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Sarah gave a little shrug. “Then I’ll be okay,” she told her mother. “Maybe not immediately, maybe not for a while. But I will.” She smiled at her. “Really.”
“Yes,” Gwen replied, thinking of John. It wasn’t nearly the same thing as Sarah and Nathan’s twenty-year marriage—in fact, quite the opposite—but hopes deferred were still just that. She toyed with the idea of reaching out to him. Why not? Why did she have to wait for John to make the first move, especially if theywerejust friends?
“I’d better make sure Owen and Mairi are being sensible and actually going to bed,” Sarah said as she heaved herself up from the sofa. “I don’t want to leave Ellie with all the work. Don’t drink all the Baileys, Mum,” she added, with a playful wag of her finger.
“I won’t,” Gwen promised. “Just most of it.”
As Sarah left, she slipped her phone from her pocket. Maybe it was the Baileys, or just the fact that life felt so fleeting and yet so precious, but she wanted to be daring, even reckless.
She typed out a text.
Merry Christmas, John! Hope this holiday season has you counting your blessings. That’s what I’ve been doing, somewhat to my surprise. Life is short, isn’t it, when you think about it? Always good to make the most of it. Gwen x
Was that too cryptic? she wondered. Or too overt and even pushy? But Gwen found she didn’t care. It was how she felt, what she wanted to say, whatever the consequences. Life was for living, after all. She pressed send.
She remained where she was seated, half-hoping for an answering message, but none came, and she told herself that was all right, let the realization soak into her. Itwasall right. She was content simply to sit here, enjoying the warmth and comforting crackle of the fire, the snow in sweeping drifts outside, the lights on the Christmas tree twinkling like bits of promise.
“Did you save me some Baileys?” Sarah demanded good-naturedly as she came back into the room.
“And me, too,” Ellie chimed in as she joined them by the fire.
Gwen gestured to the bottle. “There’s still plenty left… I think.”
Her daughter and daughter-in-law hooted with laughter just as her phone pinged with a text.
Gwen slipped it out of her pocket and glanced at the screen.
Gwen! I’m so glad you messaged. I’ve been thinking about you quite a lot, actually, and especially how we said goodbye so abruptly, which was entirely my fault. I was hoping we could…
Smiling, she slipped her phone back into her pocket. She’d read the rest of the message later, but she felt hopeful about it. Quite hopeful, indeed.
Still smiling, Gwen reached for the bottle of Baileys to top up everyone’s glasses.
“Merry Christmas, everyone!” she said as she raised her glass in a toast, and Sarah and Ellie raised theirs, as well.
“Merry Christmas,” Sarah echoed.
Ellie added with a whimsical smile, “And here’s to the Bluebell Inn, whatever may happen!”
“Hear, hear,” they all said, and smiling at one another, they clinked glasses and toasted the future—whatever it held.
* * *
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THE SECRETS WE KEEP
A GRIPPING EMOTIONAL PAGE-TURNER
How do you keep your children safe when you can’t even protect yourself?
PROLOGUE
You are so silent, so still. I can barely hear you breathing, and I don’t think I’d know you were except for the barely there rise and fall of your chest under the starchy hospital sheet, visible only when I lean forward and look for it, for a desperately needed sign that you’re still here, that you’re holding on, despite what the doctors say, the way they shake their heads.
It all happened so quickly—a blur, the blood, screams and shock. So much shock. My mind is still spinning with disbelief, that this happened tomy child, but I know if it stops spinning the guilt will rush in, along with the terror.This is all my fault. I can’t escape that awful reality, that I could have stopped all of this if I’d seen it coming… I could have kept you safe, and I didn’t.
