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“That stuff you found in Remy’s closet is weird,” he said. He’d been thinking a lot about that too since Ismay and Bo had filled him in as they’d carried their stuff into Honey’s house. “Bo made it clear he’s concerned.”
“Having that hidden the way it was doesn’t look good, especially when the woman in the picture died such a tragic death.”
“Are you going to talk to the police about it?”
She sighed. “Do you think I should?”
“Someone should see if there’s any reason to be alarmed.”
Although she didn’t seem happy about it, she nodded. “I know. I just... It feels terrible to tell on somebody, especially when you’re not sure—”
“If there’s nothing to it, you can apologize after,” he broke in.
“I doubt the Windsors will ever accept an apology. I know Remy won’t tolerate that kind of betrayal.”
“So you have to decide if you’re completely finished with Remy first.”
“I don’t know about that,” she admitted.
“Having second thoughts?”
“Just need time to work through all my feelings—and what I want for the future. Everything turned around on me so fast.”
“Got it. We’ll leave it there, then.” In his mind, they were taking a day off from regular life and all the worries that went with it. “Did you get enough rest?”
“I think so. I don’t want the day to slip away. Things have been so crazy—I’m looking forward to feeling like I’m on vacation.”
“Thanks for inviting me out here,” he said.
She curled her legs underneath her as she took a seat on the sofa. “Do you mean that? For a while there, I was afraid you regretted it.”
“For a while there, I did. I wanted to be back home—but only if I could be with Ashleigh. Now I feel a sense of freedom I’ve never experienced before.”
She looked surprised by this revelation. “That’s probably both welcome...and terrifying. I was hoping you might be able to imagine a different life eventually.”
Clementine saw a butterfly outside the window and jumped down to bat a paw at it. “I’m getting there,” he said. “Now when I imagine the duplex where we lived, it doesn’t look nearly as nice as it did in my mind even a few days ago. When I imagine going to work on the farm, I suddenly remember the drudgery that made me feel trapped. When everything was taken away from me, panic welled up, and I desperately wanted it all back. Now the loss still hurts, but—” he stretched “—I actuallywantto go to the beach today.”
“That’s a start,” she said with a chuckle. “Recovery is often two steps forward, one step back. But we’ll get there. We’re going to have a great summer.”
He would never have believed that before. He still couldn’t see how he could actually behappyin the near future. But it felt as though a small candle of hope had been lit inside him and was burning way down deep. “What about you?” he asked. “How are you doing? You’re going through a breakup, too.”
“Mine’s very different from yours.”
“Don’t minimize it. You’ve been with Remy for three years. You thought you’d spend the rest of your life with him.”
“But I’ve had doubts about our relationship for a while. I just didn’t want to examine it too closely. We were doing everything we could just to finish our last year of school.”
“And now?” He grimaced. “You don’t think you’ll go back to him...”
“I’d be lying if I said it was easy to let go,” she admitted.
He sat forward. “That’s it! That’s how I feel. What you have may not even be what you really want, but it’s so damn frightening to let go.”
“Change can be daunting,” she agreed.
He watched Clementine sitting close to the window, studying the world beyond it, probably hoping the butterfly would come back. “I see the way Bo looks at you,” he said.
Ismay’s face flushed, but she gave him a shy smile.
