Bed of Roses

CHAPTER ELEVEN WHAT MY ANGELS THINK OF ME

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHAT MY ANGELS THINK OF ME

N ibbler will be fine. He loves Kathleen about as much as he loves you,” Loretta fussed as Sam teared up again. The dog had been with Sam every day since the day he was born. When she moved out of her parents’ house, she had rented a small garage apartment in Rosepine because it was the one available place that allowed pets.

Nibbler knew her every mood, he was practically a living, breathing furry security blanket. But her sister was bringing her two Shih Tzus to their parents’ house, and it’d be better to leave him with Kathleen and Loretta than incite a pissing competition with PomPom and Bella over Mother’s Day weekend. Her mother’s Persian rug would thank her after Wanette got over the disappointment of not getting to see her furry grandson.

She sat down beside him on the bedside rug that morning and scratched his ears. “I’m going to miss you, my sweet boy, but it’s only for two nights. I’ll be back on Monday, and I’ll tell you all about the weekend. Keep Kathleen and Loretta safe until I’m back, okay?”

“Noah is parking the car,” Kathleen yelled from the bottom of the staircase.

“I’ll go get your thermos ready for you. I made some more coffee.” Loretta scurried down the hallway in her little fluffy house slippers that Kathleen had bought her at Easter. They didn’t quite match the seafoam green velvet tracksuit she wore, but that didn’t seem to bother the sentimental fashionista.

Sam slipped the straps of her Vera Bradley bag over the handle of one suitcase, gave herself one last look in the mirror, and rolled her bags out into the hallway. Nibbler ran for the stairs, but she opted for the lift. When the creaking stopped, she stepped out into the kitchen and was halfway across the living room when she caught sight of Noah on his knees in front of the dog.

“I’ve missed you, Nibbler,” he said as he scratched around the dog’s ears. “No one has brought another pup in to see me since the last time you were at the shop.”

The wheels of her hefty suitcase hung on the corner of a rug, reminding her of the time that it had hit the crack in the sidewalk on the first night she was in town. So much had happened since that evening. She gave it a tug, but it didn’t budge. Noah popped up on his feet and lifted the whole thing up, then carried it to the foyer.

“Good morning.” His eyes were warm and twinkling when they rested on her face. “How did you sleep?”

“Wonderful, you?” Sam felt like a filthy liar. She had tossed and turned all night.

“Pretty good, actually. You ready to hit the road?”

“Just about, I’m sorry you got pressured into doing this. I told Kathleen this was too much to ask.”

“Hey, Kathleen brought it up,” he said. “I agreed to do it, and no one twisted my arm. Besides, I had no plans. In return for my kindness, you can help me pick up some books from a vendor on the way back. I’d have to drive down to Center sometime next week anyway.”

“I feel like you’d say that even if it isn’t true just to make me feel better,” Sam challenged.

Noah cocked one of his eyebrows up. “I would’ve just let you borrow one of my cars if I didn’t want to be here. Maybe I want to be your chauffeur.”

Sam gaped at him and snapped her mouth shut with a giggle. One of his cars? She wondered how many cars Noah had. She had suspected he was a truck guy, since that’s all she had seen him drive before. He smiled at her and turned to face Kathleen when she walked into the house. She slapped her knees to get dirt from her hands.

“You got a pretty one out there, Noah.”

“Thanks. Glad I can take her for a proper spin.”

“Me too,” Loretta piped in and handed Sam and Noah each a full thermos of fresh coffee. “For the ride,” she said with a smile.

“You got your passport?” Kathleen asked.

“Why would I need a passport?”

“Don’t pay her any mind,” Loretta said. “She thinks that Texas is a country, not a state. If you leave Texas, she thinks you’ll need documents to return. She’s making a joke because she’s afraid you won’t come back.”

Sam gave each of the ladies a hug. “I have to come home. You’re holding Nibbler hostage.”

“You better remember that if you get to wanting to stay,” Kathleen said and picked up her furry prisoner. “Now get out of here so you can get on back.”

