Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

18. Milo

EIGHTEEN

MILO

In life, we all had choices to make.

Some were cut and dry.

A line that clearly delineated right and wrong.

Others were grayed in uncertainty and ambiguity.

By circumstance and morality.

Some were distorted by greed and selfishness and egocentric behavior, and others in insecurity and doubt.

And then there were the ones that were a composite of so many factors that there was no defining the right answer except for the one you held in your heart.

My heart that was currently lodged in my throat and constricting airflow as I pulled my Tahoe into the parking lot of the city park nestled in the center of Redemption Hills.

Tessa clung to my hand the same way as she’d done the entire ride over, neither of us saying a word, both lost to thoughts of every one of those factors above.

During it, a quiet support had settled over the cab of the SUV.

Wrong or right, we were in this together.

No matter what.

Slowly, I pulled into a spot two spaces down from Paula and Gene’s Range Rover.

It still shocked the shit out of me that they would allow themselves to become so lowly that they’d set a meeting place in a public park, but it wasn’t like they were going to extend me an invitation to the country club.

I didn’t realize how hard my hand was shaking until I removed it from Tessa’s, put the SUV in park, and killed the engine.

Silence descended.

Thicker than before.

My attention was out the windshield to where I could barely make out my children in the distance, little more than specks of color climbing the jungle gym.

Paula and Gene were facing them with their backs to us, off to the side the way they always remained, stoic sentries guarding their charges.

I was thankful they loved them so intensely, but I wouldn’t lie and pretend I didn’t hold an animosity so fierce toward them that I had to keep my spite under lock and key when I was around them. Going apeshit on them wasn’t gonna win me any points with the courts.

Besides, I had to remember grief changed people, made them resentful and bitter, desperate to bring punishment on the one who’d brought on their sorrows.

I knew it firsthand.

Old anger flared in my spirit.

The pressure.

The judgment.

The curl of Paula’s nose the first time she’d met me like she’d caught a whiff of something bad.

It wasn’t as though they ever liked me, anyway.

I’d never be anything more than a piece of trash in their eyes.

“This is it,” I mumbled, having no clue what form of hostility we would be met with, but make no mistake, there would be hostility.

“Paula isn’t going to be excited to see you,” I reiterated for about the tenth time, trying to prepare Tessa for the shitshow that was likely to go down.

“I know, and that’s okay.” The words were barely wisps from Tessa’s mouth.

She peeked over at me.

Ocean eyes swam with a thousand different currents.

A riptide where I was going to drown.

An encouraging smile lit on her sweet mouth. “We have this, Milo Hendricks. We make a great team, remember?”

My guts fisted when I looked at her.

“Yeah, we make a great team.” The words were shards, filled with these broken feelings I couldn’t get free of my skin.

Hot and sticky.

She rubbed her palms on her jean-covered thighs like she was wiping the feeling away, too, before she popped the latch to her door. “Ready?”

“Yup.”

I opened mine, and we climbed out. We rounded to the back, where I lifted the tailgate and pulled out the cooler we’d packed this morning at the house before we’d left.

Tessa grabbed the picnic blanket, a Frisbee, and a football, the giant bundle tucked to her chest. It was piled so high that I could barely see her face from behind it, the girl so goddamn cute as she shuffled anxiously from foot to foot.

“Got it,” she asserted with a resolute nod.

We started across the rambling lawn of the park. We passed by a smaller playground up front, a soccer field, and ramadas housing picnic tables and barbecues.

My pulse thudded harder with each step that I took, knowing I was leading Tessa into the eye of a quiet, deathly storm.

I knew when Paula felt our approach, the way her spine went rigid and revulsion crawled over her flesh.

A palpable hatred that gutted me all over again.

It took her a second to gather her strength before she finally turned to look back at me. Her angry, grief-stricken eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed in spite when she saw I wasn’t alone.

She whipped the rest of the way around and all but ran toward us, cutting off our path.

Tremors rocked from Tessa as she prepared herself for a fight.

Paula started hissing as she quickly closed in, her voice held from my kids who still hadn’t noticed we were there.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Autumn’s mother was younger than my own, but her hair had fully grayed, the lines on her face carved by the torment she’d succumbed to for the last four years.

I swallowed down the hurt that wanted to spew from my mouth as hatred because she was good to my kids, and I knew what it felt like to have your heart ripped out.

It was the same pain that made Paula strike at every turn.

I set the cooler on the ground, took the blankets from Tessa, and set them on top of it, trying to keep my shit together, to guard myself from the loathing that flooded from Autumn’s mother.

