Page 84 of Dear Henry, Love Edith
“No. Because that’s just it. I’m sure he did have a good reason. Maybe even a great reason. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. Because he has the right to walk away. He is under no obligation to me. Why did I ever think it would be different?”
“I don’t think I’m following.”
Edith brushed her bangs off her forehead and gazed across the pond toward the low-cast sun. “My parents left me when I made a decision they didn’t agree with. My husband left me, in a way, when things didn’t go as we planned, then for good when he got sick. His brother—why, he left me as soon as his mother dragged him out by his ear.”
“Heard about that,” Julie said with an amused snort.
“Point is they were all people I loved. Okay, maybe not Steve. But at the very least, they were all people I trusted. They weren’t supposed to leave me. So why did I think for one moment a man I barely knew would be the one to stick by me? Why did I let myself get in this position again?”
Edith sank onto the park bench, her energy suddenly spent as she blew out a big breath. “And for crying out loud, why did I ever think bangs would be a good idea?”
Julie patted Edith’s leg. “Oh, honey, we’ve all been there.”
But for a squirrel scampering up a tree next to them,shaking a few walnuts loose from the branches, and the occasional honks from the snow geese gathered nearby, they sat together in silence for the next several minutes. Mosquitoes buzzed near Edith’s ear and she swatted them away. Julie lifted her feet up from the ground and rotated her ankles a few times, occasionally slapping her arms when a bug landed on her.
Finally Julie spoke again. “So you and Henry... you’re not...”
“No,” Edith said.
Julie nodded, pulled out a tissue from her purse, and blew her nose several times. “Allergies.” She dropped the tissue back into her purse. “I didn’t want you to think I was crying over you and Henry.”
“Right. I didn’t think—”
“Even though I feel very much like crying.” Julie’s voice quivered and she swiped underneath her nose. “What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Nothing really happened.” Edith held out a hand for a tissue. A sudden attack of allergies had hit her as well. “It was just a misunderstanding.”
“Which part?”
Edith blew her nose. “Every part, I guess.” Lifting her legs up and curling them beneath her on the bench to protect them from hungry mosquitoes, Edith started at the beginning. The day she met Brian. Edith told Julie about her marriage, then moved on to include everything that had happened this summer, starting with the Heimlich maneuver in the diner all the way up to the interview conducted this morning. By the time Edith finished, the sky was cloaked indeep purple and the only birdcall was the occasional hoot of an owl.
“Honey, I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry? I’m the one who’s been lying to everybody this summer. Telling Steve I’m dating Henry. Not telling Henry I knew who he was. Letting people think Henry and I were engaged.”
“I know, but I’m still sorry. I’m sorry you thought you had to carry on a misconception out of fear for what people might think of you. Whether you’re engaged to Henry or not, the people of this town who have gotten to know you over the past couple months are still going to care about you. Just like we’re still going to claim Henry as one of our own, no matter what he does or doesn’t do. You’d think he’d have figured that out by now.”
“Yeah, but what about the crisis nursery center?”
“What about the crisis nursery center?”
“How am I supposed to explain to Sharon that all those donations were given under false pretenses?”
“Honey, I’m going to let you in on a little something. Sharon—and I say this with all the love in my heart—has a tendency to make a mountain out of a molehill. I’ll lay you odds that somebody donated an extra twenty bucks, is all.”
“I don’t know,” Edith said, unconvinced.
“All right, let me ask you this then. HasGood Morning Americacontacted you?”
“No.”
“And they’re not going to. Anytime that crisis nursery center generates the slightest buzz, Sharon’s convinced it’s going to make national news. You know how many timesI’ve heard her celebrating in the coffee shop over how they’re finally going to get enough funds to hire full-time staff? About as many times as I’ve heard Opal threaten to call the sanitation department.”
“Oh.”
“But you wanna know what I think? I think God knows better than to ever give Sharon the kind of funds she dreams about.”
“Why do you say that?”
