“That’s great.” Wynn offered a watery smile. “Anybody I know?”
“Nope. We’re planning to go to the Halloween parade together, so maybe we’ll bump into you.”
“Yeah. I’ll be there with the kids.” She bit off addingand Judd,which normally accompanied a statement like that.They always went to the parade together, but maybe they shouldn’t. Dorothy had a really good point. Keeping Judd from finding someone else not only wasn’t fair to him; it was selfish. She’d been unselfish for so long. Was it really that bad to enjoy this time with him? Even as she asked herself the question, she knew the answer—she just wasn’t ready to look at it yet.
Dorothy pushed off the table and dusted off her hands. “Listen, I have to get over to the Big Barn and set up for bingo. Centerpieces aren’t going to make themselves.”
“Centerpieces?” Wynn desperately pushed away her thoughts and grasped on to the conversation.
“Yeah, I have a million tiny pumpkins. I want to tie ribbons and twine around the stems and set them out. Bingo night is a big draw, and I wanted to add something new.”
“I like it. My in-laws will be there. They never miss.”
“Come on over if you can.”
“Maybe I will,” Wynn agreed, even though she knew she wouldn’t make it. She’d promised Birdie the next two nights off if she didn’t tell her parents about what she’d seen last night. It meant Wynn would work all day and she’d need Judd to take the kids, but she didn’t think he’d mind.
She really needed to talk to him.
“I’ll see you around.” Dorothy waved as she walked away.
Wynn dropped her head back. Customers milled past her tent, peering in but not stopping. She hadn’t taken down the wall between her and the honey girls, and there were boxes strewn about that needed unloading. She set to work, getting everything in place and putting off the conversation she needed to have with Judd.
She didn’t want to end their kissing arrangement. It was fun and made her feel alive and free and even giddy. But she couldn’t justify continuing on this path when it was a dead end.
Once she didn’t have an excuse not to call, she dialed his number—holding her breath.
He answered on the fourth ring. “Whaaaaaat’s uuuuuuup?”
His goofy greeting brought tears to her eyes, because she realized in that moment that no matter what promises they’d made about kissing not ruining their friendship—it was going to change.
She sniffed and pulled herself together. He had no idea what she was about to throw at him. “Listen, I know I said I was okay with—” She turned her body away from the opening. “—kissing and all that, but I’m not.”
Silence.
“I think we should go back to the way things were before.” Yeah, like that was possible.
He covered the mic. She imagined him throwing colorful words around. She didn’t blame him. She had a few she wanted to toss out as well. This sucked.
“I shouldn’t have put you in this position. I’m so sorry, Judd.” Tears spilled over in record time. Her heart ached and tore and fell to the floor like Laney having one of her meltdowns. The organ just didn’t know how it was going to go on beating after this horrible turn of events. “Don’t worry about the kids. I’ll get Anders to watch them or something. You should hang out with friends, enjoy the festival and stuff. I’m sorry we’ve taken up so much of your time.”
“Whoa! What are you saying? You can’t take the kids away from me.”
She bit her knuckle and breathed deeply to maintain a semblance of control. “I’m trying to give you your life back. You know, before everything happened.”
“I don’t want that life. I hate that life. I want you and the kids and movie nights and getting caught making out and all of it—Wynn, I want to marry you.”
She pressed her hand over her mouth to cover her sob. “I can’t give you what you want.” She closed her eyes, tears falling. “I can’t. I gave everything to being married, and I don’t have anything left. I’m sorry,” she whispered before hitting theendbutton. The red circle remained on the screen for a moment, like a punctuation mark telling her that this was the end of her time with Judd.
She crossed her arms over her chest to hold herself together.
“Excuse me?” asked a customer.
Wynn swiped her hands over her cheeks and pasted on a smile. “Yes?”
The woman paused, taking in her red-rimmed eyes and probably messed-up makeup. She smiled softly. “I was just wondering about the string pumpkins. Did you make those?”
“I did.” Wynn’s voice grew stronger as she explained the process of soaking the string in sugar water and wrapping it around two small balloons taped together to get the right shape.