I wound my fingers through Tessa’s and tugged her to my side, clearing my throat. “Paula, this is my fiancée, Tessa McDaniels.”

I might as well have kicked her in the gut with the way she took it as a physical blow.

Her body swayed, and her hand wrapped around her stomach before she was rebounding and forcing herself upright.

Disgust and pain left her on a condescending laugh. “Your fiancée?”

“Yes.”

Tessa fidgeted at my side, though she did her best to hide her nerves. “Hi, it’s very nice to?—”

“I don’t want your whore anywhere near my grandchildren.”

I wanted to tear into her, get in her face, but I forced myself to keep control.

Not to let go or give into the demons that howled.

Monday had been a glaring reminder of how easily I could.

I clutched Tessa’s hand. The girl a lifeline. “You don’t get a say in that, Paula. This is my day.”

I’d already confirmed it with my attorney when I’d set an appointment for the upcoming week.

“Not if it puts my grandbabies in harm’s way,” Paula spat.

Tessa swallowed, hurt and sympathy coming off her in waves, the girl drowning in this turmoil, too.

“I can assure you I’m no threat to them. I’m a teacher at Redemption Hills Christian Academy, and I run the Hope to Hands Foundation. I’m CPR and first aid certified, and I?—”

“I don’t care what you are.” Venom whipped from Paula’s tongue, cutting Tessa off.

I should have expected it.

Hell, I had.

Still, there was no stopping the rush of protectiveness that exploded in me. The way I wanted to wrap Tessa up and shield her from Paula’s vile slurs.

I pulled Tessa closer. “You can direct your anger at me, Paula, and I’ll take it, but Tessa doesn’t deserve it, and I won’t stand for it.”

“You won’t stand for it? I don’t think you have any say in the matter.”

Tessa inhaled a sharp breath. Yeah, I’d warned her, but I doubted much that she could imagine a single person being so cruel.

Gene was suddenly there, touching Paula’s arm. “Come on, sweetheart. Now’s not the time for this.”

She shrugged him off, and hateful tears brimmed in her eyes when she angled toward me. “How dare you think you deserve joy when you’ve stolen mine. How dare you move on after you did what you did. Just leave us alone.”

Her accusation nearly knocked me to my knees.

The truth of them.

Why I couldn’t have what my heart kept aching for.

And there I stood, squeezing Tessa’s hand, anyway.

“Dad!” Remy’s sweet voice suddenly powered through the air from where she’d seen me from the top of the playground that was fashioned to look like a castle.

My chest squeezed tight.

Love erupted.

Overflowed.

“I’m sorry, Paula, but you know that’s not going to happen.”

I gave Tessa’s hand a tug before I released it and leaned down to pick up the cooler and everything on top.

“Come with me,” I told her.

I rounded Paula and strode with the whole pile toward the call of my heart.

My kids.

Tessa kept up at my side, her mouth pinched and dread spinning from her spirit.

“I’m so sorry,” I muttered under my breath.

“It’s okay,” she whispered back.

It wasn’t. But there she was, refusing to leave me.

Scout came blazing out from a tunnel slide, all bouncing brown hair and bright eyes and these giant lips that were so cute my heart twisted in a fist. My Remy Girl was right at his heels, the child tall for her age, lanky, her spirit reserved and intuitive and the best sight I’d ever seen.

And I was dropping the cooler in that spot and rushing that way, falling to my knees on the grass at the same second my kids were colliding into me.

“Dad! Dad! You got here!” Remy’s arms encircled my neck, and my arm went around her waist.

I breathed out the weight sitting in my chest as I hugged her close.

Relief.

Relief.

Scout was all giggles as he threw himself onto my back. “You’re a dad- sammich . Right in the middle of me and my sister.”

My other arm wrapped around him, holding him tight against me, and I wished for a fucking miracle that I would never have to let them go.

Remy swayed me back and forth, her thin arms as strong as steel. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too, Rems. So much.”

“Then why does it have to be so long for me to see you?” Confused distress filled her voice.

It drove a blade of pain deep into my soul, and I breathed out, just hugging her because how the hell did I answer that?

“I thought about you every second,” I finally said.

“Me, too!” Scout piped in from behind. Thank God he hadn’t quite figured out the distance the way his sister had.

He didn’t remember his mother, our family, the way it had once been, and I was afraid it was the ghost of it that was going to haunt Remy for the rest of her life.

“You did, huh?” I tried to tease and keep the heaviness out because I didn’t want to waste a second of the time I had with my kids.

