spirit that it just shone right out of her. “Isn’t this the greatest day ever?”
“Well, it certainly has been a very good one.”
“Uh-huh! Remember how we never thought we’d get over being so sad when Grandmother Millie died? I’ve been praying and praying ever since. And look what happened. God found us more family to love.”
Mia’s hopes were far too high. They had both taken her mother’s death hard, each in her own way. Mia was only now just starting to come out of the grief.
Debra felt a horrible sinking feeling in her chest. What could she do to protect her daughter? She didn’t have a single idea. Not that she believed a prayer made much difference, but if it could, she hoped hers had risen on angel’s wings. What were the chances of all this with Ben coming out all right?
They had talked about that on the drive here to Virginia. Debra had done her best to try to be sensible and prepare Mia for the truth of relationships. You just couldn’t know how people were going to decide to treat you.
There was Jonah, watching her out of the corner of his eye. Or was that her imagination?
When she turned toward him, he was absorbed in his work. Acting as if he didn’t know she was on the same planet, much less in the same room.
Fine, it was her imagination, after all.
“Leah says hi and welcome,” Ben said as he pocketed his phone. “You are coming to our precelebration dinner, right?”
“Right!” Mia jumped in with a high-pitched answer. “Cousin Olivia’s coming, too, right? And baby Joseph?”
Ben’s chuckle of delight was charming. “Absolutely. Olivia’s talked about nothing else for days. And talked and talked. Girls,” he said, shaking his head in friendly amusement. “If it wasn’t for baby Joseph, I’d be really outnumbered.”
“You don’t look like you’re suffering much,” Debra commented, unable to keep from sharing a smile with her half brother.
“No complaint here. I’ve got more blessings than I can count. Family, that’s what’s important.” He shot a look over to the workman crouching strategically behind the crib. “I keep telling Jonah that, but to no avail. He’s still stubbornly single. I keep hoping to change that.”
“He doesn’t even have a girlfriend?” Mia perked up at that bit of news, twisting toward the woodworker to study him intently. “Is that true, Jonah?”
“Yep, it’s true.” He grinned over the top of the crib. “I’m too busy to have a girlfriend. I keep telling your uncle Ben that, but does it look like he listens?”
“No.” Mia answered. “How can you be too busy to have a girlfriend?”
“Look at me, working through lunch. Next thing I know, I’m working away and I look up and it’s way past dinnertime.”
“That’s just like my mom.” Mia wrinkled her nose. “She’s always at the office. And when she isn’t, do you know where she is?”
Debra could feel Jonah’s gaze on her. And Ben’s, too. She felt her chin shoot up and all her defenses, too. It wasn’t easy being a single parent, but she was doing her absolute best.
The big man on bended knee reached for a fresh sheet of sandpaper. “If your mom’s anything like me, she probably brings work home.”
“That’s it exactly,” Mia confirmed.
“I don’t think it’s much of a secret why she works so hard.”
“It isn’t?” Mia took a step toward him, transfixed.
Deb realized that’s how she felt, too.
“Nope, it’s easy to see.” Jonah’s baritone sliced right through her every defense. “She works that hard for you. Isn’t that right, Debra?”
“Y-yeah.” With her shields down, she felt the impact of his words with her unprotected heart. She’d walked around with those shields up for so long, she felt way too exposed. The odd thing was, she also felt touched that this man she’d only just met understood her. “That’s right, Jonah.”
Their gazes met. No one had ever seen her truth so clearly.
“Seems that we have a lot in common, Debra.” Ben, who’d been quietly watching them, stepped forward, into the light. “We’re more alike than either one of us guessed.”
Her throat ached with emotion. “Maybe we are.”
“So, Jonah.” Mia, irrepressible Mia, focused her big innocent eyes on the woodworker. Again. “Don’t you want a family?”
Here we go again. Deb mentally groaned. What was she going to do about her child? The girl cared about everyone. That wasn’t a bad thing in itself, of course, but all anyone had to do was to look at poor Jonah, blushing a bit as he debated exactly how to answer, to see that he needed rescuing. “What was I just saying to you, kiddo?”
“Oh, that I’m not supposed to, uh, pry?” She shrugged a lock of silken curls behind her shoulder. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. Sorry, Jonah. Can you forgive me for prying?”
“Sure I can, little lady.” Jonah gave a wink, maybe to show there were no hard feelings.
He was a patient man and kind to her daughter. Debra couldn’t help seeing more to like in him. “Maybe it’s time to drag you out of here.”
“Mo-om.” Mia gave an impatient but indulgent sigh, as if to say it was hard raising a parent. “Uncle Ben just got here and everything, and besides, I still want to know about Jonah. So, can I pry just a little more?”
Debra bit her lip to keep from smiling and noticed both men in the background trying to do the same. And failing. Some days it was truly hard not to chuckle 24-7 when Mia was around. “She’s so like our mother, Ben. I know you have to be wondering about Mom. Well, she and Mia were so alike. Hardly different at all.”
Ben’s eyes silvered even as his smile broadened. Their mother’s smile. There it was again. “Then I know I would have loved her.”
Debra swallowed hard, determined to keep her emotions well controlled, just as emotions ought to be. “Mia, instead of peppering Jonah with personal questions, you might want to be gathering up all your favorite stories about Grandmother Millie to tell your uncle Ben this evening at dinner.”
“That’ll take a long time. I’ve got a lot of stories.”
Ben cleared his throat. “I’ll look forward to hearing them.”
Which was just the opportunity she was looking for—a chance to leave. Debra’s chest felt tight. So many painful emotions were beating right along with her heart and she still felt vulnerable. Her defenses were down. Way down. This wasn’t how she was used to feeling. She took a step backward. “Mia and I will meet you at the hotel’s dining room, then, and we’ll bring our best stories of Mom with us.”
“I’d like that.” Ben swallowed hard, emotions playing on his face.
This
