“It’s not too big and it’s not the truck,” Drew said.
“Now who’s acting like an expert?” Molly set her hands on her hips and stared at him.
“Watch and learn.” Drew handed Hazel to Molly and scooted into the truck.
Seconds later, Drew clicked the seat belt into the buckle and stepped away from the truck. He raised both arms over his head. “Done. In less than a minute, too.”
“I need to make sure it’s right.” Molly inspected his installation.
Drew leaned his arm against the open door and laughed. “In school, we lobbied against each other for climate change reform, argued over the death penalty, challenged animal testing as well as drug legalization. I never thought we’d debate a car seat.”
Molly grinned and shook her head. “Really, how did you know how to do this correctly?”
“I’ve been given lessons, then ordered to practice often,” Drew said. “Don’t forget the twins are arriving soon. My niece has been doing baby research ever since Sophie announced her pregnancy.”
“How old is your niece again?” Molly secured Hazel into the car seat and spread the favorite soft llama-print blanket over her.
“Ella is twelve.” Drew opened the front passenger door for Molly.
“I could have used someone like Ella when I first brought Hazel home.” Molly climbed into the truck and buckled her seat belt. One long deep exhale had her easing into the soft leather captain’s chair. She hadn’t sat all morning. Not since she’d climbed out of bed at sunrise to answer Hazel’s early morning wake-up call. The drive to Brooke and Dan’s offered her the perfect opportunity to restore and recharge.
Drew settled into the driver’s seat, fired up the engine and pulled out of the hotel’s drop-off area. “Ella believes the more prepared we are, the better we will handle potential problems.”
His niece’s lessons explained why Drew knew how to handle Hazel’s crying jags and needed little convincing to help Molly that morning.
The moment she’d told Derrick about her pregnancy, he had warned her not to expect his assistance. Not for a diaper change, late-night feeding or even a pick-me-up embrace. Then he’d dropped his big reveal: he’d never wanted kids with Molly. That he’d never really loved her. Thanks to her pregnancy news, Molly had learned exactly what she could expect from Derrick: nothing. She’d ended their relationship that night, walked out of Derrick’s life, determined to rebuild a better life without him. She pinched the bridge of her nose.
Molly had wanted her baby. Accepted she would be a single parent. Now she had to accept every part of that decision, including the exhaustion. And the occasional twinge of loneliness.
“You okay?” A pair of sunglasses blocked Drew’s gaze, but not the concern in his voice.
Molly straightened in the seat. She’d never been weak. She wasn’t about to start now. Besides, she knew how to be alone and thrive. One morning with Drew acting like a co-parent changed nothing. “Do you have one thing that would make you happy? Completely satisfied. Totally fulfilled.”
“Besides clearing my name?” Drew turned onto a busy one-way street.
“That’s a given.”
“I’ve worked one case after another for so long, that’s all I know. Work has been my focus. I assumed I might find someone...” His voice trailed off as if he doubted his own claim. Stopping at a red light, he glanced at her. “What about you?”
“It’s all I’ve been thinking about recently.” Molly ran her palms over her yoga pants. “I keep wondering if I’m not meant to be fulfilled or satisfied, and whether I will spend my life on an endless, futile quest to try to find it.”
“You don’t really believe that do you?” he asked.
“I’ve always had a plan. Detailed and specific.” Molly looked out the truck window at the street crowded with cars and the sidewalk swarming with a crowd. People rushed in every direction, in constant motion, determined to reach their destination. Everyone knew exactly where they were going and how to get there. She wanted to be like them again. “I’ve pursued my goals so relentlessly and so doggedly. Now I’m wondering what I might have missed during the pursuit.”
“Regret was never your style.”
“It’s not regret exactly,” she said. “It’s hard to explain.”
“It’s about considering if you’d taken a left turn instead of a right after graduation or at some turning point in your life...where would you be now?”
“Yeah.” She studied Drew’s profile. He’d been able to read her all those years ago and always understood what she’d been trying to say even while she’d often lacked the right words. All except for the most important thing she had to say: her true feelings for him. Those she’d kept well hidden. She disliked the what-if rolling through her now. Refused to let it haunt her. Her feelings for Drew were part of her past. Nothing real. Nothing to reconsider. “It’s exactly like that.”
“Is here so bad?” he asked.
“I’m a single mom without a steady source of income or a home.” She glanced over her seat at Hazel. The hum of the truck had put Hazel to sleep quickly. “It’s not exactly ideal.”
“It doesn’t have to be perfect to still be good.”
“I never knew you to be so philosophical.” Or to be so very comfortable with a baby.
“There’s quite a bit you don’t know about me,” he said.
And quite a bit Molly was learning about herself. Like the fact that she very much wanted to know more about Drew and the man he was now.
She had to stick to the truth though. Drew was a client.
Once his case was resolved, their relationship would be resolved too.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SUITCASES STORED IN the bedroom closet. Hazel sleeping soundly in her pack and play, temporarily positioned next to Molly’s four-poster bed. Molly quietly closed the bedroom door behind her and checked the time. “I can’t believe we did all that
