‘Princess Jenna!’ Bella squeals, flying down the front steps as fast as her little legs will carry her. Isla is hot on her heels, racing to get to Jenna before her sister does.
Jenna releases my hand and drops to her knees in the middle of my brother’s driveway, her arms open wide to catch my girls. They hit her like two little hurricanes, knocking her back onto her bottom. Her arms close around them, pulling them tight to her chest.
My throat grows tight as I watch the three of them, my heart pounding like a drum. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful than this…than Jenna with the girls in her arms and a bright smile on her face, than Bella and Isla hugging her as hard as they can.
No, we’re not moving too fast. My girls have been waiting for this moment for far too long. They’ve deserved this moment since the day they were born. Marion couldn’t give it to them, but maybe she wasn’t supposed to. Maybe this is how our story was always supposed to begin. I don’t know. All I know is that this right here is the beginning.
And we’ve been waiting a long damn time for it.
Ian and Holly peek out, smiling when they see Jenna and the girls.
Bella is talking fifty miles a minute. So is Jenna. Isla isn’t saying much, but I see the smile on her face. I see the happiness shining in her eyes. She’s content right where she is, listening to her sister tell Jenna all about the big plan Jenna sent up into flames when she quit her job.
I was fully prepared to move mountains to get her back here where she belonged. I was going to give her boss an interview and buy her apartment complex if that’s what it took. But as usual, she turned my plans on their head. I have a feeling she’ll be doing a lot of that for the next thousand years or so. I’m not complaining. She’s a little bit chaos, a little bit magic. Precisely what my girls and I needed to bring us back to life.
‘Daddy!’ Bella calls, lifting her head to look at me. ‘Come help us hug Princess Jenna!’
‘How about I come hug all of you?’ I ask, already striding toward them. I kneel on the ground behind Jenna, scooping her and the girls up in my arms.
As they squeal and laugh and cling to me, the last of my anger at Marion just…vanishes. I’ll never understand why she did what she did. I’ll never forget what she did, and it will never be okay that she hurt my girls. But I forgive her for it. I’m finally, finally at peace with it.
And so are my girls.
‘I love you,’ Jenna whispers, laying her head against my shoulder.
‘With everything I am,’ I whisper back.
