“Or maybe you just throw caution to the wind and do it anyway,” Will said.
Mac breathed out a disbelieving laugh. “You do remember what happened the last time I did that, right?”
Her sister was quiet for several moments. So long that Mac pulled the phone away from her ear to see if the call had dropped. Finally, Will said, “I had almost this same conversation with Avery, you know. Back when I didn’t know if Finn was stayin’ in Havenbrook for good, but I couldn’t dismiss the chemistry between us anymore.”
“Let me guess—she told you to get your freak on and rack up those O’s while you could.”
Will laughed. “Not exactly. She told me tryin’ is better than regrettin’. While it might end and it might hurt, none of that pain would compare to a lifetime of regret.”
Her words pierced Mac’s chest, burrowing into her so deep, she could feel them in her bones. She’d lived regret. Every day for the past ten years, she’d regretted her actions. Wondered if things would’ve been different for them if they’d kept seeing each other. Or if they’d confessed their feelings a few months prior. Or if she’d kept in touch. Or if she’d taken him up on the half-dozen offers he’d sent her to fly to where he was stationed so they could see each other.
Yeah, she’d been living with a lifetime of regrets, and she still felt the pain. So maybe her sister was onto something.
Her phone buzzed with an incoming text, and she pulled it away to see a message from Edna.
You feel like keeping me company today? I could use an alibi.
Oh shit.
“Will, I gotta go. Edna’s ’bout to do something to Earl.”
“I don’t have time to go to the police station today, Mackenna, so y’all better not get into trouble!”
“That wasonetime. And it was all her!”
“I’m just sayin’. I’ve got too much stuff piled up at work. Daddy’s been out of the office more than usual with appointments, so I’m playin’ catch up.Be good.And think about what I said.”
Before Mac could respond, Will called out a quick, “Love you!” and hung up.
And yeah…Mac was going to pass on the whole thinking about what Will said thing. She wasn’t quite ready for that—not when she could still taste Hudson on her lips, feel him against her body. Nope, she definitely didn’t need to spend any more time today in her head. What she needed was a distraction, and her seventy-year-old cohort was the perfect person to provide it.
What nefarious things do you have planned, and do I need to be worried?
Almost immediately, the bubbles popped up, indicating Edna was typing her response.
Earl’s getting breakfast with Betty Jo, so I’m gonna turn off his AC and leave a dead squirrel under his bed. We’ll see how the ladies like that…
Oh Lord, that woman was on a mission to a) make her ex-husband’s life pure hell and/or b) get herself arrested. Looked like Mac’s day had just been booked. She’d keep Edna out of jail, and in turn, Edna would keep Mac’s mind off Hudson. Win-win.
Pick me up in 5.
Mac ran upstairs, brushed her teeth, and threw her hair into a messy topknot. She yanked on jeans and a tank, then topped it with a flannel in deference to the chill that had finally settled over Havenbrook.
She flew out the door just as Edna’s mail truck came barreling down the gravel driveway. She screeched to a stop, dust billowing up around her, and called out the window, “Hurry up, honey! We don’t have a lotta time before that old fool’s gonna be back home.”
Mac slid into the seat and buckled her seat belt as fast as humanly possible. She’d ridden with Edna enough times to know exactly what kind of driver she was—like she was a seventy-year-old woman who wasn’t getting any younger and had shit she wanted to do. In this case, fuck with her ex-husband turned frenemy with benefits. “What’d Earl do now?”
“Stood me up last night for our standing weekly evenin’ plans.” Edna shot Mac a look over her sunglasses, her eyebrows waggling for emphasis in case Mac didn’t catch the suggestive note dripping from her tone.
“Did you check in on him? Maybe he wasn’t feeling well.”
“And this mornin’, he just happens to be out to breakfast with Betty Jo?” She snorted. “I was born at night, but not last night. Besides, you think I didn’t hear five times before eight this mornin’ exactly what he’d gotten up to?”
“He needs to find better friends who don’t narc on his every move.”
“It’ll never happen. I broughtmyfriends into our too-damn-long marriage, and I kept every last one of ’em when I left his annoyin’ ass.”
“Annoyin’, is he? Then how come you’re still seein’ him?”
