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“More than ninety girls have lived under my roof, honey. You think I don’t know the signs? You always been a real good liar - took me a long time to figure out your tells - but you ain’t good enough to hide love. He’s real handsome and kind as all get out. He the father of the baby you lost?”
“Yes.” Nina’s voice was barely audible.
“Tell me about him. Start from the beginnin’.”
Nina told her about the effect James had on her, how she wasn’t able to be intimate with anyone else, and that he’d confessed his love.
It felt good to talk about it with someone other than her amazing therapist. She still talked to Kelly every week on the phone but there was something about Miss Jeffries that had always soothed a tattered place inside her. As her voice trailed away, she stared at the quilt.
“Any reason you’re keepin’ everything so hush-hush?”
“At-at first, it was to protect myself. Then...it was Rowan.”
Miss Jeffries was one of the most perceptive people Nina had ever known. It didn’t take her long to puzzle it out. “Oh, Nina. She’d behappyfor you…”
“While she grieves the loss of her husband, shoulders the unfair weight of his death, prepares to be a single mother, and continues to deny her first love...yes, she’d behappyfor me. Howselfish, howcruelI’d have to be - for the second time in the course of our friendship - to take something that was snatched viciously from her hands.”
“Girl, you’ve lived your whole life in a state of penance. You hurt yourself over and over, deny yourself happiness...for things that were out of your control and human mistakes you made out of fear and loneliness. Honey, sheforgaveyou. That’s no small thing. Her pain won’t make her resent the love you found. Rowan knows more than anyone how much you need it...how starved you’ve been for it.” She sighed. “The real question is when do you plan to forgiveyourself?”
“I…”
“Nina,” James said from the door. “Mary-Margaret needs you to come. Rowan had a breakdown and...I think youmightneed to slap her around.”
“My best skill set.” Smiling at Miss Jeffries, she bent to kiss her cheek. “I’ll be back in a while.”
“You got lots of skills, honey. More than you think.”
Shaking her head, she stood, smoothed her hand over her top, raked her fingers through her hair, and turned to the door. “Time to beat up a pregnant widow.”
As she passed James in the threshold, he took her hand. In a low voice, he told her, “You and I need to have a talk, Miss Adams.”
Tilting her head, she said softly, “It’srudeto eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, Mr. Statton.”
He shrugged. “And yet, whatfascinatinginformation you learn when you set aside propriety.”
Snapping her teeth at him, Nina walked from Miss Jeffries’ house and across the road to the house Bennett built Rowan.
Mary-Margaret met her at the front door and explained her friend’s guilt. The older woman kept pace beside her as Nina strode purposely through the first floor and up to the second.
At the master bedroom, she said, “I’ve got it from here.” Walking inside, she closed and locked the door behind her. She could hear Rowan sobbing, talking to herself.
After taking several deep breaths, she entered the bathroom and leaned against the counter. Rowan didn’t notice that she was no longer alone.
Steeling herself to rough the pregnant woman up verbally, Nina said sharply, “Girl, get your drama queen ass out of there. We need to talk.”
For the next hour, she made her friend cry, blush, and listen to the truth about many things. When Rowan tried to turn the conversation to Nina’s reaction to the twin girls at Miss Jeffries’ place, Nina smoothly switched topics.
Then she led Rowan downstairs and watched with more than a little satisfaction as Gage took her off Nina’s hands and led her to the back porch.
The man she’d stolen from her best friend with twisted logic really had grown up. James stood behind Nina, his hands on her shoulders, as Rowan’s first love got through to the woman he loved in a way only he could have.
“Slow and easy, Gage,” she whispered.
James said, “He loves her, sweetheart. He’s going to handle her like spun glass.” He turned Nina in his arms. “Now it’s time forourtalk.” He took her hand and led her to a door on the opposite side of the kitchen. To Mary-Margaret, he called, “We’ll be in the basement training room. Call if you need me.”
Watching the backyard through the window, the older woman replied without turning, “This will help.” She shooed them away. “Now you two get your shit together because I’m sick of pretending I don’t know what’s going on. I swear to God, youth is wasted on the young.”
James laughed. “Yes, ma’am.” He kept hold of Nina’s hand as they descended concrete steps leading underground. Caged lights lined the walls.
