Worth the Wait (McKinney_Walker #1)(52)

This lunch was a self-imposed outing. Mia was determined not to let Nick break her the way he’d done years ago. She slipped into the booth next to Hannah. Abby’s tow-headed four-year-old son, Charlie, sat in Hannah’s lap, working on a coloring sheet. Abby’s five-year-old, Gracie, sat beside her, coloring, while she wrangled Mary, a darling eighteen-month-old with a head full of soft-brown curls.

Mia swallowed against the lump in her throat. Savannah would be almost eighteen months now.

“Lizzie couldn’t make it,” Abby said, pulling Mary’s fist and a crayon away from her mouth. “One of her kids puked at art camp.”

Hannah stopped with her ice water halfway to her mouth. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes,” Abby said.

“He puked all over the table, and then more kids puked,” Gracie announced, sounding inordinately happy about the whole affair.

“Gracie, that’s not table talk. So sorry,” Abby added, speaking to them.

“It’s okay. No food yet,” Mia said. “And I have a strong stomach.”

Mia knew Hannah was making an effort to include her in lady lunch dates, and she appreciated it enough to make an effort to accept. It was the only capacity she’d seen Hannah in since the hospital.

Despite Hannah’s panic attack sparked by her past, it had been a step forward. Had spurred Hannah to share the details of her past with another person, a man she cared about and whom Mia believed cared about her.

The young waitress returned, and she ordered a slice of her favorite. That was the best thing about this place, that you could order just a slice. While Abby ordered for the kids, Mia couldn’t help but notice the small diamond winking on the waitress’s left hand. A symbol of love and a promise made. She’d once had the love and the promise. She didn’t feel cynical or think that their love wouldn’t last just because hers hadn’t. It was more a wistfulness, a reminder of what she’d lost.

Charlie climbed from Hannah’s lap into hers, his sweet arms circling her neck in a squeeze.

“I’m sorry,” Abby said. “Just pass him back when it gets to be too much.”

“No. It’s not too much. He’s just a bundle of love.”

“He is,” Abby agreed, smiling at her boy.

Mia nuzzled his head, breathing in the scent of his soft baby hair. The last couple of weeks hadn’t been easy. Less than twelve hours with Nick and she’d fallen right back into that heartbreaking place she’d never wanted to be again. She hadn’t even realized how much she’d feared ever feeling that kind of pain again until she did. And that was perhaps the real reason she’d avoided getting involved with anyone.

“Such a ladies’ man,” Hannah said.

Mia closed her eyes and cuddled him close one more time before he pulled away and turned to get his crayons from his sister.

They talked of family and birthday parties coming up and all the happenings that came with a large family. The bunk beds Matt was building in Jack’s room and Hannah’s long-term plans for a children’s riding camp with cabins near her own.

“Our men love a project,” Abby said, picking up Charlie’s freshly delivered pizza to blow away some heat. “Keeps them happy even if they grumble a little.”

Mia felt a pang at the phrase our men. Both of the ladies here had a man who loved them and whom they loved back. Except for Hannah, they all had children added to the mix. She watched Abby, wiping and herding and holding. She’d wanted that. God, how she’d wanted that. With Nick. If not with Nick, then by herself.

She hadn’t spoken to him since she’d left his house, but she spent most of every day trying not to think about him. She couldn’t decide if it hurt worse now that she’d seen him again. Maybe it had just brought everything to the surface, but the pain wasn’t worse. It had hurt plenty before. Touching him again, holding him, being held... it’d been such a mistake, going to him, going to bed with him. But would she take it back if she could?

“Stephen said you were okay with Gracie coming out on Saturday,” Abby said to Hannah. “But please, tell me if it’s a problem.”

“It’s not a problem,” Gracie chimed in. “Hannah says I’m the best five-year-old rider she’s ever seen.”

Hannah smiled. “You’re right. I did say that. And I wouldn’t ever say it if it wasn’t true.”

“See, Mom?” Gracie beamed.

Abby shook her head, smiling in wonder across at Hannah. “Stephen is a lucky man.”

Hannah grinned sheepishly, studying the ice cubes in her soda. “I feel pretty lucky, too.”