Page 7 of Even if It Hurts

“Now I know you’re just trying to make me cry,” I teasingly accused as I wiped at a tear that managed to slip free.

“Wouldn’t dream of such a thing,” she said as she turned for the back door. “Come on, now. We’re gonna have a cup of coffee—you can tell me everything inside.”

“Oh, I...I need to get out in the fields.” I gestured awkwardly in the direction Wren had gone. “I was heading out there before I ran into Jackson.”

Aunt Ada had one eyebrow lifted when she looked at me again. “I would love to see my nephew try to stop me from spending time with my great-niece.”

A soft laugh eased from my lungs as I glanced toward the fields one last time, feeling torn between spending time with Aunt Ada and doing what had always been expected of me—especially with how mad everyone already was.

“It’s one thing to help your family when they’re in need,” Aunt Ada began softly, “it’s another to get trapped the way you will if you go out there now.”

My attention snapped back to her, my eyebrows lifting in question.

“You’ll go out there today because you want to get back in their good graces,” she said knowingly. “Tomorrow, you’ll go out there because you’ll feel obligated. Before you know it, years will have passed, and you’ll have given up your dream just to keep the peace.”

“So, you’re saying I shouldn’t go out there?” I asked softly as that war inside me raged harder than before.

“I’m saying you know what you want, and your daddy has all the help he needs today.” She slanted her head. “So, coffee or blueberries?”

“And what about your job?” I asked even as I led her toward the back door. “Or did you finally retire?”

She scoffed and waved off my words. “That grouch can take his calls and figure out his schedule for a few hours.”

My next laugh was louder, freer. “I thought you liked working at...” I floundered and failed to think of the name of the company she’d started working at just after I’d left for college.

“Oh, I love it,” she said as if that had never been in question. “Those kids keep me busy and young. And my boss is a sweet boy—very driven. Doesn’t change the fact that he probably came into this world with a scowl on that face of his.”

“You still keeping him on his toes?”

She gestured off to the side before placing a heavily jeweled hand on her chest, as if the task were a burden and not something I knew she enjoyed. “I’ve told you, Lainey Ray, someone has to.”

I felt the weight of these past days slipping away with each laugh my great-aunt pulled from me with her no-nonsense ways.

“There’s my Ray of Sunshine,” she said as I opened the back door, then twisted to tenderly pat my cheek, her voice lowering when she continued. “Don’t let their frustration with your decisions steal your light. Own them and move forward.”

I nodded, counteracting my next words. “But it’s more than that. They aren’t just mad—they’re disappointed. They aren’t okay with me doing anything outside the farm.”

“They’ll get over it because, deep down, they just want you to be happy.”

I started rolling my eyes because I sincerely doubted they’d be happy with me doing anything else but stopped when Aunt Ada gripped my chin in her bony fingers. “This is a hard situation, and it willbehard—more so for you than if it were someone else standing in your shoes. You’ve never done anything to upset your parents before now and you’re a people-pleaser who endeavors to meet impossible goals others set out for you.”

From the way she worded the last part, I wasn’t sure those were good qualities, and it made me wonder if that’s how everyone else saw me. If they also thought of those traits along the same vein my great-aunt had just spoken them.

“But just ask your wildflower of a sister,” she went on, “your parents, Jackson, everyone...they’ll get past this.”

“If you say so.”

“I do,” she said happily, then released me to step inside. “Now, how about that coffee? After, you can follow the trail of hurt that man of yours left to wherever he may be and start moving forward the way y’all need to.”

Unease bled from me as I thought about Jackson’s parting words. “I’m not so sure about that,” I mumbled as I sauntered after her into the kitchen, stopping abruptly when I was met with my mom’s disapproving look.

Her stare darted between Aunt Ada and me a few times before she ordered, “Fields, Lainey.”

“Oh, no, thank you,” Aunt Ada said with a flick of her ringed fingers as if my mom had offered her something unpleasant. “We’ll be staying here for a cup or two of coffee, and you’re welcome to join.”

With another disappointed look in my direction, my mom turned for the cupboard. After setting two mugs down, she grabbed her own and left the kitchen.

“See?” Aunt Ada said as she headed for the coffeemaker, her voice heavily laced with sarcasm. “Getting over it already.”

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