When our father had died, we’d all realized what we’d sacrificed for that kind of success.
We’d all decided to get a damn life and spend more time doing what was important to us.
We usually didn’t let much time go by without talking to Mom and spending time with the people we cared about.
I wished that I had learned that lesson before Hannah had been forced to leave.
“Do you think she’ll believe that you’ve changed?” Mom questioned.
“She’ll believe it,” I said gruffly.
I was going to put my single-minded stubbornness toward something important this time, and I didn’t plan on failing.
Hannah
Iclosed my laptop and rose from the small kitchen table in my apartment after I’d finished answering my email.
I had put up a basic website for my freelancing, and I checked my email often, hoping I’d start to get more bookings.
Work was slow for me, which was a huge change from what I was used to in Seattle.
My lifestyle had been almost hectic there, and my business had been so crazy that I rarely had any free time with nothing to do in Seattle.
Now, I didn’t know what to do with myself when I didn’t have a freelance gig here.
I got an occasional event here in Montana because of my reputation in Seattle, which usually meant I had to travel somewhere within the state.
I was used to traveling. Our business had taken us everywhere in Washington before we’d hired contractors in various cities so we could expand.
What Iwasn’tused to was being idle for any length of time.
Mom didn’t really need me to take care of her anymore, and having so much free time was making me completely insane.
My small apartment was so clean I could eat off the floors if I wanted to, and my cupboards were so organized it was ridiculous. There was only so much I could do in a small, one bedroom apartment.
I really missed my friends and my partners in Seattle.
We’d always made time at least once or twice a week for dinner together or a night out.
I had my mother here in Crystal Fork, which was my priority, but I was still lonely. I missed having things to do and places to go all the time.
Things in Crystal Fork moved at a much slower pace, and there wasn’t much to do for a single woman without friends on a Saturday evening.
I sighed as I opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of white wine that I’d picked up at the store.
I’d had a discussion with Mom about the way she’d set me up to meet with Tanner in person this morning.
Honestly, she’d been pretty unremorseful about the whole thing.
In the end, it was hard for me to stay mad at her because she’d been trying to help me. And that meeting with Tanner had been inevitable since we lived in the same small town.
It wasn’t like I would have been able to avoid meeting up with him at some point.
I just wished I’d been a little more prepared for that encounter.
I also wished that I’d handled it a little better.
In Seattle, I’d convinced myself that Tanner meant nothing to me anymore.