Page 149 of As They Are
Like all grief, I missed him at random intervals. But that hadn’t been my first brush with losing someone, and I’d been able to lose myself in work until the pain wasn’t as unbearable.
Tammy took me to the cooler, where I hid the cake behind a bunch of eggs from the farm.
“So,” she said as we walked out, “how are you and Henry?”
“We’re good. He’ll be here later today.”
“No feelings for Jude or anything?”
“Nope,” I said. “Ignore the show. They’re making drama out of nothing.”
As more episodes came out, the love triangle grew more obvious, though I refused to play into it even for a second.
Others, though? They were seeing the wrong side of all of this. While Henry hadn’t been made into a villain, he also didn’t get the attention that Jude did.
I counted down the days until I was done filming. My house reno projects were so much easier than the drama of television.
“Good. No one but Kerry cares about Jude. He’s nothing more than a visitor. Not even a good one.”
“Small-town life doesn’t agree with him.”
“But does it agree with you?”
I blinked. “Me? It’s great, but I have things planned after this. I’ll be back in Nashville.”
“Are you not gonna visit Henry?” She raised an eyebrow.
I paused. At the end of this, Henry and I would be broken up.
The thought made my chest ache. It had been nearly two months since he’d entered my life and I was used to having him around, even with his rules to keep our distance.
“I ... suppose I’ll have to figure that out.”
“I hope you do.”
“Were you this friendly to Mollie?” I asked, eager to change the subject.
“I was friendly, though not like this. I like you.”
I thought changing the subject would make the ache in my chest go away. Instead, it only made it worse. “Why?”
“Why?Do you want the whole laundry list?” She held out her hand and began counting them off. “You’re redoing our beloved library. You’re kind in a way a lot of people aren’t. You work yourassoff, and you remind me of Kelsey.”
I didn’t know what to do with three compliments, so I focused on the last thing.
“Who’s that?”
“My daughter. She moved away a while ago.”
“Do you miss her?”
If Tammy caught onto my topic change, she didn’t mention it. “Of course I do. I’m proud of her, but these days, she’s so busy with her friends and job hunting that we barely get to talk.”
“I hope you get to talk to her more.”
“I’m not the kind of mom who’ll hover. She’s got her life, but she always did this thing that drove me up a wall.”
“What’s that?”
