Page 222 of When Love Takes Root

His expression softened.

“Look at me, baby.” I did. “You’re not auditioning for my family. You’re coming into a house where you’re already wanted. And your children don’t scare me. Their questions don’t scare me. Their grief doesn’t scare me. Their personalities absolutely require prayer and a snack budget, but they don’t scare me.”

A laugh slipped out before I could stop it.

“You don’t have to make yourself smaller to be easier for anybody in there to love. You hear me?” I nodded, but my eyes burned. “I’m serious, Red. Bring all of you. The mama. The widow. The woman who worries. The woman who laughs. The woman who still misses what she lost and still wants what God is growing now.” He lifted my hand and kissed my fingers. “There’s room.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

His hand slid to my cheek, warm and sure.

“And if anybody gets out of line, I’ve got you.”

“Your family?”

He leaned closer. “Especially them.”

I laughed again, and he kissed me.

It was sweet. Brief. Just enough pressure to remind my nerves they didn’t get to drive when love was already holding the keys.

When he pulled back, his eyes stayed on mine. “Better?”

“Yes, baby.”

“I’ll take that.”

He laced his fingers through mine, then glanced toward the porch. “Come on. Let me take you inside before your children start asking about square footage and inheritance laws.”

Behind me, Zuri gasped. “I was not going to say inheritance.”

Kayden muttered, “You were absolutely going to say inheritance.”

Josiah laughed, squeezed my hand, and led me up the porch and into the house.

Inside, it smelled like lemon cleaner, smoked meat, butter, and somebody’s dessert that was absolutely not being guarded well enough from Juice. The foyer opened into a spacious living room with tall windows, family pictures, deep-brown furniture, and enough warmth to make the house feel lived in without feeling cluttered. A framed picture of Josiah and his father sat on a console table beside fresh flowers, and something about that small tribute made me squeeze his hand.

He looked down at me.

Before we could make it through the living room, Skye slid between us and looked up at him.

“Mr. Josiah, do you have a trampoline?”

“No.”

“Pool?”

“No.”

“Horse?”

“No.”

She frowned. “You have all this space and no horse?”

Josiah looked through the window toward his yard, then back at her. “I didn’t realize I was being audited.”

Zuri walked up beside her. “We can make a list.”