AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So,” Ruth began once they were seated, “Cass told me you were secretly married. I assume that’s why you’re here? And judging by the handholding, it’s going better than it was?”
“We’re working on it,” Hannah said. “But we’ve hit a stumbling block.”
“Is it the fact that you’resecretlymarried?” Rabbi Ruth asked, a hand on their walking cane. Hannah watched them stretch their bad leg out a couple of times before settling back into their chair. “Or the fact that you both still want very opposite lives?”
“It’s not a secret anymore, thankfully. Mostly the latter.”
“We don’t really know what to do with that part. The part where we want diametrically opposed things.”
Rabbi Ruth hummed, and Hannah wondered what that meant. “Do you? I wonder. Do you both want to remain married? Or to become fully married?”
Levi bit his lip and smiled a little sadly. “Nothing else has ever made sense to me, but that’s up to Hannah.”
Hannah nodded. “That’s what I’d like to work toward.”
“What would it take for you to feel ready for that?” Rabbi Ruth asked. “What would need to happen before you could say, yes, let’s commit to this for real?”
“I need us to face the hardest things about us, the fact that we feel opposite ways about our home, and our interfering families, and even our love story. The fact that we don’t talk to each other when things are scary and then get mad that the other person can’t read our minds. I need us to puzzle all of it out, no matter how uncomfortable it is or how scared we are and think of solutions. As a team. Because every time we’ve put it off or assumed that being in love would be enough, we’ve hurt each other.”
“We’re getting better at that,” Levi said. “Or we’re practicing.”
Rabbi Ruth nodded. “I think you’ve already done extraordinary work getting where you are, and I wouldn’t bet against you. Perhaps you can ask yourself, what things have you assumed to be true that might not be? What things have you needed in the past that you might no longer require? What coping mechanisms, or old ways of thinking, are no longer serving you in moving your marriage forward?”
They continued. “I’m sorry I don’t have a more immediate fix, or answer, for you. I can’t make a bullet-pointed slideshow of what you ought to do next. If it makes you feel better, all marriage is basically one day at a time.”
“I don’t actually find that comforting,” Hannah told them.
“And how are you feeling, Levi?” Rabbi Ruth asked.
A Cheshire cat grin unfurled on his face. “You just helped me more than you can imagine.” To Hannah, he said, “We have to go home. There’s something I have to do.”
She sighed. “Is it another damn Shenanigan?”
Chapter 21
Levi
The day after their date with the rabbi, everyone Levi knew, and several people he didn’t, were set to show up to watch him loseAustralia’s Next Star Chef. Before they got there, though, he needed to talk to his dad.
“I finally figured out what I need to do…which is what Hannah told me explicitly I needed to do, several times. But I need to do itbig.”
“What is it with you all and your grand gestures?” his dad kvetched. “Miriam and her painting. Noelle and her building a cabin.”
“Mine is better. Dad, I need your help with a Shenanigan.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Later, Levi addressed the small crowd he’d gathered in the barn before the screening. “Everyone, I’ve asked you here because Hannah and I spent many years having our relationship in a vacuum, and I don’t want to hide anymore. Is any of this any of your business? Probably not, but this is Carrigan’s, so this is how we roll. Cole is coming around with buckets of popcorn, and I will ask you to turn your attention to the screen.” He paused. “Dad, the lights and projector?”
Mr. Matthews nodded, turning off the overhead lights and turning on the projector that stood by the door.
Miriam brought out a microphone and set it to the side of the screen, giving Levi a thumbs-up before sitting next to Noelle and grabbing her popcorn.
“Babe, will you come up here?”
Hannah looked at him very skeptically but came to stand next to him. “You’re really going all in on this lack of privacy thing, huh?”
“Shh! Let me do my big ridiculous thing. It’ll be great. You’re going to love it.”
