Cruiser whined out a growl, his backside wobbling as his tail wagged harder.
Crossing her arms, Mrs. Dale pegged out a leg. “Zack, dear, I think you’ve made a friend.”
“He’s made one, too.” Zack pushed to his feet.
Mrs. D’s head slanted as she spoke to Trinity. “Are you staying for a few days?” She examined the sky. “The weather’s cleared up beautifully.”
“Actually I’m on my way back East.”
“Don’t tell me. New York? Too busy for my liking, but home is home.”
Mrs. Dale thanked Zack again and after Trinity gave his neck a big hug, obedient as always, Cruiser followed Mrs. Dale back to her car. She opened the tailgate and a moment later, another member of their quartet was whisked away.
Trinity began to shiver again and this time she couldn’t seem to stop. Zack brought his arm around her shoulder. “Come in out of the cold.”
“I’m not cold.”
“Come in for coffee then. I sure need one.”
Noting the fallen tree trunk blocking the front entrance as they passed, Trinity followed as he headed toward the back of the cabin. Even with the shivering, she would rather have stood out here awhile longer although, of course, there was no chance the baby was ever coming back. She knew Bonnie—Belinda—wasn’t hers. Wasn’t theirs. Still, she felt as if a slice had been taken out of her heart.
Inside, Zack put on the pot while, feeling numb, she took a seat on a stool at the counter.
As he fished the milk out of the fridge, Zack commented, “She seems like a nice girl.”
“Girl being the operative word.” A withering feeling coursed through her and Trinity had to close her eyes to, in some way, try to contain it. “With a mother like that, how’s she ever supposed to get ahead?”
“I’m sure she’ll manage.”
Trinity supposed she had. But she also knew how tough and long that road was. Someone of Zack’s background would have no idea what a hard slog “going it alone” could be. So…
“What if she doesn’t manage?”
He set down the milk and cast her a comforting look. “I gave her my contact details. We can’t do anything more than that.”
“Can’t we?” Surely there must be something.
His brow furrowing, he crossed over. “What are you saying?”
“It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out her name and address.”
“That’s not the way this is supposed to work. Mother and child are reunited. I know it doesn’t look ideal, but I thought you’d be pleased.”
“I am.” Her heart sank more, her shoulders slumped and Trinity lowered her voice. “I just want to keep an eye out. Maybe babysit sometime.”
“From New York?”
She grunted and swung away. She didn’t want to hear rational arguments. She wanted to be there. To help.
When he went back to making coffee, she moved to the windows and the view that had once seemed so private but now only looked…lonely. She hugged herself but her body seemed to have lost all its heat. She couldn’t imagine ever feeling truly warm again.
She muttered more to herself than to Zack, “You could never understand.”
She heard a cup hit the counter, his footsteps falling on the timber, coming closer. Then he was behind her and, hands on her shoulders, he spun her around. His jaw was tight and nostrils were flared the barest amount as if that might help curb the emotion she saw flashing in his eyes.
“You’re upset now,” he said calmly enough. “We need to sit down and let this all settle in. This ended the way it was always supposed to—baby and mother reunited.”
Stinging emotion crept up the back of Trinity’s throat. “I can’t help thinking we should do more.”
“Trinity, it’s not our place.” While she recoiled, he scrubbed a hand down his face and sucked in a breath. “In a couple of days, you’ll begin to see. You need to let her go.”
One part of her knew he was right. They’d played out whatever part fate had laid in their path. Now they had to move on. But how did a person move on when they felt stuck? All she could see was Bonnie’s smiling face. All she could hear was that little girl’s laughter. Then she thought of that young mother’s mountain of problems. It made her feel physically ill.
But as Zack brought her near and rubbed her back as he leaned his cheek lightly on her head, she told herself: he’s right. Of course, he’s right.
That baby—their baby—had always belonged to someone else.
Trinity didn’t want to stay for breakfast. She didn’t want to stay, period.
So after they’d showered and were properly dressed, he relented and called a cab. But he insisted on accompanying her to the airport. He’d wanted to wait until she was booked on a flight, but she was just as insistent that he needed to plow on with this day.
Get on with his life.
After his “we need to let it go” speech, guess he’d asked for it.
He kissed her goodbye outside the terminal but the caress was as different to last night’s as today’s blue sky was to the previous gray. Their lips didn’t linger, her smile wasn’t convincing and as she walked away, it was all he could do not to drag her back and demand that she stay until they’d found some way to make their peace. Get beyond this somehow.
Instead he watched her disappear into a building thrumming with a backlog of folk needing to make up for the lost time that freak snowstorm had created. He wasn’t aware how long he stood there, watching, thinking, before the cabbie wound down the window and gave him a verbal prod.
“Where to next, sir?”
Zack glanced back. Where to, indeed.
He slid into the back passenger seat and gave a Denver city address.
Trinity arrived in New York later that day feeling exhausted but unwilling to delay taking action on the decision she’d made during the hours spent waiting at the airport and during the flight back home.
Now she slid out of the cab and headed through the automatic glass sliding door of the familiar downtown building remembering how that word—home—had tugged at her heartstrings for as long as she could recall. She’d worked hard to put herself through college and find the wherewithal to move from Ohio, to get away. She’d never forget her exhilaration when she’d been awarded a position with Story. Her apartment in Brooklyn was tiny but she’d filled it with bits and pieces that made her happy—paintings by talented new artists, books that were favorites and felt like old friends.
But that apartment wasn’t hers. Wasn’t truly home.
As she thumbed a foyer elevator button, she could admit that those walls and neighbors had only ever felt temporary. She would never tell Zack although she thought perhaps he’d guessed: despite her initial disapproval of him, his cabin in the woods had felt more like a safe haven than any address she’d known.
But that time was over. After their amazing night together, Zack had said he wanted to keep in touch. But something wiser than blind hope said he wouldn’t call. She didn’t blame him. He had a brilliant life with concrete