Justine gulped past the heat rising in her chest. How much had she heard? Hopefully none of it. They’d been whispering after all.
Your secret’s safe with me—had she heard Becky say that? Justine would rather Brittany had heard the conversation in it’s entirety—the part that, in her mind, exonerated her. Justine hadn’t said she was engaged to impress anyone. And she hadn’t meant to let it go on so long either.
The warmth of the store would be a thing of the past once she stepped beyond the doors; Justine was counting on it. Her face and chest were fire hot. Her palms had broken into a sweat. And her heart and mind were racing at record speed.
At the exit, she pushed open the door with one shoulder, sucked in a breath of crisp autumn air, and willed it to put a stop to the chaos in her head. This had officially gotten out of hand. She needed to go find Gramps, tell him the truth, and ask him to…to what? Tell the town she’d had a fake boyfriend this whole time? Even worse—a fiancé that never even existed?
Just tell him the truth, Justine.
She hated the idea of hurting him, and if Gramps knew she had lied…A hot, stinging pain swelled in her gut.No.It would hurt too much.
The thing was, Gramps had lost a whole lot of his social grace over the years. At times his persistence had bordered on rude. Justine had chalked it up to his aging mind—the last thing he’d want to do is hurt her.
If anything, creating an online fiancé had been the kindest way to put it to rest. And it had done just that. With that one white lie, their relationship had gone from its strained state back to the loving, easygoing relationship they’d always had. Always, that is, until he’d become fixated on her single status.
It was settled then. She could not tell him the truth. It was too late for that. But it was high time she end the charade and tell Gramps that the engagement was off. It’d be easy enough to do. She could simply say the long-distance thing wasn’t working out.
Tension drained from her shoulders as her determination set in. She’d tell him it was off, and it’d behisjob to let the rest of the town know.
Justine set the groceries onto the passenger seat of her pickup as she settled in behind the wheel.
Trevor was really going to make the move, was he?
Justine hated that her mind shot to Trevor so quickly. But dang, he was the only guy she’d ever cared for in that way. And he’d picked Brittany over her.That’s why you shouldn’t want him anymore.
It was true. She shouldn’t. But who said shedidwant Trevor? What Justine wanted was the idea of him. A man whose ambitions didn’t take him out of the small town she loved. A man who wanted a family of his own one day. A man who’d known how to make her laugh.
Most folks in town knew how much Justine had liked Trevor. Heck, they’d dated during most of her senior year. That fact made her wish, at least on some level, that the whole fake fiancé fiascoweretrue. There was a list of townsfolk, as kind as they might be, who looked at Justine with pity in their eyes. The sad girl whose mother left her behind.
If Justine was anything, she was proud. She had been since she was little. A playground memory came to mind, one that also entailed Brittany.
“You keep saying your mom is going to come back, but you can’t ever say when. She didn’t even come back for Christmas. What kind of a mom does that?”
Tears pricked Justine’s eyes at the mere recollection. As if the pain and fear of rejection hadn’t been enough, girls like Brittany had to add humiliation to the mix.
As a child, Justine used to dream of the day her mom would show up, walk through the school doors, and attend her parent-teacher meetings instead of Grandma. The vision always came with a side of guilt; she loved her Grams, was grateful that she had a mother figure at all.
The situation at the grocery store had felt very similar to that. And that’s when it hit her. Justine had, unwittingly as it might be, set herself up for round two of humiliation for the whole town to see.
There would be no wedding, and folks would come to their own conclusions: One, that Justine never had a man in the first place, which was true. Or two, that she wasn’t able to keep the love of a man. They might even believe that she never would, which might also be true…
She’d reached the high-speed freeway before even thinking to turn on the heat. The stiffness of her fingers reminded Justine of how cold it was today. It would be a short-lived cold front, thank heavens. The temperature would shift back up to an average of seventy-two degrees for the weekend’s festivities. Perfect weather for all the outdoor fun, food, and games. When it got late, the temps would drop just in time for the bonfire.
She sighed. How many times had she seen Gramps cuddle up behind Grandma to warm her up by that fire?
The image was as bitter as it was sweet. She loved the way Gramps loved her. Was glad she had memories like those to cherish. But for the second year in a row, Justine wouldn’t have Grandma there with her magic touch, helping make sure the events ran just so. And Gramps, bless him, wouldn’t have his wife to cuddle when it got cool.
At least, she told herself with a nod, he had been well loved. That final thought, as pleasant as it might be, held hints of bitterness too. It led to a question she didn’t like asking, but one she couldn’t ignore forever: Would she ever know what it was like to be loved?
Chapter 3
Brittle sticks crunched beneath Burke’s patent leather shoes as he surveyed the wide stretch of uninterrupted land. So many possibilities; he’d have plenty of interest.
He inhaled a deep breath of crisp, pine-scented air and turned back to the local realtor who’d helped complete the sell a month prior. “This is good,” he said. “Just as my client hoped.”
“I have to warn you,” Lenny Foster said, shifting his weight from one foot to the next. “The town…they’re not going to take kindly to your client, whoever he is.”
They never did. Hence, the reason Burke preferred his anonymity. Something he maintained by playing the broker, not the new owner. In reality, he was both.
