But on the other hand? I knew it could have been so much worse.
I sat there, bemused, for about fifteen minutes. Then I pulled myself together and moved on. I had realized over the past few weeks that Baltimore, while wonderful, wasn’t calling to me anymore.
I wanted to stay in Indigo Falls.
It hadn’t taken long for me to drive to Dr. Crenshaw’s office, where the doctors were thrilled to give me an impromptu interview. They hired me on the spot. I would actually have a much better schedule that I’d had at the hospital, I’d make about the same amount of money, and they didn’t need me to start until after the new year.
I’d have time off. It was amazing.
I’d used the time to look at homes while Sabine was still in town. I trusted her opinion implicitly. Before I knew it, I had bought a beautiful townhouse in a new neighborhood that backed up to the riverwalk they’d put in along the Indigo River. I could walk there when I got off work—I’d never been someone who could exercise in the morning.
Sabine and I had spent a week furniture shopping and catching all kinds of post-holiday sales. It had been a great time to move, and it had felt great to make some very importantdecisions after feeling like I was going back and forth over them for months.
I planned to move slowly from my parents’ house to my new place, but Dad had left everything so perfectly organized and ready. Before I’d known it, I was putting their house on the market.
I’d been afraid that day would make me feel as if I was losing my parents all over again, but it had the opposite effect. Instead, it was like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. I was walking away from a haunted house—not literally, of course. There were just so many heavy memories there, so much loneliness, so much sadness, and it felt freeing to walk away from it.
Standing outside my new place, I couldn’t help but feel that both of my parents would approve. And that meant a lot to me.
I was moving on. It wasn’t a new place, but it felt as if Indigo Falls had gotten a much needed makeover for me. It had become more than the place my parents had died, the place I’d grown up lonely off and on, and the place Tim had crushed my heart.
Instead, it had become the place I’d chosen on my own terms. And it felt right.
“I like that smile on your face,” Sabine said, walking towards me, heels clicking on the sidewalk. We were both all dressed up. It was New Years Eve, and we each had a party to attend. The older generation was going to Melinda’s parents’ house for a party. The people my age were going to Tim’s house instead.
She wrapped her arms around me, and we stood like that for several moments. “I’m so proud of you, mon trésor. This has been a hard year. Really hard. But you’ve handled it so well.”
“Thank you. I had a lot of help.” I looked up at her. She was a few inches taller than me, but in her heels tonight, it was even more noticeable. “I’m going to miss you when you go back.” She was leaving in a couple of days, and I wasn’t ready for her to leave yet. I felt tears threatening.
She must’ve noticed. “No, no. No tears tonight. Your makeup is perfect.”
I laughed at that. It was a very Sabine thing to say.
“I’m glad you brought that up,” she said, and a serious look crossed her face. “I’ve been thinking about something for a while now, and I want to run it by you.”
My eyebrows lifted. “What is it?”
“I applied for a job with Delta Airlines, and, well, I got it.” Delta’s biggest hub was in Atlanta at Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
My mouth dropped open. Was she saying what I thought she was saying? “Are you…”
“Thinking of moving to America? Yes. What do you think of that?” She looked worried, as if I was going to say no or something. Spoiler alert—I wasn’t.
I threw my arms around her. “I’d love that so much!” I knew Sabine had dual citizenship, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to move to America. “But what about all your friends in France?”
“I’d miss them for sure, but it’s easy with my job to swing by and see them several times a year, and you, dear girl, are my family. I want to be closer to you.”
“That makes me so happy.”
She smiled. “We can talk all about it later, but for now we look too beautiful to be standing out here on New Year’s Eve. We need to go to our parties.”
I cocked my head at her. “Do you feel close to Mom’s friends?”
She looked startled by my question, and I could swear she blushed.
“Yes. Some more than others,” she shrugged. “But they’ve always included me over the years in their soirees and such.”
“I noticed you and Jack Crenshaw seemed pretty close,” I said off-handedly as the two of us walked to the parking lot.I would drop Sabine off at Melinda’s parents’ house before heading over to Tim’s.
