Some Bright Someday (Maple Valley #2) - Melissa Tagg Page 0,104

and behind it, a blue four-door sedan that must belong to Dustin.

“He does have brown hair,” Violet said.

Colie stepped up beside Jenessa and took her hand. “I’m going to miss you too.”

Was it her sister’s words that unleashed the emotion in Violet or just a sudden realization of what was happening? Either way, abrupt emotion erupted from her. She broke into loud sobs and threw herself against Jenessa.

With a helpless look toward Lucas, Jenessa handed Cade over and bent down to pull Violet into her arms. Violet’s loud cries apparently upset Cade because before she knew it, he was crying from his perch in Lucas’s hold.

And that was the scene Carmen and Dustin walked in on. Two crying kids. The third trying so achingly hard to be stoic. The next minutes passed in a blur as Carmen introduced Dustin and they went about loading the kids’ things and arranging car seats in Dustin’s car.

Jenessa finally managed to calm Violet long enough for her whispered words of comfort to be heard. “Remember how much you told me you liked your old bed in your old room? That’s where you get to sleep again tonight. You’ll have Private Teddy with you and Colie will be there. She’s such a good big sister to you.”

She looked up at Colie, the tears in the older girl’s eyes almost enough to make her forget her promise to herself. You will not cry in front of the kids. You won’t.

She hugged Violet one more time, rose to kiss Cade’s cheek, and left Lucas to say his goodbyes to the younger two. She moved to Colie, drawing the girl into a tight hug. “I’ll never forget the day I found you in my cottage, Colie Hollis. It was the best surprise I’ve ever gotten.”

They couldn’t prolong this any further. Dustin Hollis had been pure politeness during their introductions, but his uncomfortable impatience was beginning to show now. He kept shifting his weight from side to side, attention darting between Lucas with the younger two children and Jenessa and Colie’s embrace, the brackets around his thin lips deepening with each strained second that passed.

It was time.

“Violet already has an appointment to get her cast off next week.” She almost handed the appointment card to Carmen, but at the last second held it toward Dustin instead. “Colie has a math test on Tuesday.”

Dustin nodded, running one hand over his buzzed hair. “I appreciate what you’ve done for my kids. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” It felt like the paltriest conversation she’d ever had. Traded words that couldn’t possibly capture the intensity or emotion of this moment.

And then it was just . . . over.

The kids were in the car. The car was pulling from the driveway. Carmen was saying goodbye and leaving as well.

And Lucas was pulling her close. “You held it in long enough,” he whispered. “Go ahead and let it out now.”

His shirt was already wet with her tears.

19

Even with this many people packed around Jenessa’s desk, her office felt too empty. None of Cade’s toys littering the space. No portable crib in the corner.

But her friends were here. And that was something.

With only two spare chairs in the office, Mara looked only too happy to be perched on her new husband’s lap as she talked about the ten-day honeymoon they’d spent at a cabin in Canada. “Autumn is pretty in Iowa, but up there with the lake and the trees—”

“And the lack of other people,” Marshall cut in with a grin.

Mara didn’t miss a beat. “It was absolute perfection.”

Sam grabbed a second pastry from the bakery box in the middle of Jenessa’s desk. “We’re going to have to look at pictures, aren’t we?”

Mara shot him a playful glare. “Not until tonight. We’re going to have a good old-fashioned Friday pizza and movie night. Everyone in?”

Jenessa nodded. She knew what her friends were doing and she loved them for it, even if she was having a hard time latching on to the comfort and cheer of their presence.

It’d been a week and a day since the kids left with Dustin Hollis. She hadn’t seen them since. Colie had called once over the weekend and it’d been clear it was a supervised call. She’d heard Dustin’s voice in the background urging her to end the call after about ten minutes.

Jenessa was back to putting in longer hours at the newspaper, but if she’d begun to lose her vigor for the work before the Hollis kids came along, she was entirely