Her mother patted her hand gently. “Gertie told me you’d called ahead about them when I went to buy cake flour. I remember how you girls loved them. My, how you two used to laugh. I’d stand in the hallway and listen with a smile on my face. Oh, excuse me.”
Hannah watched her rush from the room, tears burning her eyes.
“Look, now you’ve upset your mother.”
She turned around at her father’s chilling voice, hands clenched, and Neil walked over and put his hand on her back in support. But old habits died hard. Memories weren’t her fault. Neither was looking like what Sarah might have resembled if she were still with them.
“Dr. Montgomery, we’re going to take off,” Neil announced gently. “We’ll come back when Mrs. Montgomery is feeling better.”
“You do that,” her father crisply replied with a final disapproving look before seeing them out and shutting the door hard behind them.
Digging in her purse, she pulled out her lavender essential oil, unscrewed the top, and took a big whiff. “That man… He still makes me want to yell and scream and kick until I’m blue in the face. Nothing changes!”
Neil put his arm around her. “I’m sorry it wasn’t the homecoming you were hoping for, lass.”
“It wasn’t like I was expecting much.” She stored herlavender back in her purse. “They’re only my parents. You’re so lucky that yours love you and are so nice.”
“They haven’t grieved their daughter.” He hugged her to his chest. “Your sister is still in the house with them.”
She tensed.
“Not like that,” he clarified. “In memory. I noticed there was only one family photo hanging in the entryway.”
Leaning her head against his solid chest, she nodded. “We never took another after Sarah died. That photo was our last as a family. My mother refused to put it in storage, like the rest of Sarah’s things. She said it would be like putting Sarah away. My father finally gave up since she spiraled down so badly after.”
Neil led her to the car and reached inside for her thermos. “Drink some tea. Your heart needs it. Then have some of your crisps.”
“I want to eat them again when I don’t feel so sick to my stomach.” God, wasn’t that the saddest thought when she’d been so looking forward to them today? “I can’t believe Mom picked them up for me.”
He leaned against the SUV while she drank. “That’s a good sign.”
Putting her thermos back inside the car along with her chips, she rubbed her arms briskly to shake off her bad mood. “With my mother, I guess, but so much for hauling over Dr. A.J. Cronin’s bookThe Citadelas a gift for Dad.”
“He’ll like reading that classic on medical ethics when he gets around to opening your present,” Neil assured her like the gentle giant he was. “He’ll also know you were intentional in your choice of picking a book by a famous Scottish doctor.”
She heaved out a sigh. “Neil, we pretty much crashed and burned our first visit out.”
“Lass, your mother wasn’t well. ’Tis the way of it.”
One thing about Neil was that he never gave up hope thatsomething could improve. The trait made him a terrific healing practitioner and human being.
“She hasn’t been well since Sarah died.” Hannah started walking to Jolene’s front porch. “The recent fall notwithstanding.”
Neil let her precede him on the sidewalk. “Maybe, but I’m new to the situation. I felt like your father was hiding something.”
“Certainly not his complete dislike for me. Neil, he’s against Will’s project, which could bode really badly for me when it comes to townspeople coming to my practice—if I stay.”
“It was more than that, aye, but let’s not dwell on it now. You ready for a warmer reception?”
She was already ringing the bell. Maybe Jolene would know if Neil was right about there being something more off than usual with her mother. “You betcha. Wait and see. The Prentice family is the tops.”
Because if she ended up staying here in Sanctuary Springs, she’d have to rediscover all the reasons she’d once loved it.
Of course that was after making peace with the past, and today, she would be starting that journey in a big way, God help her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
She was in town.
