Penny rushed to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, although she could hear only one half of the conversation.
“It was a gift from Penny’s father on their wedding day,” Fern explained. “It wasn’t the monetary value that made the brooch special. It was the meaning behind it.”
Kat sat motionless, too distraught to speak. She couldn’t even answer when Fern called her name, worry etched into her voice.
Finally, Kat managed to whisper, “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
And with that, she hung up the phone.
Leaning against her sister, she cried until she had no more tears left.
* * *
Jack rolled to a stop in front of the Windsor place and released a sigh. He’d hoped to spend a few hours alone with his thoughts, but Reed’s vintage VW van that he’d converted into a mobile flower shop sat at the end of the driveway.
Jack opened the passenger door of the truck, and Fitz hopped to the ground. He sniffed the air a moment before bounding behind the house, his tail wagging.
As Jack rounded the corner, he laughed when he spotted Reed squatting down to pet Fitz, only to receive a slobbery greeting.
“It’s nice to see you, too, buddy.” Reed scratched the scruff around Fitz’s neck before standing and wiping the slime from his face with his sleeve.
Fitz proceeded to roll around in a shallow puddle, caking his white coat in mud.
Jack groaned. That would take some time to scrub out.
“Hey, Fitz enjoys the dirt as much as I do,” Reed said with a grin.
“Don’t encourage him.”
“What are you two doing out here?” Reed asked, retrieving his sketchbook from the ground by his feet.
“I thought I’d pull up a few broken planks from the front porch before heading in to work. What about you?”
“Sketching out some landscaping ideas. I can tell there used to be an impressive garden back here at one time. And check out the gazebo.” He nodded toward a structure covered in wilted vines. “It’s still in pretty decent shape.”
“Great,” Jack muttered. “At least one thing in my life isn’t falling apart.”
“Meeting the family didn’t go well?” Reed led the way to the expansive back porch where he’d left a tall Coleman thermos.
“Actually, it went great. Until my dad offered Kat money.” Jack flopped onto the top step, watching Fitz dig a sizable hole in the middle of the backyard.
“What? Why would he do that?” Reed poured hot chocolate into a plastic cup and handed it to Jack.
“To tick me off, no doubt.”
“I’m sorry, man.” Using the thermos lid as his own cup, Reed settled a few steps down. “How does Kat feel about it?”
“To be honest, I was so caught up in my own stuff, I haven’t asked her.”
Reed nodded, contemplating Jack’s admission as he took a sip.
“It’s strange,” Jack continued thoughtfully. “It’s like my anger toward my dad blinds me from everything else. I don’t know why I let him affect me like that.”
“I get it. When I found out about my dad’s affair, I didn’t speak to him for almost two years. We’ve only barely started to patch things up.”
“What made you want to try?”
Reed stared into his hot chocolate a moment before answering. “For a while, I thought my anger was some form of justice for what he’d done. But it turns out, I wasn’t just punishing my dad. My whole family suffered.”
