Two Weeks (The Baxter Family #5)(82)

It was one of those moments when the best thing he could do was listen. He searched her eyes. “Mmmm.”

“I mean it.” She released him and did a spin in her aunt and uncle’s living room. “My baby girl’s going to have the best life.” She raised her brow, her eyes bright. “Can you imagine how happy she’s going to be? Aaron and Lucy will tell her about Jesus and about how I loved her enough to let her go.”

She was celebrating the moment, and Cole thought the world of her for it. But tears streamed down her face even while her voice filled with joy. Rivers of tears.

“Gracie Anne has parents now! It’s official.” Elise raised her hands in the air and a few sobs slipped from her lips. “Cole. Gracie Anne has parents!” The wind in her happiness seemed to fade. She came to him again and fell into his arms. “Maybe someday, right?”

He wasn’t sure what she meant so he eased back and searched her eyes. “Maybe someday?”

“You and me.” Her tears wouldn’t stop. “When you have your medical degree and I’m a famous artist in SoHo or Chelsea.”

Tears blurred his eyes now, but he smiled. With his thumb he pushed her dark hair off her forehead and stared into her eyes. “Yeah, Elise.” He wanted her, wanted her to know that he loved her more than a friend. “Maybe someday.”

“Will you do something for me, Cole? Before you go?” She was shaking, clearly dreading the goodbye ahead as much as he was.

He took a step closer and framed her face with his hand. Her skin was soft beneath his touch. The attraction between them had never been stronger. “Will you kiss me, Cole? Just once?”

Long before this moment, Cole had made up his mind. He wouldn’t kiss her. No matter how bad he wanted to, he couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to either of them. Not when their futures were taking them in such different directions. But that plan was out the window now. There were only the two of them in this empty house, Elise looking like a vision and wanting just one thing from him. “Elise . . .” His resolve was wearing thin, his breath soft against her face. “We shouldn’t.”

“I don’t mean like that.” She closed the distance between them, her eyes never leaving his. “A kiss goodbye.” Her smile was the saddest he’d ever seen. “God would be okay with that. Don’t you think?”

Cole didn’t need any more convincing. He took gentle hold of her face with his other hand and brought his lips to hers. The kiss lasted longer than he intended, a handful of seconds when there was only Elise and him and a life and love that had almost been.

But would almost certainly never be.

He drew back, the feeling of her lips fresh on his, the heat in his cheeks something he had never known before. He was more sure than ever that he needed to leave. Now. Before he kissed her again.

She walked him to the door and they hugged once more. She wasn’t crying now and he wasn’t, either. As if—in the end—they both had agreed to this goodbye. Because it was the best decision.

Just like Elise’s choice to let Gracie Anne go to the adoptive couple.

“I love you, Elise.” He touched his lips to hers one more time. Not the hot kiss from a minute ago. But the final way he wanted her to remember him. As someone who had always liked her more than a friend. Someone who loved her.

“I love you, too.” She touched his face, and the feel of her fingertips lasted long after she took a step back.

They both waved and he walked to his car. As he climbed in and drove away, Cole thought about the kiss, his first kiss. Their last kiss. And he felt something grab hold of him, something he’d never felt before. He didn’t have to wonder what it was. He would remember this feeling forever.

The feeling of a broken heart.





24




They decided to hand off little Gracie Anne at the local social services office. Mr. Green had set up the meeting for ten that morning. The two weeks had ended, just hours before, at midnight.

Gracie Anne belonged to her adoptive parents now.

Theo and Alma had taken shifts holding her since she woke up that morning. It was Theo’s turn now. He cradled her against his heart and closed his eyes. For one more minute the baby wasn’t a foster child headed to her forever home.

It was his Vienna. The way it felt to hold her when she first came into their lives. He steadied himself and looked at the baby. Her eyes were open. Pretty, and full of light and love and hope. She was almost smiling at him.

“You know what you did, little one?” He nuzzled his face against hers. “You changed our lives.”

Alma walked up. She was ready, her purse over her shoulder. “You tell her, honey.” She leaned over the infant and smiled. “Uncle Theo is right, baby girl. God knew we needed this time with you.”

Together they loaded her in the car seat and set out for the state office. Theo still couldn’t believe all that had happened these past two weeks. From the first night, having Gracie Anne was perfect proof that Vienna was right.

They were supposed to get back into foster care.

But with Vienna gone, they had taken the idea a step further. Alma gave her notice at work. She wouldn’t return in the fall. Not only that, but there was a For Sale sign in the front yard.

Vienna wouldn’t want them drifting around this house like a couple of ghosts, lost in memories of yesterday. Aching for her, missing her. Seeing her in the kitchen getting an apple from the refrigerator or in her bedroom doing homework on her bed. Dancing across the foyer and grinning at them from the dining room table.