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LETTIE
We finishedup breakfast and went to Green Gables to check on Debbie. It wasn’t unusual for your doctor or veterinarian to make house calls or to be available on call at all hours of the night, because in Aveline, everyone was your friend. I knew this when I decided to settle down here and when I eventually took over the clinic from Teddy. I wanted the sense of community and village that Aveline had, and I was willing to work odd hours or endure sleepless nights to make sure my friends—who had become my only family—were taken care of.
Darcy and I entered the inn, both of us pulling off our gloves and shoving them into our coat pockets. There was always a warmth the moment you stepped through the door, and it had nothing to do with the crackling fire in the living room. It was the feeling of a cashmere sweater, or being wrapped in the soft feeling of silk, a hug from your favorite person in the world.
The lingering smell of breakfast hung in the air, and I walked toward a wall at the end of the dining room. It was tongue and groove and painted white. But that wasn’t what made the wall so special. It was called Lover’s Lane and was filled with engraved names of couples and lovers who had stayed at Green Gables throughout all of its years. These names were etched into the wall, taking up permanent residence and memorialized forever. At the top of it, chiseled slightly bigger than all the others, were the names “Anne and Gilbert.” I’d loved that the first time I’d seen the wall. Anne and Gilbert were my favorite fictional characters for as long as I could remember, so the Inn was a special place for me. But now, when I came into the dining room and made my way to Lover’s Lane, those weren’t the names that I traced with the pads of my fingertips. The names were smaller, and ones that I couldn’t seem to pull away from no matter how hard I tried.
Lettie and Tuck.
Two names scored into that wall with a dinner knife one evening over twelve years ago.
Millie’s voice came behind me, and I jumped. “Lettie! Thanks so much for coming.”
I placed my hands behind my back as though I had just been caught doing something I shouldn’t have. “Hey! Millie! You look beautiful today, as always.”
Millie blushed. Her black hair and dark skin were the perfect combination with the red, off-the-shoulder sweater she was wearing. Style and beauty were effortless for her.
“Aww, you’re too sweet. Thank you. You both look stunning as usual.”
A moment later, Debbie walked into the room. Her belly was swollen with her pregnancy.
“Hey, girl. Come here honey.” I bent down, and Debbie walked over to me slowly. Her ears hanging so low, they were almost dragging the floor.
Millie crossed her arms over her chest. “Henry is still denying that Duke had anything to do with this, but who else would it have been? I wasjustabout to have her fixed too. You know I was, Lettie!”
“I know you were.” I pulled out my stethoscope and began listening to Debbie. Millie was still talking. People did that all the time. They would talk while my ears were plugged with my stethoscope, not realizing I couldn’t hear a word they said. When I took it out of my ears, I placed it around my neck and heard the end of her sentence.
“We’ll just see when they’re born if they look like a lab, ya know?”
I was palpating Debbie’s stomach, nodding and grunting an agreement, when I heard footsteps enter the room.
The voice was deep and gruff. “Hey, Mills, the couple staying in The House of Dreams room said the float was stuck on their toilet. I fixed it for now, I didn’t think you’d mind, but we might need to replace the flapper chain, it looked a little short.”
There was something in that voice that was eerily familiar. My hand was frozen in place, and I couldn’t make myself look up. I didn’t want to see who the voice belonged to, even if it meant I couldn’t reassure myself that it wasn’t who I thought it was.
It couldn’t be.
He wasn’t home yet. He wasn’t in Aveline yet, and he wasn’t at the Inn helping Millie fix toilets.
Everyone was quiet, and the air became so thick, I was struggling to breathe. My head was still lowered, focusing on one of Debbie’s claws, and I still refused to look up. Honestly, at that moment, I had convinced myself that I never needed to look up again. I could keep my head down, my gaze focused on my feet. I wouldn’t trip—could possibly run into something, but it was a risk I was willing to take. I thought I knew the Inn well enough to navigate just by the legs of the furniture.
Seconds felt like hours as I contemplated a way to quite literally crawl from the dining room without anyone noticing when I felt a nudge from Darcy’s foot in the side of my rib.
“Ow,” I muttered under my breath, and Darcy darted her eyes from me to him.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry and scratchy, and I stood up slowly. I kept my head down, not wanting to face what I knew to be true. Darcy elbowed me in the ribs, and I shot a pained look at her. Before I knew it, I had turned my face toward the man standing at the doorway.
And then I was staring straight into the eyes of Tuck Anderson.
Those gray eyes that had made me fall for him within a matter of minutes all those years ago.
“Lettie,” he said.
“Uh. Nope.” The words tumbled from my mouth right before I turned so quickly that my shoes squeaked. Then I ran straight out the door and down the road.
SEVENTEEN
2005
