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Lia reached into the pocket of her sports coat and retrieved a chocolate bar. A real one, not the chalk-looking protein things she’d been consuming before. She ripped it open and took a bite.
“Well, how sick is she?” Sarah asked.
Her mouth full of chocolate, Lia stared at her like it was a ridiculous question. “I don’t know, Sarah—too sick to travel.”
Sarah sighed. Patience. “I’m asking because if she’s not completely bedridden, I may have a way that she could still be at the reunion.”
Lia stopped pacing. “You mean virtually?”
“I installed some virtual conferencing equipment in the larger event room…” It would mean moving the event into that room instead…moving the decor and the tables and the centerpieces and everything that they’d just finished setting up in the smaller room, but if it would mean that this event could be considered a success, if it would appease Lia, then it was worth doing.
Her self-esteem and confidence could use one thing going right that weekend.
Lia nodded slowly. “Malcolm’s aunt decided not to come so that someone would be there with Grandmama…she could definitely help her with a laptop.” Relief started to appear on Lia’s face as she nodded. “That might work.”
It would definitely work; it just meant a lot more work for Sarah.
“Well, go. Get started,” Lia said. “We only have a few hours.”
Sarah’s back teeth clenched. “I’m on it.”
Just forty-eight hours until all of this is over.
Hours later, exhausted and barely able to keep her eyes open, Sarah collapsed on her bed. Downstairs, all of Lia’s and Malcolm’s family members had checked in, gotten settled in their guest rooms, and were mingling with their wine and cheese reception. Loud voices and laughter drifted up the stairs toward her room, but Sarah was happy to be away from the crowd.
Her gaze settled on her grandmother’s journal on the table near the armchair. Worried about that day’s event, worried about her own future plans, and hurt over her argument with Wes, she hadn’t slept the night before. Instead, she’d continued reading the entries in the journal.
Her grandmother’s heartache over Jack’s refusal of her love had spilled from the pages, and Sarah’s own tortured heart hadn’t found the reassurance she’d been hoping for. Instead, it had only made her heartache that much worse. She hesitated before picking up the journal to read it.
Unfortunately, she had to know how it all ended back then for Dove and Jack.
The date on this last entry was a full year after the previous one.
Dear Jack,
I got married today. You know that because you were there, ever so briefly, watching from the beach at a distance.
Did you see the dress—so different from the one I’d planned to marry you in. The truth is, I needed to hide my pregnancy, and this gown was the only appropriate choice. Though it seems fitting that I wouldn’t get to wear the dress I’d always dreamed of today on this special day.
I love Martin. He’s a good man and he’s been there for me, when you wouldn’t or refuse to be.
As I walked down the aisle today, our last conversation played in my mind. Maybe not appropriate to be thinking of another man while I was about to pledge forever to his good friend and comrade, but the mind wanders where it will.
Mine wandered to you.
Do you remember the conversation?
I said, “Where did you go, my love?”
And you replied, “Somewhere so dark that love cannot exist.”
You were different. You are different now.
Unfairly, my feelings are the same. Nothing—not time, not distance, not your coldness—can change that.
But I will move on and be a good wife to this man I now call my husband. I’ll be a good mother to his child I carry, and we will have a future we could only dream of together.
I wish you peace, if love forever evades you.
