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Epilogue
Six months later...
Ellen was at her desk when Lynn came into the office. It was rare that they were alone together. For the most part, Ellen was careful to avoid Hendrix’s aunt. It wasn’t so much that she was holding a grudge over the past as it was a lack of emotional trust. She didn’t want there to be any problems between them.
But Lynn had been making an effort to improve their relationship as time went by. Ellen had to give her that. She guessed it was partly for the success of the business, since Fetterman had bought her company sixty days ago and they all worked together now. But it was also probably because Hendrix and Leo remained so staunchly loyal to her. Lynn didn’t want her son and nephew to move on without her.
Ironically, although Stuart wasn’t her father, Ellen was growing to love and respect him more than ever. She thought he should stand up to his wife more often than he did, but if that was the worst thing she could say about him, she figured that wasn’t so bad. He was kind, consistent and easygoing. He was also fair when it came to the business. She got along great with him and Hendrix, and she worked with them most often, so she had no regrets about selling out and joining their company. She had more money than ever before, she and Hendrix were living together at her place and selling his, since she didn’t have a mortgage, and she no longer had the stress of worrying about whether she was getting enough jobs to cover the payment on her drill. One day in the next two or three years, she’d have enough saved to be able to quit drilling altogether and open her own used furnishings store.
Lynn walked over to her. “Hello.”
Ellen’s truck was in the drive. Lynn had to have known she was at the office, so...why had she not waited until Ellen was gone to do whatever she needed to do? Although Ellen came to the meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, she went into the field directly after and didn’t return until Lynn had left, around four. Then she did her paperwork and put it on Lynn’s desk so Lynn could handle the ordering and billing and if Lynn had questions, she’d attach a sticky note to whatever it was and return it to Ellen’s desk.
That process had been working well for them; Ellen saw no need to change it. But she smiled, as though she wasn’t instantly anxious at the prospect of being alone with the woman who’d been so unkind to her.
“Hi,” she said before going back to figuring out the amount and type of supplies she’d need to bid on a job one of their clients had referred to them.
“How’s your day going?” Lynn asked.
Surprised Lynn didn’t simply sit down and get to work, Ellen looked up again. “Good. Yours?”
“Not so bad. I got Leo into that ceramics class.”
“At Shirley’s?”
“Yeah.”
Ellen had put an advertisement she’d found posted on the bulletin board at Talulah’s diner on Lynn’s desk. She’d known as soon as she saw it how much Leo would enjoy doing something like that. “I’m glad. He’s going to love it.”
“I think so, too.” She walked over and filled a cup with water from the cooler. “How’s your mother?”
Ellen pulled her gaze away from her work once more. “She’s...fine.”
“Still working for your old boss?”
“Yeah. I actually think they might be dating. Can you believe that?”
Lynn chuckled. “That’s lucky, since you think so highly of him.”
It meant she didn’t have to worry so much about Jan. She was grateful for that. And even though their relationship had been strained since the DNA test which had revealed her affair with their onetime neighbor, they’d been talking fairly regularly again. Her mother was the way she was. There didn’t seem to be any point in holding something she’d done thirty years ago against her, especially when Ellen was happier than she’d ever been. “Ross is areallygood man.”
Lynn took a drink of water. “What are you and Hendrix doing tonight?”
“No plans. We don’t go out very often midweek.”
“Would you like to come over for my polenta and chicken salad?”
Ellen had no idea what to say. Typically, she let Hendrix visit his aunt and uncle and do dinner and other things with his family on his own. He’d tried to invite her occasionally, but she’d always managed to come up with an excuse, and she’d never received an invitation directly from Lynn. “That’s the salad you sent home with Hendrix a few weeks ago, isn’t it?” she asked, stalling while she tried to think.
“It is. I sent the leftovers, and he said you loved them.”
“I did,” she said. “That salad’s delicious.”
“So...you’ll come? At six?”
Ellen hesitated. She was trying to think of a polite way out, but she was afraid Lynn would be able to see through any excuse she offered. “Um, yeah, of course—as long as Hendrix doesn’t have something planned that I don’t know about.”
“I already talked to him. He said he was open to it if you were.”
