“You can do that. Later,” York quipped.
At that moment, the FBI agents moved forward, handcuffed Gary, and read him his rights.
**
Tiffany remained in her parents’ cottage for most of the day. Then, wanting to be alone, she went back to her own room for the evening. Her father told her not to worry about Gary’s belongings -he and her uncles would pack them up. And then on New Year’s Day, Gary’s Christmas gifts would be returned to the givers. She appreciated that.
Instead of going to dinner, she decided to walk around the grounds of the lodge. Hoping she didn’t run into any family members, she headed toward the park and sat on one of the benches. She recalled coming to this place a few days ago with Sloan to watch her twins play in the snow. The snow had melted, and the weather was cool but pleasant.
Suddenly, tears fell down her cheeks. She had promised herself that morning that she would shed no more tears, but she couldn’t help it. How could something she thought was so right turn out to be so wrong?
She had told her parents that she didn’t feel like attending Drew and Eden’s anniversary celebration and would remain in her room. She knew her large family had probably heard she had broken up with Gary by now. She didn’t want anyone asking questions because she didn’t have any answers. All the family knew was that she and Gary were no longer together. No one knew about his arrest. Pulling out a tissue from her coat pocket, she began to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Excuse me. Are you okay?”
She quickly turned at the deep male voice and saw a man standing there wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. He looked to be in his late twenties or so, and she tried not to notice how handsome he was. Because the logo on his jacket belonged to Mountain-Scape Lake Lodge, she figured he worked there. A part of the maintenance staff, perhaps, since he had a largegarbage bag in his hand and one of those litter grabbers snapped to his belt, as if he’d been going around picking up trash.
“I’m fine. Thanks for asking. I take it you work here.”
“Sometimes.”
She nodded, taking that to mean he was a part-time employee. She noticed a name on the jacket above the logo.Antwon. “Is Antwon your name?”
“Yes,” he answered. “What’s yours?”
“Tiffany.”
“Well, Tiffany, I don’t know why you’re sad, but can I give you some advice?”
She’d been getting bits of advice practically all day, so what would one more hurt? “Okay.”
He came closer, and in the lantern light, she could see that his features were striking. And he was tall -so tall that she had to tilt her head back to look up at him. Tall and nicely built. Her heart might be breaking, but she was still a woman who could appreciate a good-looking man when she saw one.
“It was advice given to me once by my older brother,” he said.
She nodded. “And what was this advice?”
“He said to trust the timing of your life. Some things are not meant to be. Goodbye, Tiffany.”
“Goodbye, Antwon.” And then she watched him walk away until he was no longer in sight.
PART THREE
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
-Albert Einstein
CHAPTER 30
“Surprise!!”
Drew and Eden walked into the lodge’s new dining room, only to discover it filled with the family members they thought had left earlier that day. It took them a while to get their bearings and realize what was going on when they saw their sons and daughters-in-law, strolling toward them with huge grins on their faces.
“We got you, Mom and Dad,” their oldest son, Galen, said with a wide smile on his face.
“But how? I was on the planning committee,” Eden said, shocked. “I knew everything that was supposed to happen.”
“Well, you thought you knew…” Gannon added, grinning.
