Page 103 of Fall Love

My business. My heart. My life.

Oh God, my life. I’m going to be a single mother without a job in a house too small to raise a child.

The overwhelm overshadows any tears.

I don’t know what I’m going to do.

And I don’t understand why it hurts so much.

“Because you loved Dad,” Lumi says softly, and I realize I might have said a few things aloud.

“And you love Tate,” Isolde adds.

I didn’t. I couldn’t.

But I did.

The tears finally leak, and I’m not certain they’ll ever stop.

Lumi suggests I spend the night. I can’t go back to Tate’s house, and I can’t go back to mine yet, either. I just want to hide here a little longer.

Once upon a time, we’d share a bed if I stayed over. Sometimes, all three of us would climb into Lumi’s bed, like we did as teenagers. Half the time, I’d end up on Lumi’s lumpy couch because three adult women in a bed isn’t as fun as it used to be.

But that night, I sleep in Danny’s room. His masculine presence still permeates the space. His teenage scent lingers, although it’s been almost five years since he’s lived here on any permanent level. Faded posters hang on one wall. The double bed has a dark comforter.

Despite Wren easily sleeping almost anywhere, I don’t sleep at all.

I just lay there and stare at her, across the room in a baby bassinet Lumi still had from when Danny was a baby.

I let my mind race.

About our future. What I’ll do for work. And how one day, even Wren will leave me.

She’ll go to college like Danny did, and get a great job somewhere outside of Maine, and probably never want to come back to Lovewell Landing, when I’ve never wanted to leave this place.

Maybe it’s time for me to go somewhere. But where? I love it here. My sisters are here. My business is . . .

I sigh and flop onto my back, staring up at a poster of some hot teen starlet, positioned over the bed.

I do not want to think about what my nephew did as a teenager with that image above him.

“Fidgety sticks,” I grumble as the ache of betrayal and the weight of being overwhelmed return, and more tears begin to fall.

CHAPTER 37

[Neve]

I’d love to say I have clarity the following morning, but I don’t. Instead, I have thirteen missed phone calls from Tate and too many text messages to count.

While my sister continues to stare at me and offers to take the day off from work, I tell her to go instead. She has a life. She might as well live it.

“I’m going home,” I tell her. I need my own space to think. To plan. To decide what’s next.

My first intention is to return to Tate’s house and collect the few belongings I have there. A smattering of clothes and toiletries. And Wren’s things. But then, I realize he bought those items for her, for his house.

I’ll just need to start over, just like with everything else.

As I drive toward Lovewell Landing, needing to pass through town to get to my place, I suddenly feel the need to turn down Love Lane.