Page 35 of Eight Years Gone

Jagger shook his head. “I’m all set, but thanks.”

“I’ll be back,” Asa said as he left the room.

Maggie held Jagger’s gaze as she studied him. “You look like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

She patted the arm of the chair next to her seat on the couch. “Take a load off and tell me about it.”

He sighed as he sat because this wasn’t his style. He wasn’t a talk-it-out kind of guy—or he wasn’t anymore. He’d learned to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself. It had served him well over the last few years. “I’m going to head out.”

Maggie frowned. “Tonight?”

He shook his head. “In a couple of weeks.”

“Well, that’s a shame.”

He jerked his shoulders. “I don’t belong here.”

She held his gaze again as the silence stretched out between them. “Why did you come back to Preston Valley?”

“I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here.” He huffed out a breath when he knew Aunt Mags didn’t believe that any more than he did. “I needed to make sure she was okay. I haven’t been able to walk away.”

“That probably means something, don’t you think?”

He scrubbed his hands over his face because he’d never been more confused. Grace had moved on. She was dating someone else, but he felt the familiar sparks whenever they looked into each other’s eyes. “She says she’s happy. He makes her happy.”

“You two talked, then?”

He shook his head. “Not really.”

Aunt Maggie put her project in the basket next to her. “I think somewhere along the way Grace convinced herself that this is the life she wants.”

He frowned. “Nothing much stands in Grace’s way. She’s always gone after what she wants.”

Maggie nodded as she sighed. “That used to be the case, but things have been different. Grace never got all of her sparkle back. Eight years was a long time ago, but time doesn’t heal all wounds.”

He swallowed, understanding exactly what Aunt Maggie meant.

“Grace had a rough go of it. The vibrant, confident girl you remember fell apart, honey.”

He clenched his jaw, loathing Aunt Maggie’s words. The only way he’d been able to live with his choices was to imagine how much better Grace’s life had gotten after he left. “Will you tell me about it?”

Aunt Maggie nodded. “She lost the two loves of her life. First, Logan, then you on the same night. All of it was so tragic—so sudden and unexpected.”

“I had to go—or I thought I did.”

She nodded, touching his hand. “I know you did, honey.”

He gestured for Maggie to go on, impatient to understand what Grace’s life had been like—not the fantasy he’d dreamed up.

She gave his hand another squeeze. “The morning she arrived here in Preston Valley… The day after you left… Steve called to tell me Grace was on her way—that she wasn’t well. When she pulled up in the driveway three hours later, Asa and I hurried out to meet her. Grace looked so different—so broken and disheveled. She got out of her car and sank to the ground, sobbing in a way I’ve never seen anyone cry before.”

Jagger shook his head, staring at the floor, needing to hear what his cowardice had done to Grace.

“Asa carried her into the house, and I tucked her into bed. She slept until the next morning. When she woke up, she cried all over again. Other than the day we spent in Philadelphia for Logan’s funeral, that was Grace’s routine for about eight weeks. I could barely get her up to do much of anything, especially eat. She got so thin. I was afraid I would have to put her in the hospital.”

“Fuck,” he whispered, resting his elbows on his thighs as he settled his face in his hands, hardly able to tolerate the idea of Grace’s suffering.

He’d been kicking ass in training, focusing only on forgetting while Grace had struggled to get out of bed. He lifted his head to look at Maggie. “Things got better after that?”

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