“Will you come, too?”
“Of course! You don’t think I’d leave you, do you?” Izzy ruffled her sister’s hair and bent to give her a kiss. “Fetch your coat in case it rains. The sky is looking dark.”
Flora had been hoping that Izzy would choose to stay at home, but it was clear the teenager didn’t intend to leave Molly’s side.
Flora grabbed the bag containing all her art equipment, and was halfway out of the door before she realized she’d left her coat on the back of the door in her apartment.
Jack frowned at the sky. “You don’t have a coat?”
“Not with me. If it rains, I’ll get wet. Don’t worry.” Flora hooked the bag over her shoulder. Molly was looking excited, and there was no way she was going to cancel this trip given that it had been her suggestion. “It will probably be drier outside than it was in my apartment.” Her joke didn’t have the impact she’d hoped it would.
“We must have a coat you can borrow.” Jack strode back into the house and tugged open a door. Reaching inside he grabbed a cream trench coat and thrust it at her.
“That’s Mom’s coat.” Izzy’s hand locked on his arm like a vice. Jack lowered his head and spoke quietly.
Flora couldn’t hear what he said, but Izzy let her hand drop. Bone-white with misery, fists clenched by her sides, she took a step back and allowed him to pass.
Both girls watched in silence as he handed the coat to Flora.
Becca’s coat.
She hesitated, and not only because she doubted it would fit. “I don’t think—”
“Wear it.” His voice was steady. “It’s no use having a coat that no one wears.”
Flora glanced at Izzy. Her mouth was pressed together, as if she was trying to hold back a thousand words she wasn’t allowed to speak.
Her pain was so tangible that Flora felt she could reach out and touch it.
While she was figuring out how to handle this latest situation, Jack took the coat back from her and held it in an old-fashioned gesture, giving her no choice but to slide her arms into it.
The sleeves were a little tight and there was no way she’d be able to do the buttons over her chest, but it would protect her from the worst of the rain if the dark clouds above them did as they were threatening to do. The storm she was most afraid of was the one building around her.
She looked doubtfully at the children, checking their reaction, and then Molly gave her a wobbly smile.
“It’s okay,” she said, and her bravery increased Flora’s growing affection for her. If she ever was lucky enough to have a little girl of her own, she hoped she’d be just like Molly.
She crouched down so that she was on the same level.
“This was your mommy’s coat, and it must feel very strange seeing someone else wearing it. If you’d rather I didn’t wear it, that’s okay.”
Molly shook her head. “I don’t mind. I thought I might, but you don’t look like Mommy.” She reached out and touched one of Flora’s curls. “Your hair is more tangled.”
For once, Flora was grateful for her misbehaving hair. She took Molly’s fingers and gave them a squeeze. “My hair,” she said, “is the most independent part of me.” She straightened and looked at Izzy, but the teenager avoided her gaze.
“Let’s do this,” she said, and slammed the front door shut so hard it shook the house and Flora’s brief moment of euphoria.
Despite that, the trip to the park was less awkward than she’d anticipated. Izzy bumped into a group of friends, and while they were chatting Flora and Jack took Molly on the swings and the slide.
Despite the earlier threat of bad weather, the sun peeped from behind the clouds and Flora left Jack with his daughter, settled herself on a bench and pulled her sketchbook out of her bag.
Ten minutes later, curiosity got the better of Molly and she joined her.
Sitting down on the bench, she peered at the sketchbook. “It’s a girl on a swing.” She bent closer. “She has a ponytail, like me.”
“It is you.” Flora tilted it toward her. “What do you think?”
“You drew me? Daddy! Come and see.” She shifted on the bench, her legs swinging, too short to reach the ground. She looked so young, and yet her view of the world had been changed forever. All the assumptions she’d made about family, love and security had been shattered.