Noah motioned to Sam’s bag and suitcase and headed for the door with them in tow. “I’m going to put these in the car.”

“I’m right behind you,” Sam told him before turning back to wrap Kathleen, Nibbler, and Loretta into a big bear hug one more time. “I hate goodbyes even if they are only for a couple of days. So, I’m going to say that I’ll see y’all soon enough and go on out to the truck.”

Kathleen’s mouth twitched like she was about to smile.

“What’s so funny?” Sam asked.

Loretta chuckled and gave her a gentle shove toward the open door. “Get out of here and enjoy the weekend.”

Even after all the tossing and turning last night, and all the hours she spent playing out scenarios from the night before, she felt ill-prepared for the adventure ahead of her. She had worried about what they would talk about the whole drive, but it was all for nothing.

They were as comfortable with each other as they had been that first night when she went into the bookstore to ask for directions. Noah is like sunshine in a human , she thought as she walked down the front steps of the Rose Garden and thought about the plan for the weekend. She reached the small side gate and pushed it open before she finally looked up to see Noah holding the passenger door of a vintage convertible open.

“Your stuff is all loaded, and the gas tank is full.” He held up a worn blue baseball cap. “I brought this so your hair isn’t one big knot when we get there.”

Sam’s feet were frozen to the ground. She had an appreciation for antique cars of any kind. Her father had planted that seed in her heart when he’d take her to car shows as a little girl. She always suspected that he had wished his third child would be a little boy. Maybe that’s why he nicknamed her Sambo before she could talk.

She was grateful for whatever reasons that her father had instilled the love for vintage cars and self-defense in her at an early age. One skill had recently protected her, the other gave her the ability to love a fifties model Chrysler New Yorker when she saw one. Her dad had a poster of one in Pepto pink on his garage wall, but the one in front of Sam was a showstopper. Painted a classic pearl-snap white with a red pinstripe streak along the sides, the red leather interior glowed like it was molten in the sunlight.

“Where did you get this?” she whispered.

“It’s a long story, but one worth telling,” Noah answered with a grin. “Hop on in, and I’ll tell you on the drive.”

She took a hair tie from her pocket, whipped her red hair into a ponytail, and took the cap from Noah. She settled it on her head and pulled her hair through the hole in the back. “I cannot believe that you have one of these. Do you have any idea how much my dad is going to flip over this car? This is insane. What year is it?” Sam rambled on and on.

When she was inside, he closed the door, rounded the back of the vehicle, and slid into the driver’s seat with a laugh. “Lucky guess. I only picked it for our adventure because this car reminded me of your hair. I’m glad she got up and ran first try this morning. It was meant to be.”

“You picked out your car this morning to go with my hair?” she asked.

He made a U-turn and turned right at the end of the lane. “That sounded weird, huh. When my Grandpa passed, he left his estate to me, which included twelve vintage cars he had collected over the years. He said he had one for each month of the year. This is the only one that was brand-new when it came to Carter Manor. The rest are restored, but there’s a story behind each one. This is May, and she was Granny’s Mother’s Day present in 1957. So, from the red leather to the Mother’s Day memory Granny would always tell about getting the car, it felt right for our journey today.”

His face held this certain achingly beautiful look when he talked about someone he loved. A lump formed in Sam’s throat as she watched his expression. She swallowed a couple times and then awkwardly cleared her throat.

“What do the rest of the months look like?” she asked.

“I’ll take you out to the manor and let you see for yourself sometime. Grandpa had a special climate-controlled warehouse built for his collection on the back side of the grounds.”

“That’s a lot of words you’re spitting out here. The manor? Climate-controlled warehouse? The grounds? Did your grandpa have more money than God, or something?” Sam asked.

She tried to remember what all Noah had shared over time about his childhood but couldn’t recall much. She knew the Carter name was synonymous with affluence in the little town of Homestead, and that they always had been a well-to-do family, but Noah also lived in the same trailer park Laura despised, so she was lost. Where did a climate-controlled warehouse fit between the bookshop and the trailer park?