“That’s right, Dad. All’uve ’em. Every single one,” Scout said in his adorable, slurring voice.

It flooded me with an adoration so intense it physically hurt.

This ache in my soul that only abated in the moments I got to spend with them. I ignored the thought they kept abating when I was with Tessa, too.

I couldn’t go there.

Couldn’t lose sight.

I relished in holding on to my children for the longest time, my eyes squeezed tight as I savored the connection.

In the midst of it, I could sense the presence hovering off to the side.

Warmth and affection.

The light.

The rising of the sun.

And fuck, it was so wrong, the way I felt when I shifted my attention that way, when I slowly peeled my children off me and tucked Remy to my side and drew Scout around so his back was against my chest.

My chest that felt like it was about to blow.

Tessa stood about ten feet off, a hand pressed to her throat like she was trying to stave off the emotion vying for a way out.

It radiated around her, anyway.

Bright, blinding rays.

Shocks of fiery red hair whipped around her face, kissing her freckled cheeks, her mouth set in a soft, red bow.

But it was those eyes—those sea-blue eyes that were filled to fathomless depths with a devotion I didn’t come close to deserving.

I attempted to clear the roughness from my voice, but it scraped when I murmured, “There’s someone really special I want you two to meet.”

Remy shifted into me when she realized I hadn’t come by myself, her cheek pressed to my shoulder, the child hiding behind the thick locks of her brown hair as shyness took her over. She warily peered out at Tessa, who remained floating at the fringes of my broken little family.

I felt the full force of Scout’s grin. “Is that who we gotta meet?”

“Yes, it is. Her name is Tessa, and we are going to…”

The lie locked in my throat before it could reach my tongue.

Yeah, Tessa and I had talked about this. How to handle our relationship . How it was going to affect my kids.

Even with the precautions we were taking, with the sacrifices Tessa was making, I knew in my gut that this sham wasn’t going to come without consequences. It wasn’t going to come without disappointment and more confusion and wounds that I fucking hated inflicting.

But I was fighting for something eternal with my kids.

For a home and their peace and their knowledge that they were the meaning of this life.

That they weren’t secondary.

That they were worth a hell of a lot more than one goddamn afternoon a week.

“This is Tessa, and she and I are going to get married.” I tried to keep the roughness out of the confession, but it came out sounding like a double-edged blade.

A blessing and a curse.

A tremor rolled through Tessa, head to toe, and her mouth tugged at the side while she waited there like she wasn’t sure of her place.

“You don’t got a wife.” Scout giggled like it was absurd.

“Well, since I don’t have one, I wanted Tessa to be mine.” Fuck, this was rough.

Unsure, Remy trembled in my arms. Both curious and distraught.

“But what about Mom?” she whispered close to my ear.

Agony cut me in two.

Grief.

Guilt.

My arm tightened around Remy’s waist, and I shifted so we were facing each other, so I could connect with her golden eyes that were just a shade darker than mine. “Marrying her will not replace your mom, Remy, and I will love her forever, but it’s okay for us to love someone else, too, since Mom’s not here to be with us.”

The heresy abraded my throat, razors cutting through.

Remy warred, unconvinced, peeking back at Tessa who glowed in the backlight of the sun before my daughter was whispering to me like a secret, “She looks like sunshine.”

My spirit flailed. “Yeah, she does, doesn’t she?”

I lifted my chin, asking Tessa to come closer, and the woman slowly crossed the space before she was getting down onto her knees in front of us, so cautious and careful and with such discretion and mindfulness that I was terrified I fell for her a little bit right then.

“Hi,” she whispered, attempting to tuck wayward locks of red hair behind her ears that kept flying into her face. “I’m Tessa. It’s so wonderful to meet you both.”

Scout got to his hands and knees, hopping toward her like an excited puppy. “Hi, Tessa. Look it what I got!”

He dug a little metal spaceship out of his pants pocket and started flying it through the air in front of Tessa’s face while making a bunch of rocket noises.

“I’m gonna be an astronaut when I grow up.”

A giggle slipped from Tessa, and her gaze slanted to me for the barest flash, one of those looks that promised we had this.

Could only pray we did.

Because I knew the risks.

It was hazard and peril, but it was also a newfound hope.

All those blurred lines promising the only right choice was the one of our hearts.

Resting her butt on her feet, she turned back to my son. “You are, huh?”

“Yep, I’m gonna go to space.”

“To the moon?” she drew out, her eyes wide in awe.

