row of stitches into the palm of his hand.
Tavish was the one ribbing him. Rory, Sam, Tavish, and Josephine’s mate Trace were all around the same age as Kier was. They’d grown up together, raised hell together, had their first shifts pretty much the same year or the year after. It was strange how they’d found their mates around the same time too. Well, maybe that wasn’t so strange given that Sam had decided to open up Greenacre to human women to be with the men they loved. Before that, it had been pretty closed off.
It was crazy to think that this time last year, he’d been secretly seeing Taylee for a few months. He had no idea what was coming for them, and he didn’t mean that all just in the context of her accident.
“If you daydream any harder, you’re going to stick that syringe where it don’t belong.”
“Shit.” He lowered the needle Josephine had used to numb Rory’s hand. Why on earth was he still holding it instead of disposing of it?
He walked across the room and took care of the clean up just as Josephine was putting in the last stitches.
“Take care not to cut your hand off next time,” Trace said dryly.
