Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
WILLOW
I might’ve been too old to be curled up on the couch with my head in my momma’s lap as we watched a sappy romance on the Hallmark channel, but I didn’t care. For the first few days after I’d said goodbye to Finn, I’d tried to keep my stoic mask in place. Which had been easier said than done, especially after the idiotic show I’d put on at the softball game. If I hadn’t gone up to him and kissed the hell out of him for the entire town to see, no one would’ve had anything at all to talk about.
But because I had, the whispers had followed me for days, though nothing was said to my face—it never was. It was all pointed stares and not-so-subtle fingers directed my way when they thought I wasn’t looking.
Well, I’d had about enough of it. And after putting up with it for that long, who could blame me for partaking in some much-needed Momma time? Especially when that Momma time came with chicken and dumplings and warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, my favorite comfort foods.
“How long before Mac gets home, sweetheart?” Momma asked, her fingers trailing through my hair as we both watched the hero of the movie run through a bus depot, frantically searching for the heroine, inevitably to tell her how sorry he was for royally screwing up.
If only things happened like that in real life.
“Dunno,” I said. “What time is it?”
I had no sense of time today. After toughing it out for too many days, I’d finally decided to take a mental health day and called in sick to work—for the first time. Ever. Avery had been shocked but had told me not to worry about a thing. That she’d hold down the fort and then would stop by after work if I wanted her to.
In fact, all the people I loved had offered that—my best friend, both my sisters, and now my momma. I was damn lucky was what I was. Even if my heart did feel like it’d been put in a blender. Repeatedly.
“A little after four. Think she’ll want some chicken and dumplings? I could get it heatin’ up for y’all for supper.”
“We’ll be fine, Momma. We can heat it up when we’re ready.”
“All right, if you say so.” She continued her soft caresses through my hair, lifting up pieces here and there. “Sweetheart?”
“Hmm.”
“I’ve been here for hours now. I’m tryin’ not to push, but…”
I sighed. I’d hoped I could escape this conversation, though I had no idea what made me so delusional. “But what?”
“Come on now, talk to me. What’s goin’ on with you and Finn?”
“What’s goin’ on, or what was goin’ on? Because they’re two very different things.”
“Now I’m sure that’s not?—”
“Did you know?” This part hurt almost as much as knowing Finn had taken the money in the first place. I could see this kind of thing coming from my daddy—actually hadn’t been even a bit surprised about it—but from my momma? That’d be a hard pill to swallow.
Her fingers paused in my hair. “Know what?”
“About the money.”
“The money? What’re you?—”
A knock sounded at the front door before it opened, and my daddy poked his head into the space.
“Richard? You can’t be hungry already,” Momma said, a note of exasperation in her tone. “It’s not even five!”
“What?” he asked as he stepped into the house and shut the door behind him. “Oh no. No, that’s not why I’m here. I, uh…” He shifted on his feet, wiping a hand across his forehead.
I furrowed my brow, trying to puzzle out what was happening here. Something wasn’t quite right. I’d never seen my daddy…well… nervous . And that was exactly what he was, shuffling his weight from foot to foot, his gaze darting between me and my momma before flitting off to the side.
“You’re here to what, honey?” Momma asked. She tipped her chin in the direction of the TV where the movie still played on, the hero and heroine wrapped in each other’s arms. Damn, I had missed the best part. “Willow and I are just finishin’ this movie, and you interrupted a bit of girl talk. Can it wait?”
He glanced back at the TV before turning to face us once again. “I’m afraid it can’t, darlin’. I really need to speak to Will about…about somethin’ important.”
I sat up, glancing at my momma who shrugged in response to my unasked question as she pressed pause on the movie. “What is it, Daddy?”
“Well, see… I…” He cleared his throat, rubbed his hands together. “What happened was…”
Momma huffed. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Richard, would you just spit it out already?”
“Now just hold on. It’s gonna take me a minute to get this out. Just…just bear with me for a bit.” He turned to me, his expression more sincere than I’d ever seen. “Will, I just want you to know before I tell you this I…well, when I did this, I thought I was doin’ the right thing. For you.”