Scout frowned. “No way. People have already been to the moon. That’s old news. We gotta go all the way to Mars if we’re gonna discover somethin’ new.”

“Oh, well, then, that’s going to be awesome, just like I bet you’re pure awesomesauce.”

She poked his belly, and he tried to grab for her finger, cracking up, his voice twisted like she was crazy. “Awesomesauce? You mean like apples-sauce? Because my gramma says it’s okay to eat the apples-sauce, but I can’t get no more cookies, and I am starvin’. Did you even bring lunch because I really hope so?”

He popped up on his knees, bouncing six inches in the air.

Affection pulled tight across my chest, and Tessa was fighting laughter, this softness about her that was soothing the air that burned with chaos.

It was a chaos that for the last four years I hadn’t known how to tame.

Stuck in a windstorm that would never cease.

And now…now it felt like there was a chance at peace.

“We sure did. Just how hungry are you?”

“The hungriest. I got the growls.” He rubbed his stomach.

God, how desperately I loved this kid.

Affection kissed Tessa’s pale cheeks, and she carefully shifted her attention to Remy, who still stood reticent at my side. “Hey, Remy.”

“Hi.” Remy’s voice was quiet.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

Remy blinked at her. “Do you love my dad?”

Right.

Okay.

I shouldn’t have been surprised it would be Remy who put us to the test.

Flustered, Tessa let go of a haggard breath.

She warred, and something flashed through her expression when she glanced at me, something that shouldn’t have been there, something that should have been missing when she whispered the lie, “I do. Very much.”

I could feel Remy searching her, like the child wished she could dig through her mind, that her trust wasn’t quite there, which was no surprise since this world hadn’t given her much to believe in.

I cleared my throat, unable to take the tension for a second longer. “We should get set up.”

Scout hopped to his feet without care. “Lunchtime!”

I pushed to stand. Remy remained pinned to my side, though she barely made it to my waist. Reaching out a hand, I helped Tessa to her feet.

“Thank you,” she murmured, her eyes on me for a beat before they were on Remy, her expression riddled with this empathy that made emotion clot up my throat.

Then she reached out and ruffled her fingers through Scout’s hair. “Let’s get you fed, Rocketman.”

Scout giggled like it was the best thing he’d ever heard, then the two of them went skipping toward where I’d dumped our things.

A playfulness took over Tessa as she said something that made Scout crack up. She grabbed the blanket and started to spread it out under the shade of a tree, and Scout was right there to help her, fumbling to get a grip on one side. He tripped and fell backward onto his butt. Instantly, he popped back up, still holding onto one side of the blanket, the kid likely making the job a whole ton harder.

All while a quiet sadness and confusion emanated from my daughter.

“You good, Remy Girl?” I mumbled, still staring ahead, tucking her closer to me where I had my arm slung around her shoulder.

“It just feels weird that you came here with someone,” she whispered like she was ashamed of admitting it.

“Are you okay with that?”

Pain clouded her eyes when she looked up at me. “I don’t like you being alone, but I heard Grandma say you don’t deserve love and that you don’t have any of it to give, either.”

My attention snapped to where Paula sat at a picnic table under a ramada.

Anger burned in my guts.

How could she fucking say something like that in front of my kids?

Turning to Remy, I knelt in front of her and brushed the locks of brown hair from her precious face. “Your grandma is still very, very sad, Remy, because she misses your mom so much, and it’s really hard for her to see through it. It makes her say things that aren’t true.”

I took her by the outside of her shoulders. “But no matter what she says, I need you to know that I love you with every part of me. You and Scout? You are my life. You are what is important to me. You are the reason I live.”

She blinked, processing, before she murmured, “And Tessa, too?”

Fuck. I looked to the ground for a beat before I returned my gaze to my daughter. “Yeah, Tessa, too, but what I feel for her will never take anything away from what I feel for you and your brother. Do you understand?”

“I think so.”

“Okay, good. Now how about we go get some lunch before your brother eats it all?” I forced an easy smile.

Remy gave me one of her half-lopsided grins. “We’d better. Grandma said he’s eating her out of house and home.”

Yeah, well not for long.

“Go, go, go!” Tessa jumped up and down, rooting on Remy who’d thrown the Frisbee and was currently rounding the bases.

I scooped Scout into my arms, and he and I raced toward the Frisbee that’d rolled out the right side of the baseball field.

Scout was bouncing all over, his laughter filling the air, my little guy kicking my sides like I was a horse. “Hurry, Dad, hurry, Remy is so really fast, and we gotta catch her before she gets all the way to home base.”

