AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She nods. She reaches for a napkin and wrings it in her hands. “If we’re being honest, I should tell you that I heard the rumors about Maeve and your mom. I guess I thought I was protecting you by not telling you.”
Hope wanted to protect me. The thought makes my heart swell. “Do four wrongs make two rights?”
She laughs, but the sound disappears too fast. “If you go public with this, they’ll come with pitchforks for Maeve.”
“I know.”
“Please don’t. I know I have no right to ask you that, but I know Maeve. You don’t know her full story, and you shouldn’t judge someone by her worst decisions. She’s ...” Hope turns the full intensity of hergreen eyes on me, and it’s terrifying how desperately I want to give her everything she asks for. “If you can’t trust Maeve, I understand, but please trust me. Trust me when I say she deserves the benefit of the doubt and she’s a good person who would never hurt anyone.”
A charged moment passes between us. “I trust you, Hope. I’ll keep this to myself.”
“Hey, Will?” A young waiter appears in the doorway leading to the kitchen. He has the shifty, nervous look of the kid who drew the short straw. “There’s a ton of food left over. Some of the guys want to know if they can take leftovers?”
“Of course. Everyone should help themselves.”
The waiter bobs his head in a grateful nod and disappears.
Hope’s shaking her head, a smirk playing on her lips. “Your boss really is a pushover.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who let a patient’s husband sneak a dog into the ICU.” I click my tongue in mock reprimand.
Her jaw drops. “You promised you wouldn’t tell!”
I make anXwith my finger across my chest. “And I won’t. Doesn’t mean I can’t bring it up whenever you question my judgment.”
She crosses her arms over her chest, feigning offense. With her back ramrod straight, her hair still pulled back from her face, and that light flush in her cheeks, she’s never been more stunning.
“How about we call a truce and you help me with one more thing?” I stand and reach a hand toward her.
She raises an eyebrow but puts a hand in mine. I grasp it and lift her up. We each take two bottles of wine from behind the bar and make our way to the kitchen. The waitstaff freezes as we enter, forks in midair, wine bottles lifted to lips.
Hope giggles at the dozen deer-in-the-headlights looks darted our way. I lift both bottles in my hand over my head. “Tonight, we eat and drink. I owe you guys for being here.”
Whoops and cheers follow my words. Hope’s smile is as wide as I’ve ever seen it as she uncorks a bottle and begins filling the empty glassesraised her way. For the next hour, we drink and eat and chat with the waitstaff. They regale Hope with stories about my leadership skills as I found my footing doing this inn-manager gig, and she laughs, fully and wholly from her core. The sound warms every place inside my chest. More than once, I catch her eye across the room, and I can’t help but think what it would have been like if Hope had been in my life before I left for LA.
Would I have gone? Would I have wanted to leave Kingsette? If I hadn’t left, would Darren be on his way to rehab and my mother MIA?
The answer doesn’t matter because we can’t go back in time.
Even if we could, Hope would have been with Brandon. She was his.
Around two, after we’ve cleaned up the kitchen, Hope and I are the only ones left.
“I’m starving,” she says, surveying the sparkling kitchen.
“Seriously?”
As if to prove her point, her stomach growls. A laugh roars out of me, and she turns toward the industrial-size freezer behind her. “What have you got that’s sweet?”
She opens the freezer door and peers in.
Heaven help me, I cannot resist coming to stand beside her, brushing my arm against hers. The freezer is embarrassingly empty.
“I’m a little behind on ordering things.”
She rummages around past the frozen meats and produces a carton of mint–chocolate chip ice cream. The colors are faded, and it’s crusted in ice crystals.
“Where in the world did you find that?” I take it from her hand, flipping it over to check the expiration date. “You’re in luck. Exactly six weeks until this baby expires.”
