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“Honestly, maybe some part of me wanted to follow his wishes because I was afraid if I gave you the letter, I’d lose you to him again. It’s not pretty or right, but it’s the truth. I did what he wanted because I love you and I didn’t want this to end. Guess I called that one, huh?”
She didn’t respond, just continued to gather her clothes and he released a shaky breath. “I’ll give you some space and drive you home.”
“Thank you.”
Jared collected some clothes from his drawers and closed the door behind him. The sound of Anna Beth’s sobs tore through him, ripping his heart to shreds. He took the stairs slowly, his knees weak. When he finished dressing in the living room, he sank onto the couch, his eyes stinging with tears. Jared sniffed, trying to hold his emotions at bay as Rip trotted over and put his head in Jared’s lap.
“Sorry, buddy. Guess I blew it again.”
Rip whined, pushing his nose into Jared’s hand. Anna Beth came down a few minutes later, wearing the sequin dress.
“You don’t have to leave in that. You can borrow some clothes.”
“I’m fine. It’s just a ten-minute ride.”
Jared got off the couch and slipped on his boots. He had his hand on the door knob, when he spun around. “Anna Beth, I really think we need to work this out.”
Her shuttered expression remained unmoving. “Jared, I don’t like secrets, no matter what the intentions behind them may be. So please give me some space.”
Jared didn’t have to be a relationship expert to know space was the kiss of death.
Twenty-Eight
Anna Beth sat at the kitchen table, Ian’s journal closed in front of her. The clock on the oven read five in the morning, but she’d never gone to bed. She’d been drinking coffee and wracking her brain for what Ian could had been thinking.
The letter Ian placed on the back cover of the journal lay on the table beside the envelope Ian sent Jared. She’d read Ian’s letter to Jared several times and she still didn’t understand.
Why had Ian singled out Jared? She’d talked about him over the years, but Ian knew they weren’t close anymore. It didn’t make sense for him to entrust a letter for her to someone she wasn’t in contact with. He could have picked Sarah or Olive. Why Jared?
“Anna Beth? What are you doing up?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Sarah, then back to the letters. “Pondering the intricate workings of the male mind.”
Sarah stopped next to her, dropping a hand on Anna Beth’s shoulder. “Have you been down here all-night?”
She nodded. “So far, nothing makes sense.”
“That’s pretty common. I think men feel the same way about us.”
“I am not complicated. I don’t hide things from someone I care about because some rando asks me to.”
“I see.” Sarah padded over and took her green floral teapot off of the stove and filled it in the sink. “Maybe you should tell me why men are so mysterious.”
Anna Beth held up the letter to Jared. “Ian sent this to Jared two years ago, with a letter entrusted to him for me. But this,” she held up the letter from the journal, “is a letter he left in the back of his journal. First off, why would he send this to Jared, who I wasn’t close to for years? And why do I need two final letters?”
“I guess it never occurred to you to read them and find out?”
“I’m supposed to wait until I finish my list,” Anna Beth grumbled.
“Do you really think Ian left you the list to make you miserable. What if it was a way to help you heal?” Sarah set the teapot on the burner and turned it on high. “How many items do you have left.”
“I need to watch a few more Christmas movies.”
Sarah sat down across from Anna Beth and Sarah covered her hand with her own.
“Anna Beth. I think Ian would be okay with you opening the letters.”
“But which one?”