I dipped down to snag the Frisbee, holding tight to Scout as I tipped him upside down, making him holler and laugh uncontrollably while Tessa was shouting, “You’re almost there, Remy! Whoop, whoop! Team Remy-T Wreckers coming in for the win. Yeah, baby!”

Scout’s eyes went wide. “Go, Dad! We gotta catch her. Rocket speed!”

I shifted him, tucking his side to mine so he could stretch out his arms like he was flying, and I was supplying the rocket propulsion as we bounded back the opposite direction, a bunch of sounds bubbling out of my mouth as I found a lightness I hadn’t felt in a long, long time.

Remy rounded third base.

Tessa jumped up and down on the pitcher’s mound, waving her hands in the air and cheering on my kid. “Go, Remy, go!”

Both their faces were red.

Joy radiated all around.

Guessed it was my joy, too.

This feeling in the air that might have been the best thing I’d ever felt.

Scout kept himself rigid, still zooming through the air. “After burners, Dad!”

I increased my speed a fraction.

Remy screamed and laughed as she ran for home, my daughter soaring free when her steps were often laden with reservation.

Her load too heavy.

I made sure that we just missed her as she stomped onto the base.

“Ahh, dang, you’re too fast.” I feigned the grumbled complaint while my little girl squealed in victory and shouted, “I did it! I did it!”

Tessa ran her way, her arms in the air. “You did it! You are a rockstar, Remington Hendricks!”

They jumped, high-fiving each other with both hands.

“Oh, man,” Scout whined. “We got a tie. How do we even know who’s the best?”

I pressed my lips to the top of his head. “Means we’re all the best, little man.”

“That’s Rocketman to you,” he told me.

A chuckle got free, and Tessa was giggling nonstop, her smile so bright, happiness this glow of warmth that surrounded her.

She poked Scout’s belly where I’d shifted him upright. “Pure awesomesauce, I tell you.”

He jumped out of my arms and into hers.

She caught him like she was completely accustomed to pint-sized shenanigans. “There’s my Rocketman! You’re off to Mars!” she sang as she swung him around.

Peals of his laughter rang in the air, and Remy moved to hold my hand, grinning in a way I hadn’t seen her do in so long that I’d almost forgotten what it looked like.

God, I wasn’t even sure how to navigate through it when I kept getting struck with an urge to capture it.

Hold it and protect it forever.

“Okay, I think that’s my favorite game.” Remy was almost shy to say it, though it was adrenaline and glee rushing all over her face.

“So fun!” Tessa agreed.

Everyone was panting with the exertion, sweat slicking our skin, and we moved back to where we had the blanket set up in the shade.

Tessa flopped down onto her back on it, Scout still held in her arms. Remy flopped right down beside her.

Tessa rolled her head in Remy’s direction so they were staring at each other where they lie on their backs. “Thank you for being on my team.”

“Best team ever.” Timidity might have filled Remy’s voice, but joy shined in her eyes.

They just sat there for a second, smiling at each other, something special moving between them.

Scout climbed off Tessa, and he crawled to the cooler and tossed open the lid. “I spy with my little eye a blue Popsicle.”

Like he hadn’t spotted it earlier when we were passing out sandwiches and fresh-cut fruit.

He reached for one.

“You’re supposed to ask first, little man,” I told him.

“Is it okay, Tessa?” He beamed at her. I was pretty sure those full lips would be enough to swindle the last dollar out of a starving man’s hand.

I blinked at him. “Excuse me? What am I, chopped liver?”

Scout shrugged. “Tessa’s got my back.”

Tessa sat up, pressing her fingertips to her mouth like she was trying to keep back her laughter.

“What are you giggling about?” I asked, voice low as I climbed down onto my knees at the edge of the oversized blanket.

“I think I found myself a couple of new besties.” Her smile softened, pure affection as she glanced between the two of them.

Remy smiled, too, and fuck, my chest tightened.

I loved to see my little girl happy.

“I’ll be your best friend because you brought me a Popsicle,” Scout supplied as he grabbed a handful of them and started to pass them out.

“One for Daddy-Doo, one for Remy-Roo, one for Tessa-Too.”

My kid, he was a poet.

“Dad, you better kiss her if you’re gonna marry her,” Scout said so nonchalant as he peeled the wrapper and stuck the blue bullet into his mouth. “Because in a minute, she’s gonna have blue lips, and that’s gross.”

I knew we were going to have to get these displays of affection right, but my nerves decided it was a fine time to short-circuit.

