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“Well, well, what’s this we have here? Connor Darling, my sister-in-law’s precious, widowed son-in-law, with his dead wife’s best friend. Cadence, isn’t it? Whatever are you doing back in town? Whatever would my sister Paula say about this?” she said, sauntering over toward us.
I turned my body toward LuAnn and was about to say something to her when Cadence tugged on my arm again.
“It’s not worth it, Connor. Come on, let’s go.”
“Listen to her, Connor. It’s not worth it. I already know the truth. That there was something going on between the two of you. I mean, you’re always out at the Bentley farm since Gabe left. I’ve been watching.”
Of course, she’d been watching. She worked for the Willow Valley Gazette as their head reporter. I was sure this would make a wonderful story for her to write up. The same way she wrote about me after Ella died. She’d deny it forever, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it was she who had written the incredibly hurtful article. She’d tried to say Ella had been the victim of an unfortunate accident and that I’d been the instigator of it.
I could feel Cadence play with my wedding ring I still wore, and when I looked down and back up toward LuAnn, she too had noticed.
“Out with her best friend, but yet still wearing the wedding ring, I see? I’ll make a note of that for my article. I can see the headline now. “Poor Widow, Still Wearing Ring, but Dating Again.” she said, waving her hands through the air as she appeared to imagine the article title already written in the paper. “Or wait, perhaps, Best Friend Steals Her Dead Best Friend’s Husband. That has a better ring to it,” she said, looking at me. “Oh, isn’t that funny…ring to it.” She laughed.
Anger boiled through me as LuAnn stood there, still laughing away. I was just about to respond when I felt Cadence pull away. She threw her coffee cup down on the ground and bolted from my side.
“Cadence!” I called, but it did little good. She ran toward the direction of where we’d parked the truck. I glared at LuAnn, ready to fight her, but decided it wasn’t worth my time. We had done nothing. Instead, I took off after the person who was more important to me.
I finally slowed my pace as I caught up to Cadence. She faced the truck, standing against the door, and when I turned her around, she had tears streaming down her face.
* * *
I’d tried to talk to Cadence all the way back to her place, but she wouldn’t even acknowledge me. I’d planned to just let her cool off and hoped we’d talk once we were back, but she had other ideas. Instead of waiting for me, she bolted from the truck before I’d barely come to a stop. She ran up the front steps, opened the door, and slammed it shut. I waited a moment, but when the inside lights didn’t go on, I pulled away and made my way home. It was time to give Cadence some space.
Once home, I’d had half a mind to call Bill and Paula and tell them about tonight. LuAnn had zero rights to attack either of us the way she did. They needed to know about it, but once I thought of Cadence crying her eyes out, I didn’t. Instead, I crawled into bed and stared at the ceiling for hours.
It didn’t surprise me that Cadence didn’t show up or call the next day. I didn’t make a move to go to her place either. Instead, I worked on the ranch, and once I was finished, I hopped in the shower and got dressed for tonight. Cadence and I were supposed to make our way into town tonight to get her a Christmas tree. She’d even convinced me to get a tree. The idea at first sounded silly, but the more she spoke about it, the more it grew on me. It would be nice to feel the feelings associated with Christmas again. I just hoped that she’d gotten over last night and wanted to go, because I was looking forward to it.
I stood in front of the mirror, a towel wrapped around my waist, and ran my hand over my face, my wedding ring catching my attention. I looked down at my large hand, at the gold band that circled my ring finger. I’d worn that ring every day since we’d gotten married, never having once taken it off. I never took it off after Ella passed either. Instead, I wanted to remember all the times we’d shared, even if some hadn’t been that great. I rolled the ring around my finger, remembering last night, the words LuAnn and spewed. Instead of leaving it on, I slipped it off.
I gazed down at the tan line where the ring was supposed to be, remembering what LuAnn Billings had said about me out on a date with my dead wife’s best friend while still wearing my wedding ring. I walked into the bedroom and opened the small keepsake box on my dresser and dropped the ring inside, then I finished getting dressed.
* * *
“What about this one?” Cadence said, stepping up beside one of the pre-cut trees that filled Mindi’s lot.
I’d never been so happy when I pulled up outside of the house to see Cadence standing there waiting. She’d smiled and waved and ran over to the truck, climbing in. She’d sat down, turned and handed me a travel mug loaded with hot coffee, then leaned across the truck and placed a kiss on my cheek.
“That’s a nice one!” I said, grabbing it and pulling it forward so Cadence could get a better look at it.
“It’s really full too, and the perfect shape. It’s a little large for my place, but what about yours?” she questioned.
I shrugged. “I guess it would go nicely in the front room.”
“Sure would, right in the front window that your mom used to place the tree.” Cadence smiled. “Perfect. You get this one. I’m going to get that other one we looked at three trees ago,” she said, clapping her hands, going over toward the spot where we’d found the other tree. I yelled over to one of the young kids helping Mindi this year and nodded at him to come over.
Once the trees were loaded into the back of my truck, we made our way out to my place where I’d planned to just drop the tree on the porch. I’d deal with it once I got Cadence back to her place.
“No, you aren’t leaving it out here. Please, bring it inside. We can decorate it up,” she said, guiding me toward the front door instead of over to the side where I’d planned to put it.
“I don’t have any decorations down. Plus, it really should warm up first before we decorate it.”
“Nonsense. We take it in, get it in the stand. I’ll help you get the decorations. By then it should be warmed a bit.”
There was no stopping her. She opened my front door, and we carefully got the tree in my old tree stand. While she filled it with water, I took the stepladder and carefully pulled down a couple of boxes of my old decorations from before I’d been married.
With some Christmas music playing, I placed the lights on the tree, while Cadence poured us some pop and chips and brought them into the living room. Then, while I continued with the lights, she opened one of the boxes of decorations, carefully unwrapping them.
“The tree looks great already,” she said, as I flipped the switch, lighting up the tree.
