Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Nora stood over the stove, stirring the pot of beef stew that she was making for dinner, and pressed her hand against her baby bump. Her mind had been full all day, and it wasn't showing any signs of slowing down.

Caroline had called her that morning, asking if she wanted to join her and Margo to go and check in with the businesses in town about their contributions to the tree decorating contest, but she just hadn't felt up to it. She was having a difficult day, and sometimes being around family helped that, but today she just wanted to mull things over without feeling like she was bringing everyone else down.

She felt conflicted and emotional, more so than usual. She'd had bouts of it off and on since getting pregnant, feeling moody and full of worries, but usually, she was able to shake it off pretty easily. Today had been harder than usual.

Margo coming home had definitely added to the emotional weight. She'd missed her sister for so long, just like they all had, and she'd understood the need to get out of Evergreen Hollow.

But Margo had taken it to an extreme, and now she'd just bounced back into their lives. She could see Margo trying to make an effort, with things like her suggestion for how to come up with the funds to fix the inn's roof, but she also knew Margo had every intention of flitting back out of town the moment both of her feet were fine again. She'd always been the more sympathetic one toward it in the past—but she guessed maybe being on the verge of having a daughter of her own was making her look at things differently.

It wasn't that she wasn't grateful. She was glad that Margo had finally come home, even if she felt bad for the circumstances, and she was glad to have had bonding time with both of her sisters. It meant a lot, after so long. And she was beyond stunned and grateful at how much support the community had shown for the fundraiser. It was exactly the example of all the best parts of Evergreen Hollow that had made her want to stay here, beyond being near her family again, and Aiden.

But the fears about becoming a mother kept welling up, and it was harder to quell them lately. It often felt that as soon as she managed to tamp one down, something else would spring up. As soon as she managed to convince herself that she was capable of taking care of a newborn, that the nurses wouldn't be absolutely crazy to send her home with something that fragile and dependent on her, she started worrying about the future.

She was lucky that here, she didn't have all the same worries that she might have had about her daughter going to a public school somewhere like Boston. Rhett had echoed those same thoughts from time to time, about why he'd decided to uproot himself and Jay from Cleveland and come to Evergreen Hollow.

But she still found things to be nervous about. Her daughter getting hurt on the school playground, for instance. Bullied. How to handle social media, which had once been her whole life, and she now cringed at thinking what it would be like when her daughter was old enough to be on the Internet. And with Margo coming home, a new fear had cropped up.

She'd been in Margo's corner all those years ago, when their mother had been so upset about Margo taking off for New Jersey—and not just New Jersey, but a job that took her to all sorts of far-flung places where she was out of touch for months at a time. She'd argued that they all needed to get away from home, except for Caroline for some unfathomable reason, that Margo's desire to travel the world and capture it in photographs wasn't any different from her desire to throw beautiful parties for people in a beautiful, big, bustling city.

But now, when she thought of her own daughter wanting to do something like that?—

It choked her up, imagining that one day her own daughter might want to go travel to dangerous places like that to follow her dreams.

What am I supposed to do? She wondered wildly, stirring the stew a little too hard. Tell her that she can't?

She could feel tears welling up by the time Aiden walked in, hanging off the edge of her lashes. She bit her lip, not wanting him to see how upset she was, but she could tell that he picked up on it as soon as he walked in.

"Hey there," he said softly, going to wrap an arm around her waist and press a kiss to the top of her head. "What's going on?"

Nora set the spoon down in the cradle on the stove, turning to press her face into her husband's shoulder. "I'm happy to be having a baby, I really am," she sniffled. "But I can't help worrying. There are so many things that could go wrong. So many things we could do wrong. We can't protect her from everything. And we can't stop her from going out and wanting to be her own person, even if that means having a dangerous job like Margo. You know she's going to want to leave when she grows up, even if it's just for a while. That's normal, to want to leave home, but?—"

She could feel herself breaking out into full-on tears, and Aiden squeezed her gently, rubbing her shoulders as he rested his chin on top of her head.

"You're worrying about things eighteen years from now," he said gently. "There's always the chance that she won't want to take off. Caroline didn't. I didn't. And if she does, we'll be understanding about it enough that eventually she'll come right back. If she doesn't, we'll make sure we're all on good enough terms that we stay in touch. We can't decide what kind of person this little girl is going to grow up to want to be, we just have to do our best to get her there in the right way. That's all we can do. The rest is up to her."

He turned his head a little so that he could see Nora's face as he added, "We need to enjoy each little bit as it happens. This part, right here, is what's happening right now. So we focus on that, and not what's going to happen when she's all grown up."

He reached down, tilting her chin up slightly so that he could give her a gentle, sweet kiss.

"I know you worry a lot, Nora. But it's all going to be all right. We've got your family, and each other, and pretty soon we're going to have the most perfect daughter anyone ever had."

Nora let out a sigh, sinking into his chest. "You're right," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Aiden said gently. "I'm just reminding you that we'll miss out on life if we spend all our time worrying, because sometimes you need the reminder. We all do. You should be enjoying this time with your sisters while they're all here."

He took a small step back, placing a broad hand on Nora's belly. "This baby is going to be loved by everyone and well-looked after. We've got that village you always hear about, for sure. You're not doing this alone in the slightest."

Nora gave him a small smile, her worries fleeing as she felt overwhelmed with gratitude. She'd picked the right man, for sure. And she felt so much happier now, surrounded by so much love.

He was right, she decided, turning back to the stove as Aiden went to start slicing up the bread to go with the stew. There was no point in spending all of her time worrying.

Everything was going to be all right.