AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 31
Only when she couldn’t see him anymore in her rearview mirror did she let herself cry, let the tears that he had tried to absorb spill freely down her cheeks. She dried them with tissues that she kept in the car before going back into the house. Even that brought up a memory that crushed her chest.
“They fell asleep fast. Had an adventurous day,” Sarah updated, putting her tennis shoes on.
“Thanks so much, Sarah, especially with the short notice.”
“Are you okay, dear?” Sarah narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“But you’ve been crying.”
She breathed out. “It’s been a long day, with Hannah and all.”
Sarah nodded and patted her arm. “Yes, it has.” She gave her a little smile.
Hope smiled back. At least, she hoped it looked like a smile. Can you smile when you feel like you’re walking around with a dagger in your heart? A dagger you put there?
After a long shower, she replied to the group chat where Libby and Roni checked in on her.
“Hannah broke a tooth. Dentist. Long day. Am beat. We spoke. It’s just like Libby said. But it’s not right for me. Talk to you tomorrow. Love you. Night.”
The heart emojis and hug gifs that followed in response from both told her that they understood.
With a numb head and heart, she went to bed. No TV or website could prompt her to look at them. She had the truth from the source, and she couldn’t take seeing him being stomped on publicly when she might have just done the same privately.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, when she stopped at home after dropping Naomi off at a friend’s and Hannah at dance class—“I don’t dance with my teeth, Mommy; don’t worry”—Hope left the car in the street. Walking toward the house, hands loaded with grocery bags, she pressed the button to lock the car behind her. Instead, she heard a grinding sound. It wasn’t until the garage door lifted that she realized where the sound had come from. Surprised, she walked and stopped in front of it.
Placing the groceries on the concrete, she approached the door and looked at its left side. A new hinge. It took her a second.
“Oh, my God,” she mumbled.
Jordan Delaney was the only man she knew who didn’t need a single word to torch her heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Libby stirred the hot cocoa mug that Hope had handed her as a knock was heard on the front door.
“Must be Roni,” Libby said.
Hope went to open the door. “Hey, hon.”
Roni just squeezed her into a hug. “Love it when we meet and it’s not even Monday,” she said in a half-whisper, entering the kitchen. The girls were asleep, and Libby and Roni had insisted on coming over.
“What’s new on the Jordan front?” Roni asked.
“He’s driving with Luke to the airport. Luke has a shift, and he found a flight, so they left an hour ago,” Libby repeated what she had already told Hope.
With hot mugs, a bowl of cookies, and a throw blanket for each, they went to sit in the backyard.
“Have you looked into The Whisperers or the others since yesterday?” Roni asked, munching on a cookie.
“No. It’d feel like betraying him if I did. He told me the truth, and why would I?”
“Yeah, we didn’t, either,” Libby said. “I’ve never seen Luke so eager to punch a screen before. They’re such low-lifes for messing with people’s lives like that.”
