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Twenty
Emilia wokewith a head full of regrets and the sense her life had well and truly unraveled. If a botched truth-giving mission wasn’t bad enough, the time on her phone stated 5:30 a.m. and there was no chance she’d fall back asleep.
She pushed her white cotton bedspread down her waist, and the cold morning air hit her exposed arms, all while the same thought played over and over in her mind. She shouldn’t have gone to Maynard’s!
Her thin nightgown lay in a pool of cream silk at the end of her bed. She crawled over and shrugged the garment onto her shoulders, today designated to hiding. If she were truly lucky, she’d find peace here at home, far away from the outside world where she tended to get into trouble… Well, as long as she managed not to pass out and require help again.
The quiet of her kitchen beckoned and so did a warm cup of tea, so she made her way down the house to boil the kettle. While she waited for the kettle, she stepped out into the brisk dawn air through her back door—a thick mist lingering in plumes of swirling vapor down the hill, the grassy basin below filled with early morning mystery and magic.
Something about that dancing opaque air and its slow-moving patterns painted a picture of unexpected beauty. It drew imaginings of fairies and gnomes taking one final frolic before the humans began their day.
She chuckled to herself and sank to the cold veranda boards, crossing her legs beneath her so she could enjoy the scene a little longer. This sprawling landscape made her troubles with Blaine seem so small. An entire world stretched out there, and she was just a tiny part of it, her freedom still largely unexplored.
A gust of wind nudged the detached piece of gutter still in a mangled heap at the end of her porch. Somehow that chunk of metal had unleashed more havoc on her life than she could already contend with.
Oh, don’t lie. I did this all to myself!
A bitter tang coated her tongue. That she had. She’d dragged Blaine and Sarah, and even Ally, into her whirling drama. For what? The tense stare-off between Blaine and Sarah, the woman’s lack of vengeance, plus his storming off again, left Emilia with the strong sense there was something she didn’t know.
A loud knock boomed across the house. She rose to her feet, careful not to push off her still-injured shoulder, eventually making it to the front door.
“Ally and I decided I should drop these off.”
Sarah waited on the door’s other side, a lopsided smile on her face, and Emilia’s car keys dangling from the tip of her finger. Emilia’s heart twisted, and her stomach churned. So much for hiding!
“The pub’s closer to your place, and I had to get up early for the breakfast shift, anyway.” Sarah’s head tilted to a spot behind her, where Emilia’s rusty clanger now waited on her driveway.
“Ahh.” She cleared her throat and shook her head, trying to get her brain into gear. “Thanks. You didn’t have to trouble yourself.”
Sarah shrugged. “Seriously, no big deal, I like a morning run, and the bar’s an easy enough journey from here.”
Emilia trekked her gaze down Sarah’s fitted fuchsia sports jacket and moss green leggings. Even in activewear, the woman looked a picture of strength and Amazonian beauty.
Not content with being idle, and in light of Sarah’s kind gesture, Emilia pushed the door wider in an invitation for this woman to step in. “Are you sure? I’d be happy to get changed and drive you to Maynard’s.”
“Hmmm…” Sarah sent forth a dubious side-stare. “Okay, but only if you let me get you breakfast when we get there.”
Emilia raised her brows, still not sure why this woman insisted on being so kind to her, given her confession and immature showdown at Maynard’s. And the fact she wasn’t unkind, again shot holes through her theories of Blaine being a coldhearted cheater.
Sarah pushed past and into the hallway. “Are you feeling better today?”
Emilia gave a nervous chuckle and entered her bedroom, leaving her door ajar so they could keep talking. “I’m okay, but I really shouldn’t have drunk so much. I’m sorry about my lapse in judgment yesterday. As you can see, I’m not adjusting well to the whole independent country living thing.”
She pulled on a pair of jeans and a red, cable-knit sweater. By the time she stepped out to the hallway, Sarah leaned against a wall, her posture annoyingly relaxed. “No need to apologize. You didn’t have all the details, and as far as I’m concerned, you made an honest mistake.”
Emilia frowned, even as a flutter of hope unfurled deep within her chest—because of course, she wanted to believe Blaine didn’t have it in him to lie—even if that made her outburst yesterday uncalled for.
“I don’t understand.” Her mouth ran dry, and she took a prolonged swallow, delaying whatever news awaited her because even the best-case scenario meant dramatic things for her. They meant her suspicions about Blaine were wrong, which meant she’d have to face her feelings for him and do something about those feelings. “Does that mean there isn’t something between you and Blaine?”
Sarah peeled away from the wall and ushered Emilia outside. “Well, there is something, but life isn’t always so simple, now is it?”
Emilia paused on the veranda’s edge while Sarah spun around from up ahead, her shoulders slumped and expression gloomy. “We tried to make it work, but…”
“But”—Emilia’s stomach churned—“you’reboth engaged, right?”
“Were engaged.” Sarah lowered her chin and shook her head at the ground. “I tried really hard to hate you at first, but if I’m honest, you didn’t do anything wrong and neither did he. Blaine’s a good man, Emilia. Maybe too good, sometimes. As in, so good he’d ask a woman to marry him out of some misguided sense of right and wrong.”
“Why would he do that?”
