I missed Charlotte's steady presence when she returned home at Oleksander's insistence. It was selfish of me to want her around all the time, to want everyone around. I wasn't, it turned out, the Center Of The Universe.
When did that happen?
I never expected to settle into a quiet life as a mom and love it. But Gabriel made everything so much better, simpler. Distracted me from the old angers and sorrows enough I fell into a kind of Mommy haze.
So when I felt spirit power enter the back yard followed by the familiar touch of Sunny's magic, I shook myself free of my stupor and greeted her at the door with a big smile and a giggling baby in my arms.
She swooped forward, a joyful cry on her lips, and lifted him from my grasp, swinging Gabriel around as he laughed, the sound so fresh and sweet I had to swallow the lump rising in my throat.
I made him. Imagine.