“Go ahead.Spit.” Jan looked amused.
Brynna actually considered it then slowly shook her head. But now her tears were flowing again. “I better go before—before they come out here. They didn’t see me, and I don’t—don’t want them to see me likethis.”
“You’re not fit to drive.” Before Brynna could protest, Jan took her keys. “Friends don’t let friends drive enraged.”
“But I—”
“Come on. Come with me.” Jan closed the driver’s side door, locked it, then took Brynna by the arm. “You can cool off, and we’ll come back for your car later.”
Without arguing, Brynna let herself be led to Jan’s bright red SUV. She climbed into the passenger side. “Nice car,” she mumbled. “Still smells new.”
“Of course. So do you remember I told you my trailer’s getting checked out at the dealership? I’m on my way to get it now. You can come with me.”
“But I—”
“They’re expecting me around ten thirty.” Jan started the engine.
“Then why were you at the nursery?” Brynna buckled her seat belt.
“I wanted to nab myself a pot of red geraniums—you know, to go with my new trailer.” Jan chuckled as she pulled out of the parking spot. “I thought it’d be fun.”
“Oh ... yeah. Sorry to distract you from it. Do you want to go in and get them?”
“I can do that later.” She drove through the parking lot.
“I just wanted some plants and flowers,” Brynna said glumly.
“For your little condo garden? Well, you can always come back later too. After you calm down.”
“I guess.” Brynna sighed. The truth was, she no longer had the slightest interest in her terrace garden. She looked down at her stained shirt, slowly shaking her head. “What a stupid mess.”
“Your shirt?”
“My life.” She took in a shaky breath. “And I was feeling so hopeful this morning.”
“So just because you saw your ex and his pregnant wife, your life is now a stupid mess?”
“Maybe mess is the wrong word. It’s off track or derailed or something. I’m sort of lost at the moment.” Brynna felt tears coming again.
“I guess we’ve all been there.” Jan’s tone softened. “I mean, feeling lost. And if we haven’t been there, we will be ... someday.”
“So you’ve been there too? Lost?”
“Of course. Burt and I weren’t together as long as you and Dirk, but I felt lost for a while as well. Actually, for a long time.”
She felt caught off guard by Jan’s transparency. Sergeant Bart had never spoken of her deceased husband. Brynna didn’t even know how to respond.
“To be honest, I never expected to be alone at this stage of life,” Jan continued. “It certainly wasn’t in my original plans.”
“But you seem okay with it.”
“Well, you learn to live with things. And I’ve learned I can live without a man. Like I said yesterday, I’ve come to like it.”
Brynna glanced at Jan. She probably wasn’t that much older than Brynna, but her no-nonsense short, graying hair and lack of makeup, combined with her mom jeans, clumpy tennis shoes, and baggy T-shirt—well, it all seemed to suggest she really had given up on attracting the opposite sex. Hadn’t she said as much just yesterday? Hadn’t Brynna said so as well? So why, just because she’d seen Dirk, was Brynna so upset now? Oh yeah, the baby thing. She felt the angry lump in her throat again. That dirty rat! Her eyes filled with angry tears. Why did he have to ruin everything?
“Don’t get me wrong, Brynna. I probably felt similar—at first. Like life had dealt me a bum hand.” She sighed. “Of course, my situation was different. And to be honest, I can sort of relate to Dirk because I never really wanted children either.”
“If you don’t like children, why’d you become a teacher?”
