Chapter 276

That evening I’m happily warming up some of the soup Burton left in the kitchen when I hear the front door open. I turn, curious, and smile when I see that it’s Bridgette peeking through.

“Can I come in?” she asks, an eager little smile on her face. She glances around our house, which is still a little busy – Victor and some Betas are working in the little makeshift office in the living room, and the boys are on the floor doing whatever homework the fabulous Miss Georgia left them. It’s a happy scene, but I can see how Bridgette might think she is interrupting.

I laugh and reach out a hand to her. “Of course you can! You don’t even have to ask!”

Giving me a bright smile, Bridgette comes through the door and hurries over to me, holding out a little potted plant that she brought.

“Is this for me?” I ask, my eyebrows going up.

“Yes!” she says, smiling. I accept the plant and admire it a little – a cute African violet with white and pink petals.

“Thank you, Bridgette,” I say, glancing at her as I take the plant to the sink to give it a little water and then put it on my windowsill. “What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, not much,” she says, coming to lean against the counter. “I saw all of the news online about the engagement, I figured that you had announced it and were going to start getting all sorts of congratulations. I wanted to be the first.”

I turn to Bridgette to give her a warm hug, truly touched but a little confused. “But you already congratulated us,” I point out as I pull away. “You didn’t have to get us a gift as well!”

“Yeah,” she replies with a little shrug, “but I wanted to.”

“Thank you,” I say again, reaching out and twisting a strand of her blonde hair in my fingers in a sisterly way. “Do you want to stay for dinner? Burton left us some soup – it smells delicious.” My stomach rumbles, a little, with hunger.

“Um,” she says, looking around the house. And suddenly I realize…Bridgette isn’t here to bring me a plant at all. The plant is just an excuse. A scapegoat plant. “Is Rafe…joining you?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly, tilting my head to the side as I study her. “Do you want him to be?”

Bridgette bites her lip, blushing, and looks down at the floor. Before we can get any further into the conversation, though, the boys rush into the kitchen, having spotted her.

“Hello, Auntie!” Alvins says, dashing to her side and wrapping his arms around her. Ian lifts himself to sit on the counter next to her to wrap his arms around her shoulders.

“Ah!” Bridgette says, laughing. “I am a twin sandwich!”

“The most delicious sandwich,” Alvin says, smiling up at her. “Did you come for supper?”

“Actually,” I break in, smiling at my sons. “Bridgette was wondering if Rafe is around. Do you two know?”

“He’s up by the big house,” Ian says, gesturing through the woods at the back of the house. “Being all mopey.”

“Mopey?” I ask, curious.

“Sure,” Ian continues, nodding and looking out the window. “He goes up there and just walks in circles, thinking about something, his face all sad.”

I glance at Bridgette and see her own face fall at Ian’s words. My heart twists for her – I know it will break her heart to think of him that way.

“Are you sure he’s up there?” I ask, looking between the boys. “I haven’t seen him all day.”

“Yeah, he’s up there,” Alvin says, moving to the window to peer out himself. “He’s always up there.”

I bite my lip, anxious. “Okay, well why don’t you go get him? Tell him dinner’s ready.”

Ian looks up at me, frowning. “But he doesn’t really eat dinner anymore-“

“Just go,” I say, rolling my eyes at Ian’s lack of tact and giving him a little push. Alvin’s already heading for the back door, but Ian takes a moment to glance between me and Bridgette, figuring it all out. “Oh. Okay!” he says, jumping down and chasing after Alvin. Seeing the back door open, Archie jumps up from his little bed by the stairs and runs out the door along with them.

“Come on, Bridge,” I say, putting an arm around her shoulder. “Let’s get you a nice glass of wine.” She sighs and nods, letting me give her a squeeze before I pour two glasses of wine and lead her out onto the back porch. Then, we sit together in the two little chairs pulled close together, blankets draped over our laps despite the spring warmth in the air. Night’s falling, after all. It’s going to be crisp.

As we settle in, we see the boys and the dog disappear into the dark of the little woods between the cottage and the space where the big house was.

“Are you ever going to rebuild the other house?” Bridgette asks, working to peer through the trees.

“I don’t know,” I say, exhaling a deep peaceful breath and closing my eyes as I tilt my head back, my fingers resting on the glass of wine that I know I’ll have a sip from at best. “We’ll certainly need more space soon enough, but Victor and I have to have a conversation about where we want that to be.”

“More space?” Bridgette asks, simple and curious, just carrying on the conversation, but my eyes fly open as I realize what I was thinking of when I said that. Quickly, I glance at her, trying to gauge whether…

Bridgette is beautiful, of course, but I can’t help but notice the sadness in the lines of her features. The mouth that always had a smile is now perpetually turned down at the corners, her eyes more worried than they used to be. She’s staring off into the woods still, looking – I know – not for my boys, but for a tall figure she hopes to see walking towards her.

I glance down at myself, at my still-slim figure that I know doesn’t give any hints about my condition – at least, as long as you’re not a too-precocious magical child genius – and decide suddenly that it’s not the right time to break the news to Bridgette about my pregnancy. She has just been so disappointed by her life recently. I can’t tell her, again, that I have precisely the thing she wants, precisely the thing she was denied.

“You saw how packed the house was,” I say instead, smiling at her. “Victor needs an office to run his business – he can’t keep running his pack out of the living room.”

“True,” she replies, smiling at me with her eyebrows raised. “Though this little cottage is so cozy, I also see why you wouldn’t want to leave it.”

“I know,” I moan a little, shaking my head at the thought. I just have so many happy memories here. But, I know that changes are coming, and that I have to accept them for the blessings they are. As I sigh, thinking about it, three figures come walking through the trees towards us – two small, one tall – with a little dog by their side.

As I watch them walk forward, I look towards Bridgette and hope – again- that changes are coming for her as well. And that they lead her in the right direction this time.