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“Your Aunt Jean would be very proud of what you’ve done with Hamilton House, Sarah.”
Sarah’s gaze lifted to her father’s and she fought tears. “You think so?”
He nodded. “The only thing she loved more than that old house was you. That you are there, breathing life into those walls again, would have meant the world to her. I know she’s cheering you on from heaven, and that Roy and your mom are right there with her.”
Putting her hot tea down on a side table, she got up, crossed to his recliner and gave him a hug. “Thank you for always knowing what to say to make me feel better.”
“Not always,” he admitted. “I didn’t know what to say when that idiot Richard left.”
Settling back onto the sofa and pulling her mother’s quilt back up around her, Sarah shrugged. “Richard did me a favor by leaving. If he’d stayed, I might have settled.”
Her father grimaced. “You should never settle, Sarah. What about that last one, Bodie?”
“Bodie was my handyman, not my boyfriend.”
“I’m a preacher, Sarah, not a blind man.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I saw how you looked at him,” he said.
“Not sure what you think you saw, but I never thought there would be anything permanent between Bodie and I.”
“Then you were the only one.”
“The Butterflies don’t count. They’re perpetual matchmakers. I’m surprised they haven’t driven you crazy over the years with trying to remarry you.”
Sadness flashed in his eyes. “Your mother was my soul mate. I never met anyone else who came close. It wouldn’t have been fair to marry when my heart would always belong to her.”
“You, Aunt Jean, Maybelle,” Sarah sighed. “I’m surrounded by people who loved and lost.”
He shook his head. “I loved, Sarah. There is no lost. Some never experience what I shared with your mother. I’ve no regrets.” He studied her a moment. “But I get the feeling your comment had more to do with a certain handyman than it did me, Maybelle, or your aunt.”
“I don’t love him,” she denied, then took a sip of her tea. “I mean, had I not known he was leaving from the beginning, I might’ve fallen in love with him. But I did know—so I refused to get attached.”
Much.
Her father looked empathetic. “If that’s what you need to believe, I won’t correct you.”
“It is what I believe,” she defended, annoyed that he’d implied otherwise. She did not love Bodie.
She missed him, longed for him to be at Hamilton House, because he’d been great company. She missed their conversations, his smile, the fluttery feeling she got when he laughed, his intelligence, and thoughtfulness. She missed Harry, too.
But that didn’t mean she loved Bodie. She didn’t.
I’m falling for you. His words echoed through her mind. If only, he really had fallen. If only he hadn’t left. If only…
She glanced at her father, saw that he was smiling.
“You ever consider going after him?”
“What? That’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard you say.” She couldn’t believe her father even asked such
a silly thing. Of course she hadn’t considered going after Bodie. Her life was in Pine Hill. Who knew where in the world he was?
His friend Lukas would know. She had his number from when Bodie gave it as a reference.
For that matter, she had Bodie’s cell number.
