They walked into June’s room and laid Jimmy on the bed. Rachel undressed him and put his monkey pajamas on. As she laid his head on the pillow, Brady joined her in helping to get Jimmy settled. Rachel and Brady reached for the blanket at the same time andlaughed.
Brady said, “MayI?”
She nodded. As she watched Brady tuck their son in, her heart fluttered in her chest. They hadn’t had a chance to really talk about their relationship since they’d left the hospital. Every time Brady had wanted to bring it up, she’d changed the subject out of fear. Things seemed to be okay between them for now, but she knew they had a long waytogo.
Brady tucked the blanket around Jimmy’s shoulders then bent to kiss his forehead. “Sweet dreams,littleman.”
Rachel kissed Jimmy goodnight and turned off the light. As they closed the door, she turned to find Brady standing close to her. She looked up at him and found him gazing at her with more love in his eyes than she’deverseen.
“Thank you,” hemurmured.
“Forwhat?”
“For raisingourson.”
She smiled. “Thank you. So…whatnow?”
“Hot cocoa on theporch?”
“Soundsgood.”
After grabbing two steaming mugs of marshmallow-covered hot chocolate from the kitchen, they moved outside to the porch swing. They sat side by side, both clutching the mugs in their glovedhands.
“It’s a full moon,” Bradyremarked.
“Do you remember the time we went to Old Faithful in the middle of thenight?”
“I remember how beautiful you look inmoonlight.”
“Thankyou.”
The porch swing creaked as they rocked back and forth. She wondered how to start the conversation that they needed to have, but couldn’t find the right way tobegin.
Brady finally broke the silence. “Iforgiveyou.”
“You do?” Hope rose up to form a lump in herthroat.
“I’ve been thinking about things a lot and I think I know where we went wrong.” He turned to look at her with luminousbrowneyes.
“Where?”
“We didn’t talk to each other, and we didn’t listen when we did talk. I should have known something was wrong that night. You’d never reacted with so much anger before. I should have been moresensitive.”
She took a sip of cocoa to give herself a few seconds to gather her thoughts. He was right, he hadn’t been sensitive, but she hadn’t been either. “You couldn’t have known. Sometimes I’m too good at hiding what I’m reallyfeeling.”
“What are you feelingrightnow?”
“Scared.Hopeful.”
He caressed the side of her face with the backs of his knuckles. “Don’t be scared. We’re talking now and that’s what we need to do. We can’t keep secrets from each other. Not ever again. Not if we want this relationshiptowork…”
She said, “I have to ask you something, but I’m afraid to hear theanswer.”
“Ask meanyway.”
“Are you only doing this because of our son? If I was alone, would we even be having thisconversation?”
He sighed. “I honestly don’t know. But I’d like to think that we would have found each other again. We’re meant to be together. I know it, and my bear sure as hellknowsit.”
