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“I haven’t finished telling you what happened.”Her smile was sad, and Maureen looked down at her hands.“The end of—” She caught herself.“Well, I guess it’s not the end, not yet,” she added.“It’s just what happened next.”
“Exactly.”Elise nodded in agreement.
“What about you?Do you know the end of your story?”
Maureen regretted the question as soon as it slipped from her mouth and Elise’s face fell.
“I’m sorry,” Maureen said quickly.“You don’t have to answer—”
“No.It’s fine.We’re sharing stories, and I’m happy enough to share all of mine.As it turns out, I do know the end of my story.”
Judging by her face, Maureen assumed it wasn’t a happy one.“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“That you didn’t get your happy ending.”
The skin around Elise’s eyes crinkled as a mischievous grin took over her features.“Who said I didn’t?”
She leaned forward in her seat, eager to hear the rest of her new friend’s story.“What happened?I don’t understand.Alex was married and—”
“It wasn’t a happy time.”Elise grew serious.“Cancer is an awful thing.”
Maureen’s heart fell and knew at once what had happened.
“You see, despite my private feelings, I’d grown to love Alex’s family as if they were my own.They were married forty years when Alex was widowed.”
“Oh.”Maureen’s hand fluttered to her chest.“That is awful.”
Elise nodded.“It was hard on everyone.Especially Susan.She had only just married herself.Such a tender time to lose a parent.”
“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been on everyone.”She reached across the distance for Elise’s hand.“And you.”
She smiled sadly.“I grieved in my own way, but I did my best to be there for them both.We’d always remained close.The best of friends.”She smiled with a private memory.“And over time…when Alex was ready…”
“You were together?”
The older woman smiled, and Maureen caught a glimpse of what a beauty she must have been when she was younger.She radiated with happiness and joy.“The love between us never died and after all those years, things had changed and it was a different time.Our relationship was more accepted by then.And for those who didn’t accept it, we didn’t care.We were in love, and the universe had conspired for us to finally be together.When Alex was widowed, it really hit home for us—life is short.There isn’t any time to waste.”
It was easy to see the love on Elise’s face, and Maureen could feel her new friend’s happiness radiating.“You got your happy ending.How excellent.”She clasped her hands together and smiled.A moment later, that smile slid from her face when Elise spoke again.
“Oh dear, I never said that was the ending.It was only the next chapter.”
“Do you ever regret the way things happened?”
Elise didn’t hesitate in her answer.“Not for a second.Our story wouldn’t have been the same had we been together all those years ago, and we would never have had Susan.I don’t regret anything.”
That was a good way to be.
Maureen thought about her own life for a moment.There had been times over the years when she’d wondered what it would have been like if things had gone differently, but that was normal.And after Harold left, maybe she could have looked up Adam then or tried dating other men.But she wasn’t ready.She needed to spend some time seeing the last of her boys raised and out of the house and then focusing on herself.If life had turned out differently, if she’d ended up going to Africa with Adam, she wouldn’t have her four boys and her wonderful daughters.There wouldn’t be little Clara and so many other grandbabies she knew she would have in the coming years.
She would have missed out on so much life.And what a wonderful life it was.
“I don’t regret anything either.Life has a way of working out the way it’s supposed to.”
“And is Adam supposed to walk in that door tonight?”
The question startled Maureen.She was saved from answering it when Elise spoke again.
