Page 29 of Meet Me in Aveline

“Ranger,” I repeated. “I like that. How did you find him?”

“He just popped up one day over by my house and came right up to me. He didn’t have a collar or anything. I started feeding him table scraps without my dad knowing and he sort of just hung around.”

I sat up on my elbow, turning toward Tuck. “That is so cute. I would give anything to have a stray dog find me. One that I could hide away somewhere in the woods behind our property and sit under the trees petting his head while I read.” The notion of it was something straight out of a fairy tale. “Did your parents let him inside at all?”

Tuck made a sort of chuckle but it lacked emotion behind it. “No. No, my pops didn’t want a dog in the house.”

“That would be the same with my parents,” I replied. “If I ever have kids, I’m going to let them have a dog. And when I get a dog, because Iwillhave one some day, I’m going to name him Gilbert.” I lay back down as Tuck snorted a bout of laughter.

“Gilbert? Why on Earth would you name a dog Gilbert? What did he ever do to you?”

I sat up abruptly and crossed my legs in front of me. I slapped him on the shoulder playfully. “Gilbert is a totally acceptable name. Plus, it’s from my favorite book. I’ve read it probably a hundred times, and honestly, it’s because of that book that I even stopped here.”

“Really? And what book is that?” Tuck asked, sitting up to face me.

“Anne of Green Gables,” I replied, as though it were an answer he should have already known. “There’s a town in there called A—”

“Avonlea,” he finished for me.

I eyed him. “You know the book?” I didn’t think any of the guys in my school knew whatAnne of Green Gableswas, and if they did, they certainly wouldn’t have admitted it.

He ran his hands through his hair as a smile grew across his face. “I think everyone in Aveline knows about that book.

I was officially confused. “Why?”

Tuck leaned forward slightly. “What do you think about a second date? I have something else to show you.”

TWENTY-TWO

2017

LETTIE

“Fracking shortcakes!”I muttered under my breath as I paced around my house after running through town. My cheeks were red from the wind and my teeth were still chattering from the bitter cold. I’d started a fire in the fireplace, and Gilbert sat on the couch taking up the entire surface of it, his head moving from left to right watching me.

“Why couldn’t I have just said, ‘Hello, Tuck’ and moved on with my life? There was absolutely no reason I had to run out of there the way I did.” I turned to Gilbert, his face stoic. “Gilly, don’t look at me like that. I know it’s been twelve years, and I’d planned to be perfectly normal when I met him, but he surprised me. I didn’t know he’d be at Green Gables or that he was even in town already. I had planned to meet him on my own terms and only after I had practiced a perfectly acceptable conversation in the mirror.”

Gilbert rested his head on his paws, and I plopped my hands down on my sides. “You’re right. I know. I shouldn’t have run out because now I’ve just embarrassed myself.”

At that moment, my phone rang, and before I looked at who was calling, I turned to Gilbert. “Ten bucks says it’s Lenora. You know she’s already heard what happened.”

Gilbert groaned, and I looked down to see none other than Lenora’s name printed on my cell. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the entire town was privy to the fact that Tuck and I had reunited, and that I had all but flown from the Inn in order to avoid him.

“Told ya,” I said before answering. “Hi, Lenora. Before you say anythi—”

“You ran? Twelve years he’s been gone, and you ran? You’ve been saying for years how you would just like one more conversation with Tuck Anderson, and there he was, right in front of you, and you didn’t say one word. Oh, for heaven’s sake, Lettie. Are you okay?”

I sighed heavily. “I am fine. And I don’t recall ever saying I wanted to have one more conversation with him.”

She scoffed a high pitched, “Uh!” into the phone. “You most certainly did. It started out as one more conversation to yell at him, give him a piece of your mind, and ask him how he could break your heart the way he did, to one more conversation just to ask him what happened and why he left without saying goodbye. You said you just needed closure. And you know I remember everything. All those nights sitting and combing your hair while you cried into your book pages.”

I didn’t actually need the recall to remember it. I think the pain I’d felt back then at eighteen had stayed with me for years. Maybe it never truly healed completely. The scars were embedded into my heart, and maybe that’s why I couldn’t stand to be blindsided with Tuck’s presence. I’d needed time to prepare, to process what it was going to be like to see him. I’d needed to make sure the wounds didn’t reopen.

Back then, Lenora had done exactly what she’d claimed. She drew me baths in the tub with candlelight and bath bombs and waited outside the door just so I knew she was still there while my tears mixed with the water. She was the only one in the world who knew exactly how broken I was.

I’d stayed in Aveline with Lenora and Teddy even after Tuck had left. They’d taken me in as their own, even though I’d technically been an adult, and had given me a home for the first time. Lenora had mended my broken heart more than my mother ever could have.

“I just didn’t expect to see him,” I admitted. “I didn’t know what to do. It was like all the air was sucked out of the room. I couldn’t even look at him.”

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