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“Hi, Tish,” I said.
Her head whipped up, glancing toward me. “Oh!” she squeaked, her cheeks flushing pink. “Hi.”
She had her purse over one shoulder and a basket looped over her other arm. Her hand tightened around the strap of her purse.
“Getting ready to move?” I asked when my eyes landed on the packing tape in her basket.
“Uh-huh,” she said.
I wanted to say more, to press on why she was so insistent about keeping me at a distance. “Well, I travel to Willow Brook a few times every year. I might see you there sometime. Rhys had mentioned me helping out with the brewery there, but it sounds like that might be covered by the staff already there. I suppose you won’t have to worry about coordinating with me on that.” I paused, wondering what else to say. When she stayed silent, I added, “Anyway, good luck.”
She opened her mouth as if to say more before snapping it shut. She cleared her throat and swallowed. “You take care, Griffin.”
I watched her walk away, feeling like there was something big I was missing about the situation.
Chapter Fourteen
Tish
Over a year later
* * *
“Buh-buh, ga-ga…”
“Hi, my baby boy.” I gave my son a smacking kiss on the cheek. At five months old, his babbling repertoire was increasing by the day.
He giggled and my heart almost ached with love. When I had decided to have a baby, I’d been unprepared for how it would feel. Even though I felt overwhelmed literally all the time and as if I was flying blind through being a single mom, I didn’t regret my choice, not even for a second.
With Teddy, who I’d named after my father Theodore, just past five months, I was ramping up to go back to work full-time. I’d already been working part-time from home for the last two months. I didn’t have to work, but I found it difficult not to. It gave me a little structure and I needed that. Rhys had been incredibly accommodating with my schedule, but I was more than ready to go back to a regular work schedule.
Although I was going to miss being with Teddy all the time, I wanted to work. I missed it. I especially missed talking to adults more often.
I gave Teddy another kiss and began to get everything ready to drop him off for his first full day at daycare. Having a baby meant I was always carrying what felt like all the things.
I was forever grateful to my friend Phoebe, who had given me many pointers about trimming down what I needed to carry when I went out and about. I’d met Phoebe through Rhys’s cousin, Archer. She and Archer were happily married and had been a huge help to me when I moved to Willow Brook.
A few minutes later as I was walking out of the small house I rented, my neighbor Madison happened to be walking over from their house. She and her husband lived next door, just through a small cluster of trees.
She stopped to wait for me in the driveway. As soon as I reached her side, she gave Teddy a kiss. “Want me to get him in the car seat for you?”
“As if I’d say no,” I teased.
Madison chuckled as she smoothly shifted him from my arms into hers. In addition to help from Phoebe and Archer, Rhys’s brother Chase and his wife Hallie had also been incredibly helpful. Maybe it would’ve worked out anyway, but during a completely overwhelming time in my life, I was beyond grateful for the support.
I’d met Madison and Graham through my new connections since Graham was a firefighter on the crew Chase used to work on. Graham had kept the home he lived in before he and Madison married, and when the previous tenants moved out, Madison had let me know. The price was affordable and I loved it.
“Thank you so much,” I said as she buckled Teddy into his car seat while he babbled at her.
“Babies are the best,” she said as she gave Teddy another kiss and smoothed her hand over his downy soft hair.
Graham appeared along the trail through the trees that led from my house over to theirs just as Madison was closing the back door to my car.
“I thought you must’ve walked over here,” he said, his eyes twinkling.
Madison smiled up at her husband as he stopped beside her. He was a strapping hotshot firefighter, handsome and completely besotted with Madison. With her glossy black hair and striking green eyes paired with a kind and generous personality, it was no wonder Graham adored Madison.
Graham leaned down and brushed a kiss on her cheek, and I almost felt as if I was interrupting them by the intensity in his eyes.
