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“No, not all good. I caught Jared while he was at work and apologized, but he said he needed time to think.”
“Oh, come on. Clearly you were just overly emotional and jealous.”
“What? No. Why would I be jealous?”
“You were jealous because your dead husband sent a letter to someone you cared about but were afraid to face. He took the step for you and you feel manipulated.
Anna Beth frowned. Olive wasn’t wrong. “I wouldn’t call it jealousy. I just didn’t like that he kept this from me.”
“Would it have changed anything if he’d told you sooner? From what it sounds like, he was just doing what Ian asked. If he’d told you about the letters sooner, would it have brought you closer to Jared? Or maybe pushed you further away?”
“I don’t know. I think it would have been fine.”
“Really? You would have let yourself fall for Jared if you got a letter from Ian not just telling you he knew you always had feelings for Jared, but that he was okay with you being together? That wouldn’t have freaked you out and send you running out of Snowy Springs for good?”
Anna Beth considered Olive’s opinion. In the beginning, she’d tried fighting against her attraction to Jared. There had definitely been guilt attached to it. But if she’d read Ian’s letter before it would have felt...weird to date Jared.
“Fine, my husband hand picking my next boyfriend may have sent me running the other way. But that’s not the point. I know I want Jared. How can I get him to forgive me?”
Olive pulled three cups from the cupboard and set them on the counter. “Vance, coffee.”
“Can you bring it to me?”
“I’m not your mother, nor your girlfriend. Get your ass out here and get it yourself.”
Vance came around the corner in a pair of jeans and no shirt, looking rumpled.
“I was just asking,” he grumbled.
She poured him a cup and handed it to him. “Black, like your soul. Now that you’re here, how does Anna Beth get back into Jared’s good graces?”
“Nope.” He tried to leave the room, but Olive grabbed him by the back of the boxers. Anna Beth covered her eyes before she got a flash of Vance butt.
“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?” he shouted.
“Get back here and help us brainstorm.”
“Jared is my friend.”
“And I do that thing you like, so sit.”
Vance mumbled something about evil, but sat next to Anna Beth. “What did you do?” he asked.
“Questioned his integrity.”
“Ouch.”
Olive set Anna Beth’s coffee mug in front of her and the half-and-half in the center of the table.
“What you need is something that shows him how you really feel,” Vance said sarcastically.
“I told him how I felt.”
“Yes, but men are very visual,” Olive said. “What would be something you could do to prove to Jared you care?”
“I’ll think about it,” Anna Beth said.
“Oh, before I forget,” Olive said to Vance. “I need you to help me get my Christmas ornaments out of the attic before you leave.”