Well, now he was just scaring me. I’d never, not once in all my twenty-eight years, seen my daddy behave this way. So nervous and unsure. So…desperate, almost. He’d already told me about the money, and he’d barely blinked at that. If this was worse than paying my boyfriend off to leave me, well, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know.
He cleared his throat. “You, ah, you remember when Finn left all those years ago?”
My stomach squeezed, clenching in painful memory—both from what had happened back then as well as what had happened just last week. I slid a glance to my momma. It was an unspoken rule in the Haven household that they didn’t really speak of that time in my life. An unspoken rule I’d been quite happy to partake in, because it saved me the humility and hurt of reliving it.
Looked like it just wasn’t my week.
“Yes.”
“Well, he…um, he may have been… coerced to leave like he did. Without word or contact to you.”
I blinked at my daddy for a handful of seconds before I managed, “Excuse me?”
Momma, however, was much more eloquent. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Does this have somethin’ to do with the money Willow mentioned?”
“She told you?” he asked, shock evident in his tone.
Momma pointed a finger in his direction, her jaw tight with anger. “You better start talkin’ real fast, Richard James Haven, because I am this close to losin’ my patience with you.”
“You have to understand,” he said, hands held up like he was trying to calm a rabid animal, “I thought I was doin’ what was best.”
“Spit. It. Out.” Momma stood, arms crossed, toe tapping on the floor, glaring Daddy down.
He looked at us both, inhaled sharply, then said in one breath, “Finn may have been blackmailed to leave town based on a threat of false charges.”
I sucked in a breath at the same time my momma gasped.
Then, in the scary-calm voice that’d always spelled trouble during my childhood, she asked, “ May have been blackmailed? By whom, exactly?”
Though he didn’t say anything, the look in his eyes spoke volumes, and my heart cracked open. “Now, I didn’t send him packin’ empty-handed. I wrote him a check. To…to help them get settled. Elsewhere.”
“And you somehow think that’s better ?” Momma stomped over to Daddy, hissing under her breath at him, but I couldn’t pay attention.
My stomach roiled, a hornet’s nest kicked over, and my pulse pounded like a racehorse. The mix of emotions was almost too much to bear. There was overwhelming anger at my daddy, though the shocking part was I…wasn’t shocked. This was exactly like something he’d do—take it upon himself to set things just so, especially when he wasn’t satisfied with the alternative. Especially when his precious Haven reputation was at stake.
But more than the anger, there was relief warring with disbelief over the fact that Finn hadn’t left because he’d stopped loving me. Hadn’t, in fact, wanted to leave at all.
What would’ve become of us if he’d had the chance to stay?
“Will…” Daddy sat next to me on the sofa, his features blurring through a sheen of my tears. “If you’ll just give me a chance to explain…”
I blinked back the tears, though one slipped out, and tried to swallow down the anger I felt for him. Did it pain him so much for me to be happy ? Not once, but twice he’d taken it from me. Taken away something so perfect that’d made me the happiest I’d ever been. Had seen to the demise of something wonderful and beautiful, simply because he didn’t like it. “I’m not really sure how you can explain this away, Daddy.”
“I’m afraid I have to agree with our daughter, Richard. I’m so disappointed in you right now. I can’t believe you did this.”
“I understand you’re both angry with me. And you have every right to be. But I… I know you may find this hard to believe, but I thought I was doin’ it for your own good. I just want what’s best for you and your sisters.”
“Your best might not be ours, Daddy.”
“I—” He cleared his throat and seemed to bite his tongue and take a moment to really think about what he was going to say. First time for everything. “I realize that now. I just have so much faith in your potential, and I don’t want to see you throw it away.”
“But I didn’t throw anything away. You did that before I had the chance to.” My voice caught as I tried hard to halt the tears threatening to spill like a waterfall. I didn’t want to lose it—not in front of my father.
Thankfully, my momma realized this and ushered Daddy to the door. “Time for you to leave, Richard. While I try to fix this mess you made.” She pushed him out the door. “And don’t you think for a second this conversation is over. When I get home, you and I are going to have words.”