“Carter Manor is the family home. It’s a little farther down this road. I’ll point it out when we go past. My mama had wanted to make it a school when I was little, so that’s what I did when Grandfather passed and I had been living there all by myself. It got pretty lonely with no one else around, and I hated being alone back then. So, I moved into Pinecrest and started working on Mama’s dream. It’s been running as one of the top magnet schools in Texas for four years this coming fall,” Noah said proudly.

At the words this coming fall , a mental vision of Liza Beth in white popped into Sam’s head. She swallowed hard again and had almost got control when she looked up and saw Jack walking out of his auto shop and looking down at his phone. His usual strut didn’t have the same swagger. Sam hoped that she had hurt him enough that he would never try to hurt her again. But she still felt a flutter of fear travel up her throat as they neared the corner where he was standing.

As if he understood, Noah turned the car to the left and cut down a side road on the way to the highway, avoiding the auto shop altogether. He gave her a knowing look and put the car into a lower gear as they cruised on the smoother section of road.

“I saw you and Laura that night. That’s why I went to the bar and met up with Jack,” she blurted out.

“In the bookshop?”

Sam nodded and parroted back, “In the bookshop.”

He was silent for a moment, then said, “I thought I saw you, but I told myself I was imagining it.”

“Well, I scrambled because I felt like a Peeping Tom. I was just walking past, and I wasn’t trying to step in on a romantic moment.”

“It wasn’t a romantic moment,” Noah assured. “But I understand that it may have looked like it. I hate that you saw that and I couldn’t explain it to you.”

“You could’ve called me and explained it.”

Noah looked over at her and seemed confused. “I did, well I tried.”

Sam crossed her arms and stared straight ahead out the windshield. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yes so I did. I told Kathleen to give you my number, and she said she would.”

“You’re saying Kathleen lied to me?”

Noah sighed in exasperation. “No, Sam, I’m not saying that at all. Kathleen always has her hands full up there, and she could’ve forgotten to tell you, but what I am saying is that I know I called you. I also know you didn’t call me because I’ve been keeping my phone on me nonstop, hoping that I’d hear from you.”

“Well, why didn’t you visit then when you didn’t hear from me?”

“I did!” Noah seemed equal parts baffled and frustrated at this point. “Is Kathleen against me? Why the hell didn’t she tell you I called? Or that I came over and she turned me away?”

“I don’t know! I’ve had a lot on my mind!” She threw her hands up and slapped them back down before taking a slow breath. “Deep down, I wanted to talk to you, Noah. I kept waiting to see if you’d show up.”

Noah reached his right hand over and laid it on top of hers, squeezing her hand softly. He slowed to a stop at the next red light and looked over intently at her. “If I had known, I would have waited on the porch until you wanted to see me.”

Well, well, well! the devil and the angel on her shoulders whispered at the same time and seemed pleasantly miffed by his answer. Other than that, they both were as much at a loss for words as Sam, and she was relieved when Noah butted in and pointed at her side window.

“That is Carter Manor up there,” he said.

Sam followed his finger and spotted a house that would make Rose Garden look like a child’s playhouse by comparison. The looming home had a wide expanse of grounds around it, bounding green lawns and manicured hedges with clusters of magnolia trees as old as the house nestled in pockets along the property.

“You grew up there?” Sam wondered what living in something as magnificent as that would have been like.

“Yep, I moved out once my grandpa passed and I finished going through his stuff. It stopped feeling like home when he was gone. So, I had it renovated into classrooms with a cafeteria on the main floor like my mom had imagined it. I kept the bedrooms on the top floors and redid the ballroom to use as an activity room or study hall, depending on the day.”

“Were you an only kid when you grew up there?”