To go zapping and zinging in all those places she kept bringing to life.

Shaking me down and tightening my guts in a flurry of want as I looked at the woman who watched me with such a tenderness that my spirit groaned.

“You’ve got love, Dad,” Remy whispered.

Soft encouragement that cut me to the quick.

My child’s belief filling me full after I’d lost it.

Warily, I crawled forward on my knees, already towering over Tessa where she sat on the blanket.

My friend.

My friend.

Curling my hand around the back of her neck, I drew her closer.

Fire flashed.

That feeling rising that I had to keep at bay.

But those blue eyes, they were so intense and deep and filled with this trust that spread like fingers through my senses.

The girl a lure.

Her lips barely parted as we sat there with an inch of space separating us.

Hovering.

Hesitating.

Unsure.

My heart thundered too loud, and I finally drew her the rest of the way in and pressed my lips to hers.

Somewhere between firm and soft.

A second.

Then two.

Breathing her in.

Torment and bliss.

Scout cracked up at our side, and I closed my eyes for a second more, relishing in it, in what I couldn’t have, before I forced myself back a fraction to look his way.

“You do got the love bug, Dad. Miss Longmier said it was a horrible disease,” he giggled around his Popsicle.

I glanced back at Tessa, who withdrew, timidly licking her lips as she sat back.

My dick stirred.

I wanted to kiss her again.

Guilt cleaved through my spirit at the errant thought, but I didn’t have time to fully contemplate it before a voice cleared, bursting the bubble we’d built.

“It’s time to go,” Paula said, barely controlling the spite in her voice.

“Oh, man, already? I just got my Popsicle,” Scout complained.

Sadness rushed from Remy, and in an instant, she had moved and was clinging to me. It was the same way she always did when it was time to say goodbye.

I held her tight, one arm around her waist and my other hand spread over the back of her head while she buried her face in my chest.

I was caught in her pain, in the hatred that burned from Paula, in the sympathy that radiated from Tessa.

“Finish it up quickly.” Paula pursed her lips in disdain when she glanced at where I was on my knees hugging Remy.

Scout took it as a challenge, though half of it melted on his face and dripped down onto his shirt.

When he finished, we all reluctantly stood.

Somberness stole the mood as Tessa and I packed our things.

Tessa held onto the blanket while I carried the cooler back across the park.

Scout and Remy walked along at either side of us. Scout prattled on, thankfully unaware of the melancholy that had descended.

Paula and Gene were already waiting by their car. We set everything on the sidewalk, and a sticky disquiet crawled over us as we walked the kids to the parking lot.

Remy took Tessa in a fierce hug.

“I’m really glad I got to meet you today. It was so fun,” she whispered, like she needed to keep it a secret.

Tessa gently ran her hand down the back of her head before she eased back so she could meet her eye. “It was one of my most favorite days I’ve ever had.”

An affected smile tweaked Remy’s mouth before it dimmed, and she moved to throw herself around me. She burrowed into me as I held her close.

I nearly buckled when I felt her crying.

How many times could my soul shatter before there was nothing left that existed?

I eased her back, tipped up her chin, held it between my thumb and forefinger. “It’s okay, Remy Girl. I’ll see you next week.”

One side of her face tremored as she tried to hold her sorrow back. “Okay.”

“I love you.”

She nodded, the words whispered directly into my chest when she squeezed me again. “You’ve got love, Dad, and I love you back so much.”

She finally peeled herself away and climbed into the back of the SUV.

I picked up Scout and flung him around a little, making him laugh before I pulled him against my chest, holding him as tight as I could without crushing him. “You be a good boy, Scout. I’ll be thinking about you.”

“Every single second.” He grinned.

“That’s right.” I pressed a kiss to his temple.

Paula all but ripped him out of my arms, scowling at me as she buckled him into his car seat.

“He’s a mess, Milo. I’d appreciate it if you had a little consideration next time.”

Right.

Popsicles.

I was a horrible parent.

I didn’t bother responding because it didn’t matter.

There would be no getting through to her, no changing her mind, and the only way any of this would change would be fighting it out in court.

We stepped back as Paula slammed the door shut, and she rounded and got into the front passenger seat.

Gene backed out.

Tessa eased up to my side.

Energy thrummed.

Quiet.

Intense.

Sorrowful.

She threaded her fingers through mine, and together, we watched them drive away.

I’d done it for close to four years.

Stood there, alone, breaking all over again.

But this time, I did it with Tessa at my side.

This time, I did it with a spark of hope.