“It’s you I want.”

For a heartbeat, she felt everything inside of her freeze. His voice had lowered, gentled. All of the confusion and aching loss of their separation, along with the turbulent emotions of tonight’s meeting, simply vanished. It was the past, the good past with its layers of understanding, acceptance, and love that surrounded them. It was in that good past that she’d known, for the first time with Lucas, how it felt to be wanted, not for the dollars the state agency handed out, but wanted for no other reason than for herself.

Taylor felt a sense of peace, coupled with the forgotten joy of being held by him, seep into her bones. She might have gone with it, might have softened and let old emotions and longing rule her actions. But the strident teenage voice carrying over the threshold had her blood running cold.

“That’s certainly the way it looks from where I’m standing.”