of us all in tears.”
“I’m sorry,” Aurelia said, trying to force her emotions away. She needed something else to focus on and scrambled for something to do. “Would you mind if I took pictures of you and Bea?”
Caroline smiled. “I would love that. The bag Nelson said he was getting has her baby pictures, birth certificate, and other things I thought you might want.”
“Thank you,” Ben said.
Aurelia took pictures of Caroline and Bea, and eventually the guys returned with the bag Caroline had mentioned. Caroline snuggled Bea a little longer.
“I’ve had a wonderful visit, but I should go before I start feeling poorly,” Caroline said.
Aurelia’s stomach clenched. She had so much respect for the woman she’d thought she’d hate, she ached with sadness that this was all she’d have with her baby. With their baby. And that’s exactly what Bea felt like now that Aurelia had met Caroline. Their baby—the three of them.
“I know you call her Bea, which is beautiful, but will you keep Jane as part of her name?” Caroline asked.
“We were thinking about making it her middle name,” Ben said.
“Oh, Ben,” Caroline said with a soft laugh. “You might want to consider using Bea as her middle name, even if you call her by it. No girl wants to grow up with the initials BJ.”
They all smiled, but Caroline was getting ready to leave her baby for the very last time, and the weight of that hung in the air.
“Good point,” Ben said. “Jane Bea it is.”
Caroline snuggled Bea one last time. “I will always love you,” she whispered, and then she handed Bea to Ben.
“She really is a gift, Caroline, and we know she’s the most precious thing in the world to you. I promise we will do our best to make sure she never forgets you.”
Tears slid from Caroline’s eyes as she kissed Ben’s cheek and said, “Thank you.” She turned to Aurelia and said, “Thank you for loving her. I want you to know that Ben’s love for you was what showed me I could trust him with her. You’re a lucky woman, and he’s just as lucky to have you.”
She hugged Aurelia so tight, there was no stopping Aurelia’s tears from falling.
“This will sound funny,” Aurelia said, “but I think we would have been good friends.”
“Me too. Thank you,” Caroline said shakily. “For everything.”
Later that evening, while Bea slept, Ben and Aurelia went through the bag from Caroline. In addition to Bea’s birth certificate and immunization records, they found the blanket in which she must have come home from the hospital, along with a tiny pink beanie and a framed picture of Caroline and Bea. Caroline was sitting in the hospital bed with Bea swaddled in the blanket they’d found in the bag and wearing the pink beanie. She was holding the baby in front of her, and they were nose to nose. Bea was looking at her, and Caroline’s eyes were closed, but the love in her smile resonated like an embrace from the photograph.
“Ben,” Aurelia said, “look at this picture. She must have had a nurse or someone at the hospital take it for her.”
He looked at the picture, and tears glistened in his eyes. He showed her another picture he’d found in the bag. A selfie. Caroline was lying in bed with Bea snuggled beside her. Caroline’s eyes were at half-mast, but once again the love in her smile told of her joy despite her fatigue.
Ben took the pictures and Aurelia’s hand and led Aurelia into Bea’s nursery. They were staying at Ben’s tonight, too exhausted to pack up and go back to Harmony Pointe. He set the picture of Bea and Caroline lying in bed on Bea’s bookshelf and said, “I think this one should go in her nursery in our apartment.”
“Our apartment? I like the sound of that so much more than ‘my apartment.’”
He set down the other frame and gathered her in his arms. “There is no more mine or yours, babe. There’s only ours.” He lowered his lips over hers, taking her in a deep, seductive kiss. His hand slid down her back, cupping her bottom as he said, “And right now I’d like to get our sweet little ass into bed, so I can love our sexy little body into tomorrow.”
They stumbled down the hall to the bedroom in a tangle of limbs and hungry kisses, stripping off their clothes—and the sadness of the afternoon. How did he know that this was exactly what she