Page 125 of Finding Forever

Relief came first. Then confusion.

Beth glanced toward the garage. “Are you working?”

“I was sorting screws.”

Her eyebrows lifted.

“It’s been an exciting afternoon,” Dave added.

A smile appeared on her face. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed that smile until he saw it again.

Beth took a deep breath. “Did I interrupt you?”

“I think the screws will survive.”

Her smile grew, then disappeared almost as quickly.

Something was different. Beth didn’t seem upset, exactly, but there was a vulnerability in her expression that made him want to close the distance between them.

He didn’t. Instead, he waited.

Beth glanced toward the house. “Could we sit somewhere?”

“Of course.”

Dave led her around the side of the house to the patio. Two chairs sat beneath the shade of an old maple tree, with a small table he’d built years ago between them.

He waited until Beth had chosen a chair before sitting opposite her. For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.

Dave rested his forearms on his thighs. Waiting had never been one of his strengths. The past month had taught him more about it than he’d ever wanted to know.

Beth looked down at her hands. “Kayla stayed for the night before she starts her new job. After she left, I went somewhere.”

Dave watched her carefully. “Where did you go?”

“To the lake.”

Something in her voice told him this wasn’t casual conversation. “Flathead?”

Beth nodded. “There’s a bench Jessie and I used to visit. I haven’t been there for a long time.”

Dave went very still. Of all the things he’d imagined Beth might say when she arrived, this wasn’t one of them.

“I took a photograph with me,” she continued. “It was of Jessie.”

Dave wasn’t sure what response she expected, so he gave her the only one that felt right. “Okay.”

Beth rubbed her thumb slowly across her palm. “I talked to him.” Her eyes lifted to his, and Dave saw the traces of tears in them.

His chest tightened. He wanted to reach across the space between them and take her hand, but he wasn’t sure he had that right anymore.

Beth drew in a slow breath. “I told him about Kayla’s wedding. About her graduating and starting her new job. I told him about Ryan.” A tiny smile touched her mouth. “And then I told him about you.”

Dave forgot about the garage. The screws. Everything. “Me?”

Beth nodded.

“What did you tell him?”