Page 77 of Sometimes You Stay

She nodded silently, hiding her trembling lips behind her teacup.

“My dad is difficult too. He’s a wealthy and powerful real-estate developer in Boston, and when I was twenty-eight, he tried to use the worst thing that has ever happened to me to get a land deal.”

Cretia nearly spit out her tea. That wasn’t difficult. That was despicable. “What happened?”

“I ran away from home and ended up on PEI.” Marie smiled, though her eyes still held a dose of sadness. “I met Seth’s uncle Big Jack on the ferry here. I wish you could meet him. He took his wife Aretha to the Bahamas for an extended vacation. But he’s the type of man who recognized my pain and looked for a way to heal it. He asked me to helphim get the Red Door Inn open. Seth was here too—and despite my best efforts, he won my heart. Maybe you know what I mean?”

Finn. Why did her mind always go back to Finn?

“So what happened with your dad?”

“My mom passed away when I was sixteen, and since then, my dad has tried to make my life miserable. It’s like he wants company in his own misery. And for years, I thought that’s how fathers were. I thought that’s what family was—dragging each other down. But Big Jack showed me a different love. He showed me that family isn’t always the one you’re born into. Sometimes it’s the ones you choose to love. The ones who choose to love you back. My dad always chose money over people. And that’s not love. That’s greed.”

“Do you still speak to your dad?”

“No. And my kids won’t know him either. But they know the love of their dad Seth and their adopted grandfather Big Jack. And they know that God loves them more than anyone here on earth could.”

“You just cut your dad off?”

Marie dunked her tea bag a few times as she chewed on her bottom lip. When she looked up, there was a certainty in her eyes. “No matter what I chose, it was always going to be hard. I could choose to keep him in my life and deal with the way he treated me and my family. Or I could set boundaries so that I wouldn’t continue to let him hurt me—and so he wouldn’t ever hurt my children. Both would be hard. But I chose the one that was best for my kids. I can’t change him. I can pray for him. I can hope the best for him. But I can’t deny what he’s done and how he’s hurt those around him. I can’t make him into a different man, but I can choose howI will respond. I can choose how I will treat those I love.” Marie leaned forward, her gaze heavy and solemn. “And I choose not to carry on any of those hurtful traits.”

So can you.

Marie hadn’t spoken the words, but they hung between them as loud as if she had.

Cretia cringed. It wasn’t that easy. She’d spent eighteen years in a broken house with a broken mom. Eleven years with just the two of them. The fractured parts were ingrained in her. If she never settled down, she couldn’t succumb to them. And she couldn’t pass them on to anyone else.

“I’m sorry you’ve had such a hard relationship with your mom,” Marie said. “But there are people here who would welcome you into their family. I saw Kathleen again today, and she was still talking about how much she enjoyed your visit.Iwould love it if you stayed. And I have a feeling that there’s a certain dog breeder down the road who would be pretty happy if you stuck around too.”

Just say yes.

That was all she had to do. Say she would stay. Choose the island. Choose a home. Choose them.

Choose this hard instead of the hard of not having a home.

Her hands began to tremble, and she snatched them into her lap before they could betray the battle within.

“I appreciate you saying that,” she whispered.

“Just know that you always have a place here when you come to visit. And I do hope you will.”

“Thank you.” Cretia grabbed her box and hugged it to her chest with a swift farewell. Then she ran up to her bedroom, closed the door, and did what she should have done more than a week before. She bought a plane ticket off the island.

Nineteen

When Cretia strolled into his barn that afternoon, Finn knew something was wrong. Though she greeted him in her normal way and gave Roberta a wide berth per usual, there was a stiffness in her shoulders that he’d never seen before. Not even on that first day. That day, after the incident in the harbor, she’d been hesitant with him, unsure how to respond.

Today, there was a chasm between them.

He pretended otherwise, busying himself with cleaning the rabbit hutch, and only glanced up to ask, “Later than usual today. Everything all right?”

“Mm-hmm.” Her hands fidgeted with the hem of her blue sweater, the one she’d worn that first fateful day. “You?”

“Good.” He dragged the word out, not sure if he should nudge her for a bit of the truth. Eventually her inside processing would slip out, so he didn’t push.

“Can I help with something?”

“Want to warm up the bottles for Sonny and Cher?”

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