“Yes. It’s nice to go back now and hear the halls filled with voices. It’s how a house like that should stay—full of life.” His sad expression changed when he smiled. “The warehouse where the cars are kept is on the back fifty acres. I can show it to you another time, and we can spend a whole day joyriding if you want.”

Sam had a one-track mind, and cars weren’t on it right then. Like a bloodhound on a scent, she asked, “What were y’all celebrating by dancing that night?”

“I wanted us to dance to the little radio I have in there. We did that the first time I took her to the bookstore, right at the beginning of our relationship. It seemed fitting to dance.”

“If I had just found out my partner had cheated on me, which I have experienced before and am still reeling from, I wouldn’t be too willing to slow dance with him or her.”

“Maybe it was an odd request, but it fit the end of our relationship. I wish she had told me sooner, of course, but I don’t hold any ill will toward her. I’m glad she found her happiness.” He looked down, flexed his hands on the wheel, and then concentrated back at the road. “I’ve learned over the past few years that you can love someone and not be truly in love with them. And Laura and I had been that way for a long time at that point. So, I’m grateful she set me free, so that now I can be with my person.”

Sam kept her eyes straight ahead though she could feel Noah’s eyes on her. She was thrilled at that last sentence, but much too terrified to meet his gaze. Noah must have sensed her discomfort and quickly put his fingers on the dial. “So, there’s three stations to pick from if you want music. I hope you either like old country or nineties alternative, because it’s either that or the Pentecostal channel.”

She giggled and finally turned to meet his eyes.

“I’m glad Kathleen pressured you into driving me to Rosepine,” Sam said.

“Me too, Sam.” He flashed a brilliant grin.

On the drive back to Rosepine, their conversation touched on all the subjects under the sun except what exactly Noah had been about to tell her on the kitchen floor last night before Kathleen bustled in. Sam still hadn’t gotten an answer there, and she really wanted to know. But talking about the past, life in general, music, and even random road signs never seemed to lull as the miles passed.

Sam started getting antsy when they passed the sign announcing that Rosepine was five miles farther. She held her hands in her lap to keep from fidgeting. The drive had gone by quicker than she had realized, but just the idea of being home dragged Liza Beth and Chase to the front of her thoughts. Her mother had planned the whole weekend so she wouldn’t even see Chase and Liza Beth until tomorrow. Still, she wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t bail on the Sunday service to get out of seeing the “happy couple.”

“Okay, give me directions to your house,” Noah said.

“Just keep going straight through town, stay left at the fork. It’s not far. Daddy has a hobby farm with a few chickens and a garden out front too now that he is retired,” she told him.

“Retired? My dad would only be fifty-seven if he was living,” Noah said more to himself than Sam. “How old are your parents?”

“Make the next left into that lane lined with pecan trees,” she said. “I’m one of those oops babies who came along later in life. I have two older sisters. One is forty and one is forty-five. My mama is a retired nurse and almost seventy, but don’t you dare tell her that I told her age. Daddy’s retired military and turned seventy-two at the top of this year.”

“I promise not to let it slip when I drop you off that I know your mother’s age, I would like for her to like me.”

“She’ll love you,” Sam assured him without blinking. “I hope you hadn’t planned on dropping me and rushing on to your hotel room. When Daddy sees this car, he’s going to want to talk all about it and look over every inch of her. He’s where I get my love for older models, and he is going to be giddy to see this beauty. Then he’ll want to show us both what he’s growing in his garden this season, and by then, Mama will insist you stay for lunch since it’ll be noon.”

Noah shot a mischievous grin over toward her. “I would have dressed up if I’d known I was meeting the parents.”

“You look just fine to me,” she told him with an impish grin. “May I ask what happened to your parents? You said you were raised by your grandfather mostly.”

“I was. My parents had a place in the Rockies that they liked to fly to for the occasional weekend. My dad was a good pilot and had owned the plane for years. But a storm hit, and their plane went down on one of their flights up to the cabin. I was with my grandfather when it happened, and he kept me from that day on at Carter Manor.”