I had already dissolved into tears by the time my momma wrapped me up in her arms, rocking me back and forth and telling me everything would be okay. Now that we knew the truth, everything would be all right.
Except it wouldn’t. Because, truth or not, Finn had left. The rumor mill was still cranking full time in Havenbrook, and I’d heard just that morning he and Drew had headed back to California.
Once again leaving me behind.
I knew I shouldn’t take advantage of my daddy’s guilt by continuing to call in sick to work, but three days over the course of five years could hardly be considered abuse of sick days. Besides that, I needed time to process what he’d done before I saw him again. And I definitely couldn’t process that on top of all the whispers in town.
So I’d holed up in my house, my ass making a permanent indent on the couch as I’d watched daytime television and ate my weight in microwave popcorn. I hadn’t even had the desire to paint anything, my half-finished canvas sitting and waiting for me. But I’d started it when things had been good with Finn. Though it was just a painting of the sunset over the field on Old Mill Road, it oozed happiness. Contentment.
If I touched it right now, I’d ruin it.
My front door opened, the smell of Chinese food wafting over to me. I twisted my head to look behind me toward the front door. There stood Mac, Rory, and Avery, one holding dinner, one carrying The Sweet Spot’s signature bright pink box, and the other a stack of movies.
“Reinforcements have arrived,” Avery said, dumping the movies on the table. She lifted my legs off the couch and sat down, then draped them over her lap. “And we picked up a stray along the way.” She tipped her chin toward Rory.
“We’re here to smother you with affection.” Rory walked past me, heading into the kitchen with the box of cupcakes.
“And shitty movies.” Avery patted my leg.
“And shittier food.” Mac pulled out a white carton and passed it to me. “Kung Pao Chicken—or what passes for Kung Pao Chicken in good old Havenbrook.” She grabbed another carton and passed it to Avery before pulling a third out. “Sweet and sour for the wild child, Ror?—”
I glanced up only to find Mac’s mouth dropped open as she stared behind me. I turned and looked into the kitchen. Rory stood at the counter, biting into what appeared to be her second cupcake, one liner already discarded on top of the box.
“What?” she snapped, her mouth full, chocolate icing rimming her lips. “I’m an adult, and if I want to have my dessert first, I can.” She made quite a sight, her hair perfectly done, makeup a bit heavier than usual but still subtle, wearing a pretty dress as she inhaled a cupcake. She looked like she was headed for a night out on the town, not a night in with takeout and bad movies.
“How come you’re all dressed up?” I asked.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Rory grabbed the carton Mac held out, then plucked out a piece of chicken with her fingers and popped it into her mouth.
I exchanged a look with Mac. Had our sister been possessed? It was probably nothing, but truth be told, I latched on to any small thing that took my mind off the tragedy that was my love life.
Fortunately, Mac was on the same page. “The girls at home with Sean?” she asked.
“No. The girls are with the sitter I hired so Sean and I could enjoy a lovely dinner out. But he thought working late would be a better use of his time on our anniversary. Never mind that he’s worked late every damn day for the past two months. Never mind that whenever I’ve called on those late nights, his new assistant, Desiree, has been there too.” She shoved another piece of chicken in her mouth. “Now, can we drop it, please? And will someone put in one of those shitty movies already?”
My eyes grew huge, my shock mirrored on Mac’s face. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d heard Rory swear. Or talk badly about her husband—come to think of it, Rory had never spoken poorly about Sean. And while I certainly didn’t have a lot of experience in marriage woes, in my inexperienced book, skipping your anniversary dinner with your wife to hang around at the office was epic level of douchiness.
“Hey, Rory?” I asked.
“ What ?”
“You wanna borrow some yoga pants and a shirt?”
Rory’s shoulders sagged, and she gave the subtlest dip of her chin in acknowledgment. It probably made me a horrible sister, but it was nice to know I wasn’t the only one whose love life was imploding. And to see it happening to Perfect Rory? Was there hope for any of us?