They kept up a steady pace, making and serving pizza and heaping plates of spaghetti and salad. Blake worked as hard as any of his employees, while his mind traveled a different road from the one his hands performed with little thought. He felt divided in his emotions as well. On one side, he had never been happier. He possessed the love of a wonderful woman. She was strong, courageous, kind, gentle, and caring. He could go on, but what impressed him even more was her purity of heart. He had lived in and remembered her past. She was the same Tessa as back then, yet so different now. That difference brought him to the other side of his emotions. Watching her, witnessing the changes in her life, had shown him his inadequacies. A heavy load of regret and guilt sat on his heart. A load that intensified every time he sat through a church service and watched the inner peace shine through Tessa’s eyes. At five o’clock, Tessa and the boys came in to get Rob. From the moment Tessa assured him Derek truly was his, Blake had experienced a jolt of awareness each time he saw his son.