“How old were you when this happened?” Sam’s voice almost broke.

“I was eight.”

A wave of sadness washed through her for the little boy that Noah once was. No wonder his grandfather’s death affected him so deeply. When Noah had lost him, he also lost the last connection he had to his parents.

“I’m so sorry, Noah, I can’t imagine.”

“It’s okay now. I didn’t really process the grief of losing them till Grandpa was gone too. He kept them alive by telling stories nonstop, which was a huge blessing during my growing-up years. He had a story about them for every momentous occasion, and for his cars too. He told incredible stories.”

“I would really love to hear some of those stories sometime,” Sam said softly.

“I appreciate that. You would’ve liked my parents if you had met them, and they would have loved you.”

“If they were anything like you, I’m sure I would have.”

He parked in a circle drive in front of a two-story white house with black shutters and a barn red door. Before he could get out of the vehicle, a woman ran down the porch steps and grabbed Sam in a hug before she was even out of the car.

“I’m so glad you are home,” she said. “I needed all my girls this weekend. You kids come on inside. Dinner is ready to be put on the table. We’ll have some time with just the four of us. The rest of the family that can make it are coming for supper tonight or coming over right after church tomorrow. Paul is going to grill for that. Well, don’t just sit there, Samantha. Get out. Your dad was putting on his shoes, and he will be here in a minute.”

Sam swung the car door open seconds before her father barreled off the porch, grabbed her in a fierce hug, and twirled her around. “This is a good day. My Sambo is home.”

She was dizzy when he set her feet on the ground. “Mama and Daddy, I want y’all to meet Noah Carter. Noah, this is my father, Paul, and my mama, Wanette.”

“Very high praise precedes you, Mr. Carter.” Paul stuck out his hand, and Noah took it in his in a firm shake. “Kathleen already told us lots of good things about you, but she completely left out any mention of you driving this beauty. Let’s get your things in the house so that my bride’s happy, and then I want to hear all about this vehicle. I haven’t seen one in this condition in years, not even at a car show.”

“I’m just Noah, not Mr. Carter. The blue suitcase is hers, and the duffel bag.” Noah came around to help Wanette as she pulled all the bags from the trunk. “I’ll keep mine in here. I found a hotel room about five miles up the road. I plan to get out of y’all’s hair so you can spend some good quality time with your girl.”

“Well, you had reservations, Noah.” Paul chuckled. “But unless you want to bring a bedbug infestation back to all of Homestead, you’ll let me call Joann and get her to cancel and refund it for you. The local news just wrote up a front-page article on the bedbug problem they’re having here in Rosepine at the motels around. There’s five bedrooms upstairs, and there’s no kids in this house to use them. Please, let us keep you bug-free while you’re here.”

“I’ve already got a room ready,” Wanette said.

“I truly can’t impose. I can find another hotel and give y’all some privacy …” Noah started.

Sam’s father cut him off, pulling the handle of Sam’s suitcase up a step and rolling it toward the house. “Son, it ain’t worth arguing with my bride. She never loses, and I have nearly fifty years of marriage to prove it. Besides, the whole town of Homestead will thank you for not bringing that super bug back home. Is this all you brought, Sambo? You left with a helluva lot more.”

“I did, Daddy, but I’m going home on Sunday,” she reminded her father.

“Well, we can ship it all in if you change your mind,” Paul grumbled. “I thought for sure we could talk you into coming back to Rosepine, and what’s this about calling somewhere else home?”

“They’re holding Nibbler hostage so that I’ll come back, so I gotta go back at some point.” Sam chuckled.

“Are you sure about me staying here?” Noah whispered to Sam. “I would never want you to feel awkward or uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine with it,” she said out the corner of her mouth, “but you will sure enough be ready for peace and quiet by the time we go back home. As an only child, this shall be an experience you will never forget.”

Noah smiled down at her. “I like that you are calling Homestead your home.”

“Me too,” she said with a responding smile.

