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Chapter 21
Thanks for the cake card. I needed it. Sorry about this one; it’s all I could find.
I can’t wait to hold you, kiss you, feel you, lick you, and I ran out of place to say what else.
I love you.
Finn.
Anne stood on the porch, holding the slightly crumpled auto body shop receipt on the back of which Finn had written in blue pen the note that he had slipped into her mailbox. It had been peeking out of the box so she could find it when she got home after staying late with Bella and her family at her parents.
How long could this go on? She ached, knowing he had stopped by her house.
She went inside and retrieved the small, wicker box from her bedroom closet and took out the birthday cards she had received from Finn over the years. Adding the love letter receipt, Anne wished she hadn’t thrown away the note that Finn had shoved into her hand on his wedding day. But hindsight was always twenty-twenty. Back then, she hadn’t imagined she would get to love him again one day.
Yet, just like then, they weren’t free to be together.
She went back to work the day after Christmas with a movie montage playing in her head as she tried to imagine how things were for Finn. In her imagination, he and Max had a much-deserved good time with Marie. One day, soon, she hoped to be part of his life, an integral part, not a part that should be hidden.
It might have been the holiday spirit, but fewer people of those who had looked at her as a homewrecker just two weeks prior gave her the same look now.
She was working with Linda on the bakery’s New Year’s offerings when Bert came in through the back door, carrying a logoed bag from Sarah’s pharmacy.
“You went to the pharmacy like that?” Linda asked, skimming her gaze over his flour-covered clothes and dusty orange crocs.
“Yes. I needed eye drops. We ran out.” Though they ensured to minimize flour dust, Bert suffered from itchy eyes syndrome. “But forget that. Listen to this; I ran into Darian and Avery.”
“Oh, no.” Anne pivoted toward him.
“No, no, Annie, it was about time someone spoke their minds to that woman.”
“Dad, I tried talking to her. She’ll just issue a restraining order against you, too.”
“She can try.” He then looked at Linda. “Your sister is getting fed up with her daughter. Finally. Before Avery came in, Dar and I were there alone. Well, except for Sarah, of course, but she always knows how to keep herself busy. Darian told me that Max made a scene on Christmas eve and yelled at his mother. He insisted on staying at Darian’s instead of going to Avery’s, and she had to beg him to talk to her later.”
“Did Darian say anything about Finn?” Anne asked with a racing heart. If there was a scene there … Everything was falling apart—the family, Max, him, her.
“Wait, Annie,” Bert said when he noticed the expression on her face. “She didn’t say anything about him. I think Max had it out with his mother. She did tell me that Finn, Max, and Marie are visiting Noah and Jill, and that this really got her thinking.”
Anne bit her lip. Her heart went out to this man of hers, the man she couldn’t wait to make hers again. However long it takes.
“I told her that that was an example of how you treat family and that it was about time they did something about Avery,” Bert went on. “Then you know what Sarah did?” He looked at Linda as he said that. “She told Darian that holding a grudge and all this tension wasn’t good for her blood pressure. And you know how seriously Darian takes every word a medical professional says.” Bert chuckled. “Then Avery walked in, and Sarah locked the pharmacy. Closed the door right in the face of two women who wanted to go in, told them she was taking her lunch break.” Bert chuckled. “She locked the three of us there. Maybe she was afraid there’d be a scene.” Bert did a dramatic pause and looked at them.
“And …? Come on, Bert,” Linda said.
Anne was thankful for that nudge because her own pulse raised with every passing minute.
“So, I told her, I told Avery, ‘Listen, Avery, it was strange for us, too, for all of us, but we all came to accept it. Even your parents.’” He looked at Anne and added, “Sorry, Janey, it’s true. It was a peculiar idea for us to get used to—you and Finn. But we got used to it, and we want you both to be happy, and if you’re happy together, then that’s what we want.” He pressed his lips together and placed the pharmacy bag on a shelf. “I took a guess when I said her parents accepted it, but Darian didn’t say a word.”
“And, Dad, what happened then?” She was keyed up for a bad ending, though surely, her father wouldn’t look so pleased with himself if it had been one.
“I gave them such a speech,” Bert said, tilting his head and nodding as if saying you missed a great spectacle. “I told them that I’m talking to them as a parent to a parent. I said this especially for Avery, that we all want our kids to be happy, including me, and that this craziness wasn’t making anyone happy, especially not Max. When I said that, Avery gave her mother such a look! She could tell that Darian told me about Christmas.” He chuckled at his own doing. “I told Avery, ‘You could have had a wonderful sister in my Annie. It’s okay if you’re not friends, but don’t hurt her.’”
Anne sighed. “Oh, Dad.” She hugged him. The dust from his clothes mixed with the dust on her apron, raising a little cloud.
“You see? Sometimes it’s good I stick my nose into all kinds of business.”
She chuckled. “Well, I don’t know. We’ll have to see. Did Avery say anything at all?”
