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“No, we can move in there,” Sam said. He circled Lily’s waist with an arm. “Would that be okay?”
“Sure,” January mumbled. She glanced longingly at the door and fearfully towards the hallway down to the kitchen, like it was a snake pit of no return that she was being asked to enter.
“I have a great idea,” Lily suddenly said, all eagerness.
Tavish wasn’t sure if there was hope to be found in whatever Lily’s idea was, but he was willing to embrace it. What kind of hope he was looking for, he wasn’t sure. January had made up her mind to leave. Whatever happened in her marriage, or maybe whatever didn’t happen, had set her mind. Maybe it had nothing to do with her marriage. Maybe it didn’t even have anything to do with him. He had to admit that they were basically thrust together through the machinations of others.
Asking someone out for dinner was a lot different than saying you were fated mates with entwined destinies and implying that you’d really like to spend a life together, or at least work towards seeing if that was possible.
“What’s that, my love?” Sam kissed Lily’s forehead. They were never shy about their affection for each other. It never made Tavish uncomfortable, but it did make his throat sting now. How was it that he hadn’t been worried about finding anyone and was comfortable with being alone just a week ago. Whereas now he was getting choked up and wistful seeing two people in love?
Maybe love was like that. It made things lonelier before they were ever better.
“I said I pushed my classes back to this afternoon.” She smiled brightly at January. “Would you like to come to the school with me for it? You could meet our boys and a whole bunch of other great kids.”
“I really should probably—”
“I’m sure that Tavish would love to have you for dinner at his place, so you can discuss things before you head back to Phoenix. Don’t worry if it gets late and you’re scared to drive back to the city. You could stay here in our guest room.”
January looked like she’d rather eat the business end of a thistle. “Oh, I’m fine driving in the dark. I’m not worried about that.” She studied the floor. It was pretty clear what she was worried about.
“I won’t try to convince you to change your mind,” Tavish promised. “But if you would do me the honor of dinner and a parting conversation, I’d appreciate it. I promise dinner won’t be interrupted by untimely shifting either.”
He’d never heard such a gravelly throat clearing. “Alright.” That one word had never sounded less certain, and he vowed that he’d stay true to his word and no matter what it might cost him in the future, no matter how much missing or heartache or grief, he’d make good on his promise not to try to talk her out of or into anything.
Chapter 12
January
“Oh goodness, this is too much fun.”
January loved every single smiling face. Children were wonderful. She loved her nephews, but she didn’t have much of a chance to interact with them on a regular basis, so it made her happy to be included in the dancing.
Sam and Lily’s oldest son, Leo, helped out with his younger brothers. By helping out, it really meant trying to corral their wild enthusiasm for line dancing into real steps, not the hurricane blurs of wild, laughing, shouting energy that they wanted to be instead.
“Very good!” Lily encouraged. She’d just run through basic steps, and because she was a genius at what she did, she had most of the kids in the room lined up. They ranged in age from toddlers to teenagers. The older kids had been paired up with the younger ones to help.
“Not like that, Rowan. This way.” Leo demonstrated the first steps. “Don’t be silly. Come on. I know you can do it.”
“But I want it to go like this.” Rowan took a crouched stance and waved his arms madly.
Lily looked up from the pair she was helping and laughed. “That’s a wonderful interpretive dance, Row, but not the steps to this one.”
“We’re supposed to be learning this one,” Leo insisted. He wrinkled his nose at his younger brother, but he was encouraging too, and demonstrated the first few steps, taking a few and then turning and kicking up his heels “It’s not that hard.”
Rowan studied Leo for a second, then finally nodded. He executed the steps perfectly, then crouched down again and swung his arms madly.
Lily and January both burst out laughing. “Goodness. So much energy at that age,” January said when Lily walked past her. She felt a little bit out of place just hovering around in the school’s small gym where the dance classes were held, but it wasn’t as bad as when she’d first arrived.
After tea and cookies, Tavish and Sam took a walk, which was probably code for giving the women some alone time to talk. Lily was gracious enough to let January help her clean up the kitchen and tidy the house instead of talking about things she didn’t want to talk about. Namely the future or the past. Or the present. It seemed she didn’t have answers for anything.
Except one thing.
After seeing Sam and Lily together, she finally understood what had been missing in her marriage. She understood why she’d felt compelled to change things.
She’d always thought that she’d loved Jotham and that he loved her. There were obviously different kinds of love, and her marriage had been more of that best friend love right from the start. Even when they were dating, that fire that she’d expected to feel had always been missing. She loved Jotham’s intelligence, kindness, and overall goodness. Physically, they never burned bright, but they weren’t cold either. They were always just somewhere in the middle. There was never any of thoseI would die for this personfeelings, and she couldn’t speak for Jotham, but she thought she could say with some real certainty that there had never been that on his end either.
“January!” Emma, the only little girl in the class, had recently moved to Greenacre when her mom fell in love with one of the men and they’d started a life together. Lily had explained that Glendy owned the small store on main street. She’d offered a super short history of every child there.
