Page 11 of Between the Shady Groves
“All right. I suppose you’re right. I… I’ll think about that as I drive to Raspberry Ridge. Do me a favor, and if you think about where else she might be, let me know. I… I love her. I don’t want to live without her.”
It was hard to admit that. Especially when they knew that she had just walked away from him. Apparently as easily as that. Walking away. But it was the truth. And it was also maybe a little of what he needed. Humility. Because he wanted his wife, and whatever he needed to do to get her back, he would do.
There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her.
Seven
Dawn had barely lightened the sky the next day as Lauren walked out of her house and headed toward the cliff toward the path that led to Pebble Beach.
This was her favorite time of day. She’d slept better than she had in a while, although still not well. And she figured getting up and taking a walk would be good for her mental state and her physical health.
Interestingly, as she walked down the trail, she heard footsteps behind her and turned to look.
The bookshop owner had already spotted her and waved as soon as she turned around.
He wore jogging shorts and a muscle shirt, seeming oblivious to the chill of the morning. Or maybe he anticipated warming up soon, as it looked like he was going for a jog.
“Hey there, neighbor. I didn’t expect to see you here this morning. It’s pretty early,” he said as she debated about turning around and continuing on. She decided against it. It seemed rude, and she was almost certain they would not be going at the same pace, so she wasn’t worried about having to spend her walk beside him.
“This is my favorite time of day,” she said honestly, moving forward as soon as he had reached her. “I’m Lauren.”
She didn’t want to hang around talking to him any more than she had to. He seemed like a nice guy, but she wasn’t looking for male friendships and definitely not with single men who seemed to be unattached and possibly looking. She was making an assumption there, but any man who looked that good was almost certainly used to having a woman on his arm, if not two or three.
She was not interested in a man who didn’t know how to stay true to one woman.
One more check in the positive column for her husband. He might not have paid a whole lot of attention to her, but at least he’d been faithful. And she never worried about it. Because that’s just the way he was. She didn’t think he could manage two women at once. He’d say he could barely manage the woman he had, and while he meant it as a joke, it was very close to the truth.
Regardless, she wasn’t here to think about Cannon either. She was here to…focus on the future, look on the bright side, train her brain to think about the good things, because she didn’t want to be stuck in the sad and lonely and mourning loop forever. She wanted to get out of it.
“Matteo,” he said, offering his name without offering his hand. “This is the best time to run. I’m from the south, and down there, if you don’t run early, forget about it. After about eight o’clock, it’s too hot to do anything.”
“The South. Texas?” she asked, figuring that the South was a pretty big area.
“South Carolina. So, maybe not as hot as Texas. Although I spent my fair share of time there too.”
He’d traveled. Interesting. She’d gone from here to Cincinnati and back. That was the extent of her traveling. That was something else that she’d always wanted to do, although she would have preferred to have children with her when she did it. She had been content to save their money and hold off on taking any trips until they had kids to go with them. But that didn’t seem like something God was going to give them, and her husband wasn’t the slightest bit interested in looking into adoption or anything else. At least, the few times she’d asked him, he had barely glanced up from his laptop.
“I’m from here, so I know the mornings can be quite chilly in every seasonbut summer.”
“But they’re still your favorite?”
“I suppose they’re my favorite from a nice warm room in my house during the winter and possibly the fall and the spring. But they’re my favorite outside in the summer.”
“All right. You did need to clarify.”
They hit the bottom of the beach, and she nodded at his last comment, then he said, “I’ll see you around later. Don’t forget, I owe you a couple of books. Be sure to stop by.”
“All right,” she said, waving as he did a few stretches before he started jogging down the beach.
After thinking about it for a minute, she decided to walk north instead of south. Just to go in the opposite direction that he had. She didn’t want to meet him again, and while she thought he was a nice guy, that wasn’t why she’d come here.
Still, it was interesting that she had a handsome, single—if his bare wedding ring finger had anything to say about it—man next door. She, of course, wore her ring, and she assumed that the man had seen it and understood.
Putting that encounter out of her mind, she lifted her face to the light breeze, resisted a shiver, and started heading in the opposite direction as Matteo. It was a beautiful morning with a sunrise spreading all across the sky and making it glow with oranges and pinks and shades of blue and even green.
It was glorious, and it reminded her that God loved her still, even if it felt like she was going through a winter period of her life.
Maybe she should text her husband. At least let him know that she was okay. His last text had just asked simply,
