Over the last few days, Bear has come down every day to help me out. Shelby asked him to come to town and fill out a background check and get fingerprinted. Thankfully, even if he was connected with some shady things in the past, it was all done on the down low, and his record is clean. His heart is what harbors all the painful choices he has made.

Stella stops by with Wilder to check on me one morning when I’m alone at the house with Laura and Abel. Wilder is a godsend and is helping repair my side fence, and while he’s out of the house, I tell Stella the situation with the babies and their birth parents.

“Oh my God, Gracie. It’s so sad. But does that mean you...”

I shake my head. “I hate thinking about adoption right now. Not because I don’t want to -- I do. And Shelby says she will help me with the paperwork as soon as I want to, but I’m still grieving for the babies. It’s so much loss, you know?”

Stella refills our coffee cups, holding Abel in one arm. She does it all so easily. She’s such an experienced pro with infants. “I can only imagine. I know when Wilder adopted Briar and Finn after his brother and his wife died, it was a lot to process. This though... it’s different. Their parents died because they were struggling so much.”

“It reminds me how precious life is,” I say, thinking about how different my life could have ended up had I not met Cherish. How Laura and Abel would have a different story if Bear hadn’t been out on that hike the day he found them. “There are no guarantees, you know?”

“I know. That’s why we have to hold on tightly to love when we find it.” Stella hands me my coffee, sitting beside me on the couch. “Speaking of... what is going on with you and your mountain man?”

I laugh, knowing this was going to come up.

“I mean, you’re considering bringing two children into your life forever. Where does Bear fit in?”

Sighing, I tell my dear friend the truth. “Last night I thought he was going to tell me he loved me, but then the babies were crying and needed to be fed and changed. It became a whole thing.” I wave my hand in the air, and Stella nods, understanding exactly how demanding newborns are. “I know he loves these babies like I do. I think since he was the one who found them it feels like fate. But...” I hadn’t planned on crying in front of Stella, but suddenly, the emotion spills out from me.

Stella rests a hand on my arm. “Oh, sweetie, what is it?”

“I just feel like a monster,” I admit, shame coursing through me.

“How in God’s name do you feel like a monster?”

“How can it feel like fate to have these perfect babies when they have lost so much in order to be here with me?”

Stella nods, listening, and then she hands me a tissue to wipe my eyes. “I don’t know how it all works, Gracie. How to reconcile the pain with the beauty. I just know that this, right here, these two babies with you, is something beautiful and whole. And maybe Bear will be a part of that picture, forever. And if so, then there is an element of fate to all of this. That in this big, complicated world, a family can find one another in the most unlikely of circumstances.”

My shoulders shake. “I needed to hear that, Stella. More than I even knew.”

“Maybe I did too,” she says softly. “I carry so much guilt that I have the privilege of raising Briar and Finn, it breaks my heart for them that they lost so much at such a young age. But that loss doesn’t take away from the joy. It just makes the joy that much more meaningful. Not everyone understands this kind of loss. The loss an adoptive mother feels. Because our children’s story is borne out of sorrow. But Gracie, that doesn’t change the fact that their story is full of love, too.”

I hug Stella, feeling so close to her right now, and feeling so much gratitude for her friendship. Here we are, two unlikely friends-- she comes from a put together family in Seattle, and I have nothing but this mountain, yet here we are, connected through the love we have for the people in our lives.

A knock on the door startles us. I laugh, standing. “Maybe it’s Bear?”

But when I pull open the front door, a woman I’ve never seen before is standing in front of me. Mascara runs down her face as she asks if I’m Grace.

“Yes, who are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m Virginia. I’m fine. It’s Bear. Up in our cabin. He’s in trouble.”

“Your cabin?” Shake my head, confused, pulling Laura tighter to my chest.

“Yeah,” she says, nodding her head. “We live up there, together.”

“Togeth--” I’m feeling so lost.

She cuts me off, crying harder. “We need help. He’s in trouble.”

“Bear?” I cover my mouth. Just then, Wilder comes up to the doorway. He looks around, getting an understanding of things.

“Yeah,” Virginia says. “The Badlands showed up. They came for me, but Bear told me to run down here before they saw me.”

Stella moves into action. “Wilder, you have to go see what’s going on. I’ll call 911.”

“No, the cops can’t come,” Virginia begs.

I look at the woman who seems so lost. How could Bear be living with a woman in his cabin this whole time and not tell me? What else is he hiding?

“Take me to him,” Wilder says. “Stella, you keep Grace here, okay?”

But I shake my head. “No, I have to go, I have to--”

Wilder looks at me. “Grace, your children need you now.”

He’s right. Of course, I want to go see Bear, but I need to protect my children.

Wilder and Virginia run out of the cabin, heading across the creek. Bear is living with another woman. A woman who is beautiful, a woman he wants to protect. A woman he hid from me.

I don’t know what is happening. And my thoughts from earlier today flood my mind.

In life, there are no guarantees.