Page 48 of Dear Henry, Love Edith
“I assure you I have not changed my mind.”
“Still no word on the passport?”
“Nothing yet. But a friend is supposed to forward it to me as soon as it arrives. Trust me, as soon as it is in my hands, I’m on my way. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m so excited to volunteer for your organization I could scream.”
Edith leaned back before remembering the bench didn’t have a backrest. “Ahhh!” She toppled off backwards, landing in a patch of coneflowers and black-eyed Susans. Then screamed again when a bee tried flying into her ear.
“My goodness, you are excited, aren’t you?” Kaya chuckled. “I just hope you maintain that same level of enthusiasm after you see your living accommodations. That will probably make you scream too. Especially if you don’t like cockroaches.Are you still planning to stay more than three months?”
Edith crawled out of the flowers and staggered to a standing position several feet away, brushing the dirt off her rear end and praying nobody had witnessed her acrobatics off the bench. But based on the random applause from across the street and the “Way to stick the landing!” shout, she reckoned somebody had.
“Edith? Hello? Are you still there?”
“Yes. Sorry. Cockroaches. Three months. Wait, what?Cockroaches?”
“Can I take that as a no to staying longer than three months?”
“No. Yes. No. I mean, I want to stay longer. As long as I can. Years, even. Definitely more than three months. That’s still my plan.” Henry’s handsome face and gorgeous blue eyes flashed in front of her vision. It was still the plan, right? She squeezed her eyes shut. “It is still the plan,” she repeated, this time for her own benefit.
“Wonderful. Between you and me, sometimes it’s not worth the effort to train volunteers when they’re only going to be here a short while, but if you’re willing to commit toyears, then goodness. That really opens up some exciting possibilities. But we’ll see how it goes after you get here. One day at a time, right?”
“Right. One day at a time.” An ambulance drove past, lights flashing and siren blaring. Edith pressed a finger to her other ear.
By the time the ambulance rounded the corner toward the emergency department in the back, Kaya was saying her goodbyes. “We’ll talk more later. My three children are excited to meet you by the way. They love visitors. We all do. No matter how long you stay, it’ll be great.”
It would be. So great. Edith dropped her phone in her purse, a heavy weight settling on her shoulders. So why didn’t it feel great?
Edith glanced back at the hospital. Steve. That’s why.
How could it feel great until she resolved things with him? It had nothing to do with Henry. Nothing to do with the facthe’d been avoiding her since yesterday. Nothing to do with the fact that she missed him and it had only been twenty-four hours and they lived in the same house, which made her wonder how much it would kill her when she hadn’t seen him for over a year and they lived in different countries.
Yep, definitely nothing to do with that.
Shaking her head, Edith crossed the parking lot to her rental car. Maybe she was tired. Everyone had trouble feeling excited and great when they were tired.
She just needed a nap. That’s all. Then she’d be ready for another night at the crisis house. And by the end of summer, ready to dive into the next chapter of her life.
Alone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The lavender twilight that had filled the sky past his office window earlier gave way to a deep indigo by the time Henry pulled into his driveway. None of the appointments today had gone as he hoped. The historical society was still hemming and hawing, not willing to commit, and the Realtor was even less promising.“We can fill out the paperwork with your new offer, but frankly, I think it’s going to end up being a waste of time. That land isn’t selling.”
“One victory, God. That’s all I’m asking for.” Something to prove he wouldn’t forever be known as the guy who dropped the ball. Something to prove he could be the hero for once. Something to give Edith a reason to stay.
Henry turned off the engine and scrubbed his palms up and down his face. Probably seeing him roll around onthe ground yesterday, unable to hold his own, wasn’t thatsomething. His knee might have been spared from getting reinjured, but his pride... yeah, that had taken quite the hit.
He grabbed a pile of folders and rolled-up diagrams from the passenger seat and let himself in the back door to his kitchen. The sound of voices from the living room and the smell of popcorn drew him up short.
The voices paused and a moment later Edith peeked around the corner. “Hey,” she said. “I just popped some popcorn and started a movie. You want to join me?” She leaned against the doorframe in a pair of gray sweats and a black Pittsburgh Pirates T-shirt.
Henry drank in the sight of her like a dehydrated marathon runner who’d just found the last Gatorade bottle. When he continued to stare, Edith raised her eyebrows and straightened. “Henry?”
“Sorry.” Henry dropped his armload onto the kitchen island. “You caught me off guard. I thought you were working tonight.”And planning to avoid me for the rest of your life.
Okay, so maybe he’d technically been the one avoiding her. But only so he could avoid the fact she might be avoiding him since he looked like such an idiot yesterday.
He stepped to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of iced tea, working hard to act normal when the inside of him was dancing like Snoopy in a Charlie Brown cartoon. “So you’re not going in tonight, I take it?”
