Izzy dragged a folding chair over and helped me into it. “Otherwise, it all just spins around in there and turns into some real dark shit.”
I’d been trying to avoid that dark place since Jack broke things off. I thought I’d been succeeding, but all it took was one mention of his name to send me back into tears. Maybe Evie and Izzy were right. Maybe I needed to talk about it to move past it.
“I thought we had something real, something like what you found with Alex.” I smiled weakly at Evie. “I actually thought my spirit guides had brought me here for Jack. I fell in love with him, with the kids, and I miss them like crazy. It’s like a piece of me is gone.”
I placed a hand to my heart. Evie put hers on top of mine and Izzy followed suit.
“For what it’s worth,” Izzy said, dropping her hand, “Jack’s pretty much a wreck. So are the kids. They all seem to miss the hell out of you. Maybe you should talk to them.”
“Austin said I shouldn’t go down without a fight, but I don’t know what to say. Jack broke up with me because the kids aren’t taking our relationship well. How selfish would it be for me to show back up and demand a do over? I have to accept that it didn’t work out and move on.”
A knock at the door startled us all and I looked up to find Greta peering inside. She lifted a hand and I groaned. “Now what?” I murmured, with no small amount of dread, then stopped and shook my head. “I mean, what goodness does the universe have in store for me now?”
Evie and Izzy exchanged a glance and I stood, crossing the room to greet the newcomer.
“Hello Mrs....” I paused, fully expecting her to interrupt me, then lamely finished the sentence when she didn’t. “…Macmillan.”
“I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I know you’re busy.” She stared at the purple wall and wrinkled her nose. “I’m here because I owe you an apology.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline and I turned to my friends, who looked just as surprised as me.
Greta took my hands. “I judged you too quickly, and I judged you all wrong. What’s worse, I didn’t keep my opinions to myself and got the whole town upset with you for no reason at all. I was wrong, I’m sorry, and I hope you can accept my apology.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.” Not my most gracious statement, but I’d had a rough couple weeks.
“You don’t have to say anything. Just know that I deeply regret my actions. I never have been very good at keeping my opinion to myself. Sometimes I’m right, like with that whole Norma Jean Reynolds debacle. Other times, I’m very, very wrong. Like now.” She patted my hand and offered a weak smile. “I’ll leave you to it. Best of luck on your grand opening!” She peered into the store. “I love that color!”
And with that, she was gone, leaving me to stare after her, dumbfounded.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jack
Over the last couple months, whenever Amelia talked about her store, I’d imagined myself standing at her side on opening day, proud…awed…by what she’d accomplished. I’d heard many business ideas in my years. For whatever reason, my clients inevitably felt comfortable enough to pitch me their hairbrained schemes, as if I had the ability to bless the project and bring it to life.
From the first moment Amelia showed me her plans, she’d been more prepared than anyone I’d ever talked to. Since then, every step she’d taken had been well-placed and shrewdly intelligent, even though her decisions came from love, passion, and dare I say it…intuition.
Her grand opening was tomorrow.
And I wouldn’t be there.
Not physically anyway. I’d be there in my heart, and I’d be proud, and awed, and so damn glad to have had her in my life…
My emotions caught in my throat and I propped my head in my hands as I sat at the kitchen table after an uneventful breakfast. In the living room, the kids whispered and schemed, no doubt coming up with a plan to spend the day doing something as exhausting as it was exhilarating. Whatever it was, I’d have to fake my way through it, just like I’d faked my way through the last week, through the last year and a half—minus Amelia. My grief over missing her almost rivaled the grief I had for Nat. It didn’t make sense. How did two months of dating equal ten years of marriage and three kids?
That was the thing about love, though. It rarely made sense.
I loved Amelia and I missed her every single day.
We hadn’t seen each other since I broke things off. The look on her face when I jogged around the corner—it was confusion laced with pain and I hated myself for doing that to her. She’d stood there with a bag full of stuff to help a sick family, my sick family, and all I had for her was rejection.
Losing Nat had a finality to it. A clear cut end. Losing Amelia? There was nothing final there. We’d see each other at Evie and Alex’s wedding, the rehearsal dinner, the reception. My heart couldn’t wait. It hadn’t gotten the message things had changed. My head was already preparing for it to be awful. Beyond that, WRL was a small town; there was no doubt we’d run into each other time and again. Would I grieve her like this every time? Surely, the wound would close, and I’d be able to move on…
The stampede of feet alerted me to the arrival of the kids, and I looked up to find the three of them standing just inside the doorway. Garrett clutched a notebook to his chest with an air of importance. Connor wore the button-up shirt we saved for special occasions. Considering the lack of special occasions lately, it was too small, though his proud stance said he hadn’t noticed. Charlie had done her best to pull her hair into some sort of ponytail and wore her favorite dress and patent leather shoes.
Garrett lifted his chin and squared his shoulders. “We’d like to schedule a meeting.”
“Yeah. A meeting.” Connor echoed his brother’s posture.
“We got all dressed up for it, just like you do when you have a meeting at work.” Charlie flared the ends of her skirt and spun in a circle, sending a cascade of curls spilling out of the ponytail holder.
I suppressed a smile, or at least I tried to. “This must be serious. What’s on your minds? A trip to Disney World? Camping at the Grand Canyon?” I sat back in my chair, bobbing my head. “Oh, I know. You guys are gonna hit me up for a puppy, aren’t you?”
Charlie’s eyes lit up and she turned to Connor, who turned to Garrett, who shut them down with a firm shake of his head. “We want to talk about something more important than puppies.”
The other two quickly nodded their agreement and they all pulled out their chairs and took a seat. Garrett neatly arranged the notebook in front of him, then glanced at his siblings.
“Go on,” said Connor.
“Say it,” hissed Charlie.
Garrett flipped open the notebook and tapped at his lurching handwriting. “We want Amelia back.”
His words stunned me.
Like, ‘hit me in the side of the head with a frying pan’ stunned.
Like, ‘didn’t I send her away because you didn’t want her around and now you want her back’ stunned.
My jaw dropped. I think I grunted, like I’d actually been hit in the stomach. “What?”