Tuesday Tales:From the Word LIP

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the weekly blog where a small group of authors share their works in process with you. I’m continuing with Forever in My Heart, my holiday romance.

When she turned back to him, her lower lip was trapped by her upper teeth, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.

“I need to think about this. You’re not asking me to just drop in for a week or two each year. You’re asking me to give up my life, my job, my apartment … Coparenting sounds great now, but what happens down the line? What if you fall in love and want to get married? Do you really think your wife will want your sister-in-law living with you?”

“That isn’t going to happen. I can guarantee I won’t be bringing another woman into this household—at least not as my wife.”

“How can you be so sure? The future is a mystery. Look at Cassie and Luke. This isn’t what they wanted.”

“You’re right.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t predict the future and neither can you. I’m planning to hire another associate at the clinic, so that I can spend more time here. Those little girls are my flesh and blood. I might not be their biological father, but he and I shared identical DNA. That makes them as much mine as they were his. I have no intention of leaving them. If you agree to meet the terms of the will, then moving to Timberton is the only way to do it. We’ll raise them together as if they were our children, give them a normal life in a two-parent family, and never deprive them of the love their parents would’ve given them. It’s what Cassie and Luke wanted.” Luke wanted something else, but now wasn’t the time to broach that topic. “In the event one or both of us falls in love, then we’ll revisit the issue.” He turned to Cal. “Does that work?”

The old man nodded. “Yes. Callista, Monday is Thanksgiving. The bodies will probably be released the next day, so I’ll give you until Friday to give me an answer. If you feel that Cassie asked too much of you, no one will think any less of you, and we’ll see what kind of arrangement we can hammer out to keep you involved in the girls’ upbringing. Make no mistake, they will have to stay here at the ranch together, but I’m sure we can see about visitations.” He stood and pulled a manila envelope out of his briefcase. “Callie, this envelope contains all of the information for the bank account I set up for you with the funds you inherited from Tilda, and there’s a letter in there from Cassie. She gave it to me at the time they made the will.”

That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales