of Kelly were tinged with a shade of guilt. He knew the source.
Elise.
He’d had a good time with Elise, had felt comfortable talking with her, had felt natural teasing her. And had been attracted to her. Powerfully so.
Maybe that was the root of his guilt. He’d had female friends while Kelly was alive, but his attraction to Elise seemed a bit like a betrayal of Kelly’s memory. He knew he was being ridiculous. Moving on, dating again, didn’t mean he loved Kelly any less or that he’d forgotten her. If the situation was reversed, he’d want Kelly to have a second chance for love and companionship. A life partner to help her raise Isabel. In his heart, he knew Kelly would say the same for him. But his attraction to Elise still left him off-balance somehow. He wasn’t ready to start a new relationship….
Was he?
He brushed a wayward curl away from Isabel’s cheek, and a pang tugged his heart. Maybe he was unsettled being around Elise because he knew how blessed he was to have Isabel, while Elise had lost her best chance to be a parent, had been stripped of the treasure he savored every day.
He shuddered when he thought about losing Isabel. One of the reasons he and Kelly had chosen the private agency they used to adopt Isabel had been the agency’s assurances that the closed adoption process they employed meant the birth parents had forfeited all claims to Isabel. Their greatest fear had been to have one of the birth parents change their mind and try to take Isabel from them after the adoption closed. Just considering that scenario lit a fiery determination in his belly. He’d fight anyone who tried to take Isabel from him with every resource possible. Isabel was his.
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