“Dating?”
Make thatextremely direct.It wasn’t the first time Penny had fielded the question — Heartsprings Valley was Heartsprings Valley, after all —and she knew from experience to keep her answer simple and truthful. “No, I’m not dating anyone right now.”
“Ever been married?”
Penny considered pushing back, but when she saw Daniel listening intently, something in her compelled her to change course. “I was engaged once. But it didn’t work out.”
“What happened?”
Again, the question came like a shot —no hesitation, no pretense.
Penny took a deep breath. “I caught him kissing someone else.”
Mabel’s eyes widened. “You caught him doingwhat?”
“A week before the wedding.”
Mabel looked livid. “What a louse.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Mabel turned to Daniel. “Similar thing happened to you, I hear.”
Daniel blinked with surprise. “That’s….”
“Your wife met someone, right?”
“That’s not … something I like to talk about.”
“Nothing foryouto be ashamed of. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Maybe so, but….”
“You know,” Mabel said, fixing him with an impatient gaze, “I’m starting to understand your problem.”
Daniel’s brow furrowed. Though obviously surprised by the out-of-nowhere interrogation, he seemed capable of dealing with it. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Yes, I can see that.” Mabel shook her head, disappointed. “And here I was, thinking novelists were supposed to be perceptive. Silly me.”
He opened his mouth, then shut it. It took him a couple of seconds to try again. “Tell me what I’m missing.”
“You said it yourself: You don’t like to talk.”
“That’s not really what I meant when I —”
“But it’s what you said, and words matter, right?” She turned to Ike and Ed. “Have I stepped in it again? Am I going at the boy too hard?”
Ike looked at her and then Daniel, weighing his response. “Might be,” he finally said.
“Seems so,” Ed added.
Mabel snorted with irritation and pivoted back to Daniel. “Maybe I owe you an apology, maybe I don’t. What I’m saying is, it’s good to talk about things that matter to you. If something’s important, it deserves the attention.”
“Well, it’s just that —”
“And by important, I mean things like why you split up with your ex. Don’t expect to just tuck that one away and forget it.How are you going to move forward if you can’t unpack your pain?”
Daniel stared at her. “I….”
