Page 63 of Finding Home

“Nana.” She came across the floor in the quick, slightly listing run of a child who was still finding her feet. Julie crouched and caught her, and the girl wrapped both arms around her neck. The force of it would have unsteadied someone who wasn’t prepared for it.

Julie was prepared.

Cole stayed where he was, his coffee forgotten, as Julie became someone’s mother and grandmother again.

Daniel reached them and hugged his mother while his wife held Nellie. Then he turned to Cole.

“Daniel Harrison,” he said, extending his hand.

“Cole Morrison. Good flight?”

“Long,” Daniel said. “Nellie decided the last hour was a good time to reconsider her commitment to sleeping. This is my wife, Maddie. Maddie, this is mom’s friend, Cole.”

Cole shook Maddie’s hand before she hugged Julie.

When they were finished, Maddie turned to Cole. “It’s really good to meet you. Daniel’s been full of questions about the resort.”

“I only mentioned it a couple of times,” Daniel replied.

“A lot more than a couple,” Maddie said pleasantly as she lowered a wriggling Nellie to the floor.

Cole smiled. “Ask me whatever you like. I’ll tell you what I can.”

Julie was watching all of this. He could feel it without looking at her directly. She was tracking each of them, noticing their expressions and how they acted toward each other.

Nellie had taken hold of Cole’s hand.

He wasn’t sure when that had happened.

She was tugging him gently, as if she’d decided he was going in the right direction and she was helping him along. He let her lead him a step or two, which seemed to satisfy some requirement she’d set.

Julie fell into step beside him. She looked at their joined hands—his large one and the small round grip of her granddaughter’s—and she smiled.

“You look good together,” Julie said softly.

“It’s Nellie’s cuteness that makes us look good,” he whispered back.

Daniel sighed. “You won’t say that at three o’clock in the morning when she decides it’s time to get up.”

Julie patted his arm. “You don’t have to worry about that. Nana’s here to give Nellie lots of cuddles.”

And looking at the besotted grin on Julie’s face, Cole guessed that she was hoping Nellie would be up before sunrise each morning.

Chapter 39

The house was too quiet.

Cole had gotten used to noise. The past two days had changed his life in ways he hadn’t imagined.

While he’d been at Julie’s house, voices had carried through open doors, Nellie’s feet had made a constant pitter-patter across the wooden floors, and Daniel’s steady questions had made Cole realize there was more to life than what he was living.

Julie hadn’t wanted him to spend today away from her and her family, but he’d insisted. So he’d stayed home, made a sandwich for lunch, and had eggs on toast for dinner.

The kitchen was warm but felt larger than it usually did. He’d made coffee, but hadn’t drunk much of it.

Sitting in the middle of the kitchen table was the framed photograph from his granddad’s cabin.

Cole had built resorts that most people would consider more impressive than anything Earl Morrison had ever owned. But not one of them had carried the same quality. Unlike Cole, his grandfather hadn’t been building for the next thing. He’d already found what he wanted. And Cole had found some of that magic, too.