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I’m anxious to leave so I can start the process. First things first, I need to pay a visit to Stella. And then make some phone calls. Some very important phone calls.
But I don’t leave quite yet. Four of the six of us are together now, and this is cause for celebration. I want to enjoy this. Alec starts to talk about the latest drama with the San Antonio Wolves, so I stay for a while longer before I start in on the rest of my life.
I want to listen. I want to help.
Chapter 32
Sophie
“There you are,” Claire says to me as I walk in from the garage. Her gaze is glued to me, her mouth turned down in a frown. She calls Wilford over and rubs under his chin. “Go eat your food,” she tells him, pointing to his filled bowl in the corner of the kitchen.
He’s an obedient, good, big boy. Soon the only sound in the house is him noisily slopping through his food.
“The bus looked terrible,” Claire says as I slump into a chair opposite her at the table.
“Like some flip job gone wrong,” I agree. The sadness of it all comes crashing down on me again. “It’s the end of an era and I’m not ready.”
Claire nods. “When a door closes, a window opens up, though.”
She’s got some strong positivity vibes going, but I’m not ready to receive them. “Except where the Marshall County library is concerned, this closed door might mean the whole house is ready to be demo-ed and all the windows dashed to pieces.”
“They haven’t exactly made it easy on you to run the library program, have they?”
I shake my head. “And I’m not giving up the fight. It’s just that I have no idea where to go from here. I’m tired.”
“Does Oliver have any thoughts on the matter?”
“I wouldn’t know.” He called me after I’d come home, grabbed Wilford and his leash, and started driving around. “He’s giving me space, like I asked him to.”
“I saw his face when you were leaving tonight,” Claire says. “Misery. Pure misery right there.” Claire’s talking about misery, but her face lights up. I never thought I’d see that from her where Oliver was concerned.
I lean back in my chair. “Did he say anything? Is he alright?”
Claire shrugs. “He didn’t say anything to me.” She rests her arms on the table, leaning towards me. “Sophie, why are you here in Longdale?”
If she’s trying to change the subject so I won’t be so distraught, it’s not working.
“Born and raised, Claire. Just like you.”
“Does it have to do with Mom?”
For a long time, it felt like everything had to do with Mom. Every decision, every feeling, had the essence of her woven into each thread.
I think for awhile. “You mean because she was an avid reader? That because she read to us, I became a librarian?”
Claire closes an eye and tilts her head. “That’s maybe part of it. But why are you still here in Longdale, in this house, when the man you’ve loved half your life has been somewhere else?”
I start to protest, and she cuts me off with her hand in my face. “Indulge me. I just want to know why.”
“He—” I swallow. “He’s only recently started to feel that way.” I peer at my fingernails. “Besides, this is my home. It’s where I belong. Where Mom should still be.”
“She’s still here. And I’m not just talking about her gravesite. She’s still watching over us, right? No matter where we go.” She sighs and then worries her lip. “Sometimes, I wonder if Grandma and Grandpa did us a disservice by moving into this house instead of taking us back to their place in Boulder.” She shakes her head. “I’m not ungrateful. That would have been incredibly difficult to lose mom and our house, neighbors, and friends all at once. And I know that’s why they did it. They wanted us to have some stability.”
Tears burn my eyes and throat. “I know. For all their…emotional distance…they did a lot for us.”
“Yes. They’re not warm like Mom, but they have their good qualities. Doesn’t mean we have to put up with the unfair treatment, though.” Her lips quirk up in a smile. “Boundaries, man. Am I right?”
My head aches. “They said something tonight, something about needing to sell the house,” I say. “If I didn’t stop working with the Tates.” I massage my temples.
