Page 93 of More Than Words
It was the reason she said she couldn’t get away from the inn, precipitating my trip to her with the books.
She smiled and waved a hand.“He’s practically been living in his wood shop for the past few days.”
“Really?What’s he working on now?”Besides being the town handyman and helping Avery out with the inn, Reid had recently started up a fine woodworking business as well.He’d created many of the pieces in the inn, as well as Ethan’s bar tops, and I knew his work was in high demand, but I hadn’t heard about his latest project.
“I’m not really sure.”Avery busied herself with the stack of books I’d brought, examining each title.“He didn’t mention the details,” she said vaguely.
I gave her a strange look, but she didn’t notice.
“How are you doing?”she asked after a moment.“You know, with?—”
“I’m fine.”I pasted a fake smile on my face.“Just keeping busy.You know how it is.”
“Delaney.”Something in her smile shifted.“Seriously.Are you okay?”
I blinked.I did not want to talk about just hownotokay I really was.“Of course.Why?”
“You just seem…” She shrugged.“Off.”
“Ha.”I set my mug down and folded my hands under my chin.“Yeah.Well, it’s been a week.”
“I heard about the fundraiser.”
Of course she had.With Tilley at the helm, no doubt everyone in town had heard about the fundraiser and how Ethan and I had been stuck working together.Not for one second did I think that was an accident, either.If Tilley had hoped it would bring us back together somehow, no doubt she was desperately disappointed with how it had turned out.
“It was fine,” I lied.“We sorted jackets and gloves.Made some small talk.”
Avery tilted her head.“That’s a good thing?”
“It’s…not a bad thing, I guess.”
“Do you think that you and Ethan…” she started and then bit her lip.
“Just say it.”
“Okay.”Avery nodded.“I was just going to ask you if you thought that you and Ethan would ever be able to get past what happened,” she said quickly.“I mean, I know you’re upset and you have every right to be.”Avery held up a hand before I could interrupt.“I’d be mad, too.”
I sucked in a breath.
“I was just thinking,” Avery continued.“You two were so good together.Maybe he didn’t realize that he’d…well…you know.”
“I do know.”I chose my words carefully.“And honestly, Avery, I wish we could get past it.”I blinked back the tears that threatened.“I know it doesn’t seem like a big thing to some people.But, you have to understand my past and how long it took me to get over my divorce and the fallout from it.With Ethan, I thought that we could…well, it doesn’t matter what I thought.The thing is, I’ve been down that road before,” I told her.“I’ve loved and trusted and lost everything and…” I swallowed hard.Ethan wasnotKen.Logically, I knew that, but it was too hard to untangle the two in my head.
“Have you talked to him about everything?”Avery asked gently.“I bet if you heard him out, he’d?—”
“That’s the thing, Avery,” I said sadly.“He hasn’t even tried to talk to me about it.Or apologize, or even try to understand why I’m so hurt.And that…well, that hurts the most.”
I looked down into my mug of coffee and took a moment, because thatwasthe part that hurt the most.I really thought we were building something together, but he had just let me walk away.Like it never even mattered.
Avery slipped her hand over mine.
When I finally looked up into her kind eyes, I didn’t try to stop the tear that slid down my cheek.“I’m just so tired,” I said.“Tired of trying to pretend it’s all okay, and I don’t still want it to mean something to him.”
She didn’t push.She just let me sit while the tears fell.After a moment, she stood and wrapped her arms around me in a gentle hug.“It’s okay,” she said.“You don’t have to pretend.Not with me, Delaney.”
Ethan
“I knew you were going to be a pain in the ass,” Reid grumbled without turning around.“You know, standing over me, watching everything I do, isn’t going to make me move any faster, Ethan.”
