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She smiled at him again. At least she didn’t think his words were silly. “Thank you once again. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you.”

“You will,” he said and watched the two of them leave, then went back to work. He’d get these sinks in for her and then come back tomorrow and make sure the rest of the place was set to go. It was the last of the work he’d seen to be completed or what he signed up to do.

Now he had to figure out how to get this woman out of his head while he worked. Something he’d never had a problem with before.

4

Quiet Awkward Way

“This is a cute place,” Laine said the next day. It was eight in the morning and Laine’s shop opened at ten, but she stopped over to visit.

“It is,” Avery said. “Not as large as my last place and the room for Josie is not as big, but she is happy she is getting the whole upstairs.”

“That does make up for it. She’s still sleeping?” Laine asked.

“Yes. She normally gets up earlier but is hard to get out of bed. She’d rather lie there and watch TV or read. Yesterday was a crazy long day for her and I’m letting her go for now. We’ll go get her paint for her room later and get that knocked out, then she can put all her clothes and other things away.”

“I’m sorry again about Colleen,” Laine said. “I remember her being so full of life and fun to be around when she visited you in college.”

“Yeah,” she said. She and Colleen had gone to different colleges for obvious reasons. It’s not like there were a lot of veterinary colleges around and Colleen went where she got the most financial aid.

Avery had student loans, but they weren’t crazy high, as her mother helped out to an extent.

“You look good,” Laine said.

“Thanks,” she said. “Life is so different than I thought it’d be at this point in my life.”

“You thought you’d be married by now, I know,” Laine said.

“At thirty-two, yeah. Or at least close to it. But I’ve got a child to raise so I guess that is close enough.”

“You were closer than me and then Kurt turned out to be such an asshole,” Laine said.

“Don’t remind me,” she said. “I wish I hadn’t wasted three years of my life with him.”

“He didn’t want kids?” Laine asked.

The two of them were in the kitchen where they walked through. She started to make coffee for her and her friend.

“He wanted them,” she said. “But only his kids. He said he didn’t sign up to raise someone else's.”

“Asshole,” Laine said, fixing her coffee with cream when Avery handed it over.

“Colleen never liked him so I guess in the end it worked out.”

Her best friend always said there was something about Kurt she didn’t care for but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Avery should have listened more carefully.

“Now you’re here on the island and starting over,” Laine said. “Not that the circumstances of you getting to this point were wonderful, but I am glad you’re here. I think you’ll love it here. It’s a nice quiet lifestyle.”

“I need it,” she said. “This past year, it was too much.”

“How is your mother doing?”

“Great,” she said. “I still feel guilty moving and leaving the care of my grandmother to her now, but she pushed me to go. I know she has it covered.”

“Like mother, like daughter,” Laine said. “I’m thrilled you let me help out. I know how much you hate having anyone do anything for you. You never said why, but I know your mother is the same way.”

Her grandmother needed full-time care for many health issues. Though her grandmother was fully aware of what was going on, she’d had a massive stroke years ago and couldn’t get around on her own.

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