Chapter 20: Stay

Corrine's POV

Snow was landing on his shoulders and in his black hair, and he stood there waiting for me to answer.

I had a sleeping baby against my chest and a father in the kitchen who had gone very quiet.

"Not for a man I love," I said.

Ward didn't move.

"That was the end of it. I've known it since the car. I kept calling it the cold."

"Corrine."

"You asked if you can stay."

"Yes."

"Then stay."

His shoulders dropped, tension leaving him all at once.

He set the carrier down inside the door with great care, and then he looked at me with his whole face open for the first time.

"I should say one thing first," he said.

"Say it fast."

"I told you nobody stays for me. I've believed that for six years."

"And?"

"And I think I was wrong, and I was too scared to find out."

"I'm not leaning on you," I said. "I'm picking you. There's a difference, and you can have it in writing."

His mouth moved, almost a smile.

"Your father's in the hall," he said.

"I know he is."

Norm stepped out of the kitchen with a dish towel, looking at the ceiling.

"I'll take the nursery tonight," he said. "Both of them. I've got a bottle warmer, a lullaby, and a television I will be turning up very loud."

"Dad."

"Don't come down before seven."

"Dad."

"Go on, Corrine."

He lifted Posy off my shoulder with the ease of a man who had done it for thirty years.

Then he picked up the carrier, looked at Ward over his glasses, and said, "She's all I have left of her mother."

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