Logan shook his head, but didn’t say anything, as he began gathering pieces of glass. Erin did the same. Once the large shards were cleaned up, she grabbed the broom from the walk-in pantry and started sweeping.
Erin was emptying the dustpan in the trash when Aunt Betty rushed into the kitchen. “Oh, there you are. I saw the kids on the porch swing eating cookies and was sure they snuck them while you weren’t looking.”
When Erin didn’t answer, the older woman’s eyes wandered to where Logan stood, his posture tight. The woman’s usually cheery face fell. “Well, this wasn’t exactly how I had hoped you would find out,” Aunt Betty said, more to herself than to either of them.
Erin wrapped her arms around her waist. This was it. Logan was back, and Aunt Betty was kicking her out. Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she tried to keep it together.
“How long do we have?” she asked at the same time that Logan muttered something that sounded an awful lot like, “You didn’t tell me it wasErin Carlisle,” under his breath.
Logan stormed out of the kitchen toward the front door.
Erin had a hard time meeting Aunt Betty’s eyes and couldn’t force the words out again. The room felt too small, the air too heavy. “I’ve got to get these things to Good Eats. I’ll see you later,” she said.
She ignored Aunt Betty’s protests and the remaining dishes on the counter, as she loaded up her beat-up station wagon with desserts in record time and got her kids buckled in. She wasn’t sure what to do now that Logan West was living at Aunt Betty’s. All she knew was she had to get out of there.
Erin lingered at Good Eats long after delivering her desserts and treated the kids to an inexpensive dinner of hot dogs and fries. As the meal wore on, her initial shock subsided, but didn’t leave entirely. It was difficult seeing Logan after all these years. He’d disappeared right before her wedding, leaving an empty place where the best man should be. He hadn’t even bothered to come back when Jake died. She had so manyquestions that she wasn’t sure she’d actually be able to ask.
When she pulled up to the house an hour and a half later, the light in the guesthouse was on. She could see the silhouette of someone walking around inside through the curtains. It had to be Logan. At least she’d be able to get her kids inside without having to speak with the man who was the reason she’d be moving. She quickly ushered her children inside and upstairs to their rooms.
“Let’s get you under the covers and tucked in snug as a bug in a rug,” Erin said to Samantha and Parker after they finished brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed. She wrapped the covers tightly around their small bodies.
“Can we pray tonight?” Parker asked.
Erin looked out their bedroom window at the stars that shone in the early evening sky. It had been almost a year since she’d led the evening tradition with her children—not since Jake’s death—but she nodded, pushed the pain aside, and folded her hands in her lap.
Parker’s voice was timid as he spoke. “Dear God, thank you so much for Mama. She makes the best desserts in the whole world. And thank you that Daddy is in heaven and doesn’t feel any pain anymore. And thank you for Aunt Betty, who I know isn’t really my aunt, but lets us live with her anyway. Amen.”
“Amen,” Erin echoed.
Erin lifted her brows at Samantha. “Would you also like to pray tonight?”
Samantha shook her head. Like Erin, her daughter had stopped praying shortly after Jake’s death. She wondered if Samantha also struggled with the idea that God had abandoned them when they needed Him the most. The thought scared her, but how did she reassure her seven-year-old that God still loved them when she struggled with the same fears? She could only trust the Lord that they would find comfort in His arms and His perfect timing.
Erin kissed them both once more, said goodnight, and went back downstairs. When she walked into the kitchen, she was surprised to find the counters spotless. All the dishes she’d left out were put away, the trash can had been emptied, and there wasn’t a thing left to do.
Erin’s eyes traveled around the room until she saw Aunt Betty sitting at the dining room table. The woman watched her with a small smile. Erin reluctantly walked over to where she sat and stood behind one of the wooden chairs. With Logan’s return, now wasn’t the time to become a burden. She should have stayed and cleaned before her delivery instead of letting Aunt Betty clean up her mess. “I would have taken care of it.”
“I know that. You haven’t left a mess of the kitchen since you moved in.”
Erin looked down at the wooden floorboards. “I did today.”
“Even the best of us have our moments,” Aunt Betty said, her voice soft. “And I know you weren’t too happy to find out Logan is here.”
“It’s not that I’mnothappy ... ”
Aunt Betty snorted.
“Fine. I might be a little unhappy,” she said and looked back up at Aunt Betty. She let out a long sigh. “I just wish I would have known he was coming. Is he moving in?”
Aunt Betty shook her head. “That boy has as little interest in moving to Frostford as you do moving away.”
So none. Not that it was a surprise. He hadn’t been here in a long time.
But she still worried about what his presence here meant. “Why is he here?” she asked, even though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
“Because I asked him to be.”
Erin’s heart beat frantically in her chest. It was like watching two cars about to crash. She knew what was coming, and yet she held her breath in hopes that it might change the outcome. Her whispered voice was more statement of fact than question when she said, “Because you’re ready to sell.”
