Chapter 6
Aunt Sandy was sitting in her armchair reading a romance novel when Tara walked in the house. Tara had not planned on saying a word, but the second she was home, all the wound-up feelings rattled in their cages until she had to let them loose. She dropped her purse and ran across the room, dropping in front of Aunt Sandy’s chair and laying her head on her aunt’s knees. The tears she’d been holding in fell down, soaking into the fleece Christmas pants. “This is all your fault, you know.”
Aunt Sandy ran her fingers through Tara’s hair. “Most things are. What’s my fault, dearest?”
“Luke.”
Tara huffed out a laugh at Aunt Sandy’s sudden intake of breath and exclamation of joy.
“Don’t get too excited. He’s not what you think.”
Aunt Sandy went back to stroking Tara’s hair. “Is he a loser, a pervert or a murderer? Because he warned me he might be one of those. I think I can live with him being a loser, if I had to choose between the three.”
“Aunt Sandy, be serious.” Tara tried not to laugh, but it slipped out, making her heart hurt just a little bit less.
“What happened?”
“We’ve been talking. And we went out tonight.”
“It didn’t go well?”
Tara looked up. “It went so well,” she croaked out. And that’s what really hurt. All of the good seemed to be rubbed out now that she knew what Luke had been holding back. Once again, she felt sideswiped by information she should have known about before getting her hopes up. She hadn’t meant to hope again. She hadn’t meant to let Luke in. It just… happened.
Luke was right. The engagement had been a mistake, at least on Derek’s part. His heart hadn’t been free to give. But hers had been. She’d given her heart only to have Derek break it for everyone to see. What a fool she’d been. What a fool she still was.
“What happened?” Aunt Sandy prompted, bringing Tara back to the present.
“He’s a good friend of Derek’s. He admitted they were discussing me, what to do about me, the night Derek called and said he couldn’t go through with the wedding.”
“Oh, dear. This town is too small.”
“Right?” Tara sniffed. She should probably find some tissues before she rendered Aunt Sandy’s pants a soggy mess.
“But he likes you and you like him. Does it really matter if both of you know Derek?”
“Yes? I don’t, know. Maybe.” She hadn’t decided yet. Maybe her feelings about it didn’t matter. Maybe Luke confessed because he felt like he needed to make a clean break of things and then leave her alone.
Aunt Sandy lifted Tara’s head. “Alright, that’s enough feeling sad for one night. You know I saved tonight’s episode of Love Detectives for you, but I think we need to go do something to get your mind off things first.”
Tara was instantly wary. “What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, you’ll see.”
“It’s snowing outside. We shouldn’t go out driving in it.”
“I know,” Aunt Sandy said in a sing-song voice. “Go get your swimsuit on.”
“We are not sneaking into the Richardson’s hot tub again. We almost got caught last time and they have cameras up now. Nothing would make Mrs. Richardson happier than catching us red-handed.”
Aunt Sandy wrinkled her nose. “Fine. Fine. Ruin all the fun. Just throw on some cozy pajamas and we’ll find something safe and boring to do.”
Tara laughed. Aunt Sandy’s unpredictable whims were starting to get predictable, and nothing ticked the woman off more.
While Tara was changing, she was tempted to check her phone, but she resisted. It was on silent for a reason. She didn’t want to know yet if Luke had reached out, any more than she knew whether she wanted him to. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make decisions.
It was nice to change into warm fleece pants and a cozy top. Tara put her hair up into a loose ponytail and rubbed her face, trying to relax. The phone was still sitting there, and she plopped on the floor and stared at it for a while. Talking to Luke on the phone this week had been fun. Sometimes she would pull up their text thread and reread it just to put a smile on her face. Was it all for nothing?
There was so much potential there, but also so much hurt she was afraid to show him. His loyalty was to Derek. Luke wouldn’t want to hear about her side of things.
