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“If you need help, just holler.”
“Will do. Later.”
Jared watched Vance lope across the parking lot to his truck, glad he hadn’t asked how Anna Beth looked. Vance would have read too much into it, mistaking curiosity for interest. He’d lied when he said he hadn’t thought about her over the years. He’d wondered about Anna Beth from time to time, but hadn’t had the stomach to do a Google search on her. Not because he was still in love with her, but seeing her would have just dredged up all the emotions from her wedding day. The embarrassment. Guilt. Anger. Loss. He’d never been one to handle his feelings well, so avoiding painful memories served him just fine. He’d come close to looking her up when Ian Crawford’s letter arrived in his mailbox, but didn't. Having the husband of the woman he loved send him a letter out of the blue two years ago left him sweating bullets. Jared waited months before he read it and when he did, it didn’t make a lick of sense.
Until now. Because Anna Beth came back, just as Ian predicted she would.
Instead of heading straight home, Jared turned toward the heart of town. Almost a foot of dirty snow had been plowed to the side of the roads, but he knew all the streets of Snowy Springs like the back of his hand. Despite the black sludge crowding the sidewalks, the layers of sparkling white snow on the roofs of local businesses and trees were picturesque.
Had Anna Beth been surprised to find the small town hadn’t changed? Was she back for good? Did she still slip and slide driving in the snow because she took the turns too fast?
Jared smiled as he remembered the only time he’d let her drive his truck. They’d slid off the road into a snow drift. She’d cried and apologized a dozen times before he’d pulled her across the seat and onto his lap, holding her as they waited for the tow truck, stroking his hand from the top of her head to the middle of her back while she’d sniffled against his jacket. He could still smell the sweet body spray she wore that reminded him of sugar cookies. When help arrived, he’d actually been disappointed to let her go.
In that moment, Jared realized he loved his best friend.
He’d been too scared to tell her and before he’d worked up his courage, she’d left for college. Two years later, she’d come back engaged and then he…well, he was a romantic idiot with incredibly bad timing.
She’d been right to tell him no. What kind of moron walks into a girl’s bridal suite on her wedding day and asks her to run away with him? He’d been a fool to think she’d say yes.
It taught him another valuable lesson about love. It sucked.
He slowed down to twenty-five as he came up to the city park. The cherry red classic Chrysler in the driveway across the street caught his eye.
Seeing that car was like being kicked in the nuts. Nausea tied his stomach in knots, sweat breaking out across his skin, and he became light headed. Anna Beth really was back.
Shit.
Suddenly, a few drinks didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Two
“I’m surprised you called. You haven’t been back to see me since you ran off with that city boy.”
Anna Beth Howard sat down on the couch, holding the gift box she’d brought in her lap. She knew her aunt wouldn’t waste any time before jumping in with a guilt trip. It’d been her favorite tool of manipulation when Anna Beth was a kid. It seemed like the rest of Snowy Springs; Sarah Driver hadn’t changed.
“I didn’t run off, Sarah. I got married.”
Her aunt never liked to be called aunt or auntie, always insisting that Anna Beth use her given name. A few of the ladies from her aunt’s craft circle had admonished Anna Beth for it, until Sarah had told them she preferred it that way.
Just another way for her aunt to keep her at a distance.
Sarah set the antique tea tray on the coffee table. Even though she was only fifty, everything about her screamed classic. Even the décor in her home was like stepping back into a parlor from the early 1900s. Everything vintage, expensive. Perfect.
Having an eleven-year-old move into her home couldn’t have been easy for her aunt. A precocious child, several of her aunt’s cherished antiques met their demise at her hands. Accidentally, of course, but it hadn’t stopped Sarah from berating her at every turn. Her favorite terms of endearment for Anna Beth had been oafish child and clumsy elephant. Even breaking one of her own dishes as an adult could bring back the cold sweat and embarrassment.
Her aunt sat down on the floral couch and patted her perfectly coiffed dark hair. Her green eyes, just a shade lighter than her dress and the one feature they shared, sparked with annoyance. There were hardly any signs of age on her face, although she’d turned fifty a few months ago.
“Yes, I know you got married, but you could have visited.”
“We had a guest room. You could have come to see us.”
Sarah sniffed. “You know I don’t like the city. All that noise and pollution.”
“Yes, and it’s all about—” Anna Beth sighed. “I didn’t come to fight.”
“What did you come for, Anna Beth?”
With only a moment's hesitation, Anna Beth held out the box to her. “This is for you.”