Paul parked Sam’s suitcase at the base of the staircase. “Let’s go have some lunch or dinner, or whatever you kids call it these days. Then I want to go outside and talk about that Chrysler. Be sure to eat real good Noah, or else Wanetta will think you don’t like her cooking.”

Sam led him into the dining room and felt a twinge of girlish giddiness zing through her when she saw that her mother had set the table so that she and Noah were sitting right next to each other. “You need any help, Mama?”

“I never turn down help. You guys go ahead and sit down. We’ll bring in the soup and sandwiches,” Wanette answered.

The moment both women were in the kitchen, Wanette smiled breathlessly. “Well, he’s a looker. Kathleen told us all about his upbringing and his bookshop. A family with no money is hard, but money with no family is downright sad. She says that he’s the nicest guy. Y’all complement each other well and match when you are standing side by side. I see why you fell for him.”

“Mama, we aren’t like that,” Sam whispered feverishly and pulled her mother to the far side of the kitchen. “Not yet. He just got out of something, I just got out of something. I think he likes me, but I don’t know just yet. Please, please, please.” Her eyes misted as she grabbed her mother’s hands. “Don’t say anything about us dating around him. Kathleen is putting the cart before the horse. I don’t even know if he really likes me.”

“Oh, really?” Wanette smiled. “Well, I suppose we should finish getting lunch ready and head back in there. I have got questions I need to ask. Grab the sandwiches from the fridge. I got the soup.”

Sam tried to hold back a moan as her mother beamed at her from the other side of the counter and carried a slow cooker into the dining room.

“I’m really glad you’re surviving.” Sam glanced over at Noah on the way to church on Sunday morning. “It’s probably been a very crazy weekend so far.”

“This has been the most wonderful weekend I’ve had in years,” Noah admitted. “I really like your family. I can feel the love that y’all have for each other.”

“My brothers-in-law and nephews didn’t bore you to death with all that car talk last night, did they?” she asked.

“No, we talked about other things too—barbecuing, books, braces,” he answered with a genuine grin. “I feel like I fell into a gold mine with so many folks around me that are well read. That alone made last night’s festivities easy-peasy to navigate, but you seem a bit nervous this morning.”

Noah’s eyes flickered across her form and the green satin dress that covered it. His voice sounded a little hoarse when he said, “That color looks really nice on you. Green suits you.”

“Thank you.” A blush climbed from her neck to her cheek. “I appreciate that, Noah. I’m fine. I’ll be fine, it’s just that … we’re pulling into the parking lot now, and I feel jumpy thinking about Chase and Liza Beth being at church.”

“They may be. But you’re not alone in this. I’m here. Your family is here. You have a lot of support.” Noah’s tone seemed to be a resounding promise. “No one from your past has any hold on you now, Sam. No one gets to upset the present. We live and we love, and we let go of what isn’t ours.”

She scooted over closer to him on the bench seat and laid her head on his shoulder. He used his left hand to spin the car into a parking spot near the back entrance of the church and close to Wanette’s Tahoe.

“You know, you could be a motivational speaker. I would pay to hear you speak at lecture halls,” she whispered.

“Or I could be your boyfriend and just talk to you for free?”

The women in Sam’s family may all have enhanced Spidey senses about men, but they also all had the absolute worst timing. Sam was about to answer when Wanette knocked on the window. Before Sam rolled it down, she caught Noah’s face in her hands, squishing his cheeks together and holding him face-to-face.

“We’re gonna need to get to the bottom of this and talk this out later, okay?” She was as breathless as if she had just run a marathon.

“Yes,” was all he replied before Wanette’s voice sounded again and the two lovebirds exited the car per her request. Sam thought she saw the back of Liza Beth’s head in the procession of people walking into the chapel, but she didn’t know for sure. Her hair looked shorter than it had been in February if that was her, maybe even a shade lighter. Noah slipped his hand into hers and supplied a steady, solid source of warmth to her jitters until they found their family’s regular pew. They visited with the surrounding congregation until the music started and they were asked to stand to sing.

