Three Makes a Family--A Clean Romance Cari Webb (short books for teens txt) 📖

been worried about the pet store, the twins and Ella. They all need me.”

“Just be present with Ella, even if it’s only ten minutes at a time,” Brooke said. “If Ella has all your attention in those few minutes, that’s more important. An hour spent with her in the same room with you working on your accounting for The Pampered Pooch isn’t the same.”

“Why does it sound so simple when you say it?” Molly asked. Brooke gave Molly hope. She wanted to believe quality over quantity. Wanted to believe Hazel wouldn’t suffer if she fully pursued her career.

“We are all works-in-progress.” Brooke handed Molly her glass of wine.

“Just remember you will miss things.” Sophie peeked inside Hazel’s diaper and twisted her face into an overblown grimace. Hazel giggled and babbled.

Brooke handed Sophie the baby wipes container.

“Then what do you do?” Molly picked up one corner of the playpen and Nichole the other. In step with each other, the women scooted Hazel’s temporary crib, and final piece for her special space, into the small alcove.

“You work hard to be there for the next thing,” Sophie said.

“If it’s a soccer goal because you showed up late to the soccer game, you celebrate with ice cream before dinner.” Nichole picked up her wine glass from the coffee table and clinked it against Brooke’s.

Brooke added, “Or you just have an ice-cream sundae dinner.”

The women laughed and offered their collective agreement.

“Same goes for class speeches, Christmas performances and art shows.” Nichole drummed her fingers against her wine glass. “Try to be there for each one of those, but if you can’t, then make arrangements to have it videoed so you watch it together later.”

“Don’t miss kindergarten graduation for any reason.” Sophie finished the diaper change and zipped Hazel’s teddy-bear-print onesie up under her chin.

“Or Halloween,” Nichole said. “The costumes are a really big deal.”

“The most important thing is to learn to forgive yourself.” Sophie propped Hazel next to her on the couch and set her favorite floppy-eared pink bunny in her lap. “You aren’t going to always get it right. After all, perfect moms are a total myth.”

“I feel like I’ve been getting it all wrong since Hazel’s birth.” Molly folded a blanket to cover the numerous stains on the llama-print cotton fabric. The ones she’d failed to get out even after several washings. Worse, it was Hazel’s favorite blanket and went everywhere they did. She draped the blanket over her arm and considered looking online to order a replacement. “All the books I read...”

“Stop. Right. There.” Nichole held up her hand like a strict school-crossing guard, her voice firm. “Those books are wrong.”

Molly glanced at Sophie and Brooke. But those books offered sensible, if not sometimes unattainable, solutions. In fact, those books had failed to offer an actual stain-removal suggestion that worked.

Sophie shrugged. “It’s true.”

“Besides.” Brooke walked over to Molly and linked arms, then turned her to face Hazel’s makeshift nursery. “You don’t need books now. You have us.”

“Just look at the baby nook we created tonight.” Nichole turned on the moon-and-star light they’d set on a small table out of reach of the playpen. The old dresser from Brooke’s attic they’d turned into a usable changing table. And the thick yellow plush throw rug Sophie had borrowed from Ella added a much-needed pop of color and a burst of sunshine in the windowless space.

“Cozy and comfortable,” Sophie offered.

“I like it,” Brooke said. “A lot. I want to stay here and absorb all the happy.”

“It’s really perfect for her first nursery.” Molly hugged the blanket against her chest. “Thank you.”

“No thanks are necessary.” Brooke squeezed Molly’s arm. “It’s what friends do.”

Friends. Molly soaked in that one word. Marveled at the instant welcome she’d received. How they’d readily given support. And immediate acceptance.

“Friends also finish wine together.” Nichole picked up the bottle and refilled their glasses. “The school dance ends soon.”

“And that means our girl time is almost up.” Sophie snuggled Hazel into her side and then set her other hand on her stomach. “And I really need to discuss this whole giving-birth-to-two-little-people-at-the-same-time thing. My body isn’t ever going to be the same, is it?”

The women laughed, gathered around Sophie and offered their encouragement. For the first time that Molly could remember, she readily joined in.

CHAPTER TWELVE

SHOWERED AND BACK in clean clothes after his basketball game, Drew walked from the Sawyers’ house to Molly’s apartment. The cold night chilled his still-damp hair. He balanced several packages on top of a large box and knocked on, then opened Molly’s apartment door. “I have deliveries for you. They were left on the front porch.”

“Perfect. I ordered more baby supplies.” Molly grabbed the two soft-sided packages and dropped them on the kitchen counter. She touched the large box Drew held. “This is a new walker for Hazel now that she has more space than a hotel room.”

“Want me to put it together now?” Drew set the box in the family room.

“It can wait until tomorrow.” Molly pointed to his file boxes. “I’d like to start going through your files tonight.”

“Do you really think there’s some kind of smoking gun in there?” Drew eyed the office boxes that held more than office supplies and books.

Inside, too many memories lingered. His handwritten notes from every case. His law books highlighted and bookmarked for every one of those cases. Those boxes were a timeline from his first case to his last at the district attorney’s office. A road map of his victories and losses. And Molly wanted to search through them. But they brought his past into sharp focus. And made him question himself. If he’d erred on the Van Solis trial, had he made a misstep on other cases too?

“I think this is all part of my job.” Molly lifted the first box onto the square kitchen table. “We have to be thorough.”

“I’ll let you get started.” He never imagined one allegation, even a false one, would have the power to shake the foundation of his core beliefs. “I’m