Page 142 of Josephine and Clay

“I won’t.”

“Or Nash.”

“I won’t tell them.” I’m firm now. “This is your news. Your timing.”

My breath leaves me all at once. “Thank you.”

“But,” she adds gently, “when you are ready, you won’t have to face him alone unless you want to.”

My chest tightens. “I don’t know how to have that.”

“What?”

“People. Around. Willing to help before I earn it.”

Tessa’s face softens in a way that nearly breaks me. “Oh, honey.”

The endearment catches me off guard. Normally it would make me tense up immediately, but coming from Tessa, it only makes my chest ache.

“You don’t earn family by proving you need the least,” she says. “At least, not the kind worth having.”

I stare down at our joined hands.

My family never worked that way.

Help was always conditional. Affection had moods. Pride had sharp edges. If I needed too much, I was dramatic. If I wanted too much, I was ungrateful. If I left, I was selfish. If I stayed, I was stuck.

So I left.

I built a life out of competence and clean counters and emergency kits.

And now this woman I barely know is sitting beside me with a sleeping baby, offering me something I don’t know how to hold.

“I don’t know what to say,” I admit.

“You don’t have to say anything.”

Unfortunately, that makes me want to cry again.

Tessa glances at Hailey, then back at me with a cautious little smile. “Would you come to dinner sometime?”

I blink. “Dinner?”

“At my place. Nothing big. Just me, Rose, and Faith maybe. No pressure. No interrogation.” She pauses. “Well, limited interrogation. Faith has very expressive eyebrows.”

“I don’t want to impose.”

“You’re not.”

“I don’t want to be a project.”

“You’re not that either.”

I sigh. “I’m not great at… group female bonding.”

“That’s fine. Rose is gentle, Faith is funny, and I’m usually too tired to be intimidating.”

“You’re not intimidating.”