The sermon Reverend Jimmy Stubbs had prepared was about forgiveness. It centered on the art of letting oneself forgive and thus be forgiven in the process. And it felt like no coincidence that the sun outside the stained-glass windows sent a shining red beacon of light onto Liza Beth and Chase in the middle pew of the third row as the message of forgiveness rang through the room.

Sam was tired of carrying the burden of hatred and anger. Right there with her family and a wonderful man beside her, all who had encouraged her to not let her past define her any longer, seemed like a good time to forgive Liza Beth Mason and Chase Warner.

And that’s what she did. She said her own little prayer the next time the congregation bowed their heads. She started by asking the Lord to help her forgive them both. She prayed for the Lord to bless them and to also pour his love on her and Noah as well.

Surround me with good godly people as I wait for my perfect person to come along. Give me signs that I find him, and if it’s Noah, that will be awesome.

It couldn’t have been a coincidence when Noah squeezed her hand. When the prayer ended, Sam blinked back tears and felt at least a hundred pounds lighter. The sun seemed to readjust itself, and a ray of purple watercolor light flowed down upon her and Noah right there in the pew beside her parents.

You’re closer than you think to your happily ever after, child. Her old friend’s voice sounded like it came from her former pew across the aisle.

Sam wished Inez would be sitting there, a smile on her face, watching her with small blinking eyes as she shared with Sam some wise ad lib that solved half of the world’s problems. But Inez had been an old woman when Sam was a child, and time didn’t slow down for anyone. Inez hadn’t sat in what Sam thought of as her pew in almost a decade. But her voice lingered in Sam’s head long after the notes of butterscotch and warm wool from her coat pockets had faded.

I’m moving on, Inez, I wish you could see it , she murmured silently to her elderly friend’s soul. And please don’t ever stop guiding me. I need all the angels I can get.

The church sang a few songs together, and they had a baby dedication before the service concluded and Sam left Noah with her family and rushed downstairs to the ladies’ room located directly under the chapel. She was finished and washing her hands when Liza Beth walked in and gasped so audibly it made Sam jump.

“Oh my God, Sam.”

Sam stopped washing her hands for a moment, then thought again and lathered more soap into her hands and kept scrubbing. She kept her tone light and happy. “Hey, Liza Beth. I hear congrats are in order.”

“I-I’m so sorry, Sam, I never got to tell you how bad I felt. It tore me up for months after, and I just wanted to tell you that I would never have done …”

“I forgive you.” The single sentence rang out over the running water and cut Liza Beth off.

“What?”

“I forgive you. I have finally seen how love can make someone act. It can drive you truly crazy. I get it. And I want you to know that I forgive you, Liza Beth. Tell Chase I forgive him too, and I wish you both many years of happiness.” Sam shut off the water and patted her now steadier hands down with a paper towel and tossed it in the trash can beside Liza Beth.

Liza Beth just whimpered and stared at Sam as she walked out of the bathroom. Seconds later, Sam could hear wailing in the women’s restroom—barely audible through the thick wooden floors of the First Baptist Church on such a busy Sunday morning.

She went back upstairs, scanned the room, and saw an absent-minded Chase, looking around and holding Liza Beth’s hot pink purse for her. Sam’s stomach didn’t drop. Her heart didn’t stop, but instead, she looked at the man she had told herself for years she would marry one day, and she felt absolutely nothing.

The discovery felt like a rush of caffeine, and she kept her eyes moving around the room until she found Noah, standing with her parents, shaking the preacher’s hand near the door as the line of churchgoers slowly disappeared out onto the street.

Noah spotted her after she had him and cut a line toward her through the crowd. “Hey, from the look on your face, it looks like you have a juicy story that I reckon I’ll need to wait to get updated on. Are you ready for lunch?”

“I do have a story for you. I’ll tell you all about it on the way home, and yes, I’m starving. I have finally forgiven, and now it’s time to forget.”