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“I don’t want him to die.”
“Die?” Posy stroked Ruby’s hair. “Why would you think he’d die?”
Is that my fault? Beth wondered. Have I taught her to think the worst?
“Because it’s so, so cold,” Ruby said, and Posy shook her head.
“He’s not going to die. He has a very thick coat, tons of hay, and there’s a shelter he can hide in if he needs to.” Posy turned as Luke walked in behind her. He was carrying logs and had a backpack slung over his shoulder.
“What are you doing here?” Beth glanced from him to her mother, feeling a rush of protectiveness. Did she want Luke in her kitchen?
Suzanne looked up from the dough she was rolling out. “Bethany Butler, this is my house and everyone is welcome here.” She smiled at Luke. “Thank you for the logs. Posy will put them in the basket in the living room. Why don’t you sit down and warm up? I’ll make some coffee and you can have one of these cookies Ruby and I are baking. Did you bring those photos you promised to show me?”
“I have them here.” He pulled a laptop out of the backpack and placed it on the table a safe distance from Ruby’s cooking.
Posy left the room to take the logs next door and Beth followed her.
Hannah was curled up on the sofa with a book and Beth wondered why she was alone.
“Where’s Adam?”
Hannah didn’t look up from her book. “He had to finish a piece of work.”
Posy dumped the logs in the basket next to the fire. “I know you didn’t want him here and I’m sorry, but the guy flew all the way here from New York, so don’t you think you should at least talk to him, Hannah?”
Beth saw Hannah flush and intervened. “You’re not exactly in a position to make observations on relationships. You’re sleeping with the enemy.”
Now it was Posy’s turn to flush. “He’s not my enemy. Can we all agree that our choices are our own?”
“You are having sex with a man who lied to you. And to Mom.”
“In case you missed it, Mom welcomed him into her home.”
“That’s Mom. She’s the most generous person on the planet. This stuff upsets her, Posy!”
“That’s true in general, but this isn’t upsetting her. And you don’t have the monopoly on protecting her. I care about her, too. We all do.” Posy straightened. “You think Dad would let Luke through the door if seeing him made Mom feel worse?”
They both knew how protective Stewart was.
“I guess not. But that doesn’t mean you have to have a relationship with him. I’m worried about you, too.”
“She has a point,” Hannah said. “Luke hurt you.”
“And last week when I was climbing, I scraped a lump of skin off my hand. Hasn’t made me give up climbing.” Posy looked annoyed. “You can’t live your life too afraid to do things in case you get hurt. If you get hurt, you heal. And while you’re lying there healing, you can think about how much fun you had.”
Hannah frowned slightly and then went back to her book.
Beth stared into space. If you get hurt, you heal.
Her sister was so casual about it. Unlike Hannah and Beth, she didn’t spend her life trying never to be hurt. She’d freely entered into a relationship with Luke, apparently relaxed about how that might turn out. Posy did what she wanted to do and had confidence that she could handle what came her way.
Beth wanted to be more like that.
She was about to say something else when Ruby ran into the room.
“Mommy, did you call them about Bugsy again?”
Beth’s heart sank. “I did, but so far they haven’t found him.”
