Chapter Thirty-Eight #2
I said, “When I set out on this trip, I really thought I was trying to get to know myself better, but now I’m wondering if this journey had been meant for me to figure out who he’d been.”
If you don’t want to go alone, we can go together. I’d love to show you the special places I visited.
I had no doubt we would’ve stopped here, in Forget-Me-Not. He’d planned to reveal to me his true self, the parts he’d kept hidden all these years. He didn’t want to keep it secret any longer—he’d wanted me to know.
Renny was still looking at the photo. “I think, perhaps, it was both.”
“Maybe so,” I said, smiling as I thought about how much I’d changed while here. How much I’d learned about myself. How much I’d healed, even though I still had some healing to do.
“You know,” he said, his eyes soft, dewy, “if he’d come back to me, you might not be here.”
A tear slipped out as I nodded. The what-could’ve-beens were almost too painful to think about.
His warm gaze settled on mine, and he gave me a smile. “I have no regrets, Juliet. No regrets. This is what was meant to be. You were meant to be.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes and tried to keep my composure. Emotion was flooding me from every direction.
Renny stared at the photo on my phone awhile longer, then said, “Do you have more pictures?”
I smiled. “There are decades of albums online. You don’t know what you’re asking.”
He ran a finger over the screen. “I think I do.”
Oh gosh, the way my heart ached. “Okay then, I’ll just add you to the account.”
I retrieved his iPad, signed him in, and as he flipped through the photos, his gaze drew distant as he remembered another place, another time, and maybe even considered what might’ve been.
He peppered me with questions. About Grandpa’s job—insurance. About Grandma—they’d been happy. About whether he’d stayed crazy for birds—he had. About whether he found love again—he’d dated but was tight-lipped about his love life.
Now I realized why.
I told him how Grandpa had always gushed about his trip south.
I showed him the photos. He’d laughed his head off at the flamingo picture, remembering that my grandfather had told him about that visit—and how the flamingo had chased him around the garden after the picture was taken.
We talked for an hour—I’d stayed longer than I planned, but I couldn’t leave without answering all his questions.
Finally, he said, “First loves aren’t always lasting loves, but more often than not, they leave an imprint on your heart. I hope I left that mark for him, the way he did for me.”
I teared up again. “I know you did. He wouldn’t have brought me here otherwise.”
Slowly, he nodded, his eyes wet, a smile on his face.
I pushed back my chair, tucked away my feather, and said, “I don’t know how to say goodbye.”
He blinked, then looked up at me. “Juliet, you mentioned earlier how it takes you a while to see the obvious, so I’m just going to say it. You don’t have to go.”
I opened my mouth to explain again about therapy and healing, but he held up a hand, stopping me.
“There are therapists here. Well, one. If you’d rather a bigger selection, Birmingham is only forty minutes away.”
I wrung my hands. “I wish I could, but I’m established with a therapist in Michigan, and I really need to be with my family right now.”
He sighed.
I walked over to him, gave him a hug. “I’m going to miss you.”
“Not as much as I’ll miss you,” he said. “Thank you for bringing Walt back to me.”
I kissed his forehead, then walked out into the hallway, my legs a bit wobbly. I told myself not to look back, but I couldn’t help it.
He was watching me, a pensive look in his eyes. “I’m rooting for the breakdown, you know.”
Tears were pooling, blurring my vision. “Honestly, I kind of am, too.”
It would be nice to know I was meant to be here.
That it was destined.
My heart hurting, I waved and walked away.
Outside, the sun was shining. Beating down, really, as if it were trying to make up for yesterday.
I heard a bird singing, but it wasn’t a robin.
I walked slowly to my car, pretty much dragging my feet.
What Renny said was weighing on me. About there being therapists here. Would it really hurt to start over with someone new?
Yet my family …
I closed my eyes, sighed.
But didn’t I have family here? Wasn’t that what Renny and Maeve and Tallulah and Tenn had become?
I started pacing. Three steps left, three steps right.
But what about destiny?
Didn’t I want to know for sure?
Suddenly I started shaking my head. Then I ran to my car, flung open the door, and popped the hood. I looked under it, not at all sure what I was seeing. It didn’t matter, though.
I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
I was making my own destiny.
I wanted to stay.
I reached in and started yanking on wires and hoses. I pulled off caps, covers.
I barely heard the truck pulling up next to me. Or its door opening. I didn’t stop my vandalism until I heard, “Juliet, I just got the news that you’re leaving—” Callum came around the hood, saw me. He blinked as if he couldn’t believe his eyes, then casually said, “And what’s going on here?”
My chest was heaving from exertion, and my hands were filthy as I faced him. I glanced at the car, then him. I laughed. With happiness. With relief. “I’m making sure I stay in Forget-Me-Not.”
He glanced away for a second, as if needing to gather himself for a moment, and when he turned back, he was grinning. Rushing forward, he pulled me into a hug. “I was so scared you’d already left. I didn’t want to lose you when I just found you.”
I quickly told him how I didn’t want to leave and that I’d find a therapist nearby. “My family will understand.”
In my heart, I knew it to be true. They wanted me to be happy. Healthy. That was what mattered most.
I wasn’t sure what to tell them about my grandfather. About his hidden chapter. I kind of wanted to keep it to myself. A secret we shared. But I wouldn’t. It needed to be known. He had wanted it to be known.
I looked up at Callum. “How’d you even hear that I’d been planning to leave? And know where to find me?”
He lifted my hand, found a clean spot, and kissed it.
In one big breath, he said, “It went like this. Vera told Isabel at the coffee shop. Isabel called Nettie. Nettie called my gran. Gran called me. I went to Tenn’s.
Tenn called Vera. Vera said you were here.
I came as fast as I could. As soon as I pulled in, I got a text from Uncle Ren, telling me to do everything in my power to keep you here even if I had to put diesel in your gas tank. ”
I leaned into him, laughing against his chest.
Oh, how I loved this town. Its people.
And maybe, especially, him, though I might keep that to myself for a while.
I glanced at the car engine. “You can tell Renny you did this, if you want.”
He shook his head. “He’d be prouder knowing it was you.”
Keeping one arm around me, he gestured with the other at the broken wires and loose hoses. “You know this kind of damage isn’t covered in your warranty, right? It’s in the fine print.”
As I leaned up to kiss him, I said, “No one ever reads the fine print.”