“Been waiting a lifetime already.”
“And another hour won’t kill anyone.”
My mouth twitched despite everything. “Bossy woman.”
“You already knew that.”
I did. Fuck yes, I did. And I liked it more than I had any right to.
I looked toward the window, watching people move along the sidewalk outside. Diamond Creek was nothing like New York. Too quiet. Too nosy. Too damn wholesome half the time. Eight months ago, I’d thought I was only staying because of Grace. Because she was here. Because my grandchild would be born here. Because I had nowhere else I needed to be. Now things were different.
Now there was Trudy and her sharp mouth and soft hands. Trudy, who didn’t let me hide behind charm or sex or money. Trudy, who looked at me like she saw every ugly part of me and hadn’t decided to run yet.
“I spent years wanting the truth,” I said. “Now I’ve got it, and I want to throw it in the river.”
“I imagine that’s normal.”
I gave her a look. “You an expert now?”
“No,” she said. “But I know grief. And I know regret. And I know what it feels like to wish the past would stay where you buried it.”
Her words settled between us. I thought about Terry, the husband she still loved. Harold, the man who’d made her feel second best. Grace being taken from this very bakery while Trudy hid behind the counter and carried guilt that didn’t belong to her. She knew more about ghosts than I wanted her to.
I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table. “She thought she was protecting me.”
“Maybe she was.”
“She wasn’t.”
“No,” Trudy agreed. “But that doesn’t mean she didn’t believe it.”
That was the hell of it. Christina had believed every terrible choice was love wearing armor. She had convinced herself that silence was protection, that distance was mercy, that keeping Grace from me was the only way to keep her safe. And now, reading her words, I could feel how badly she wanted me to understand even though she believed she didn’t deserve it.
“I’m angry,” I admitted.
“You should be.”
“I’m sad.”
“You should be that too.”
“I miss a woman I’m not even sure existed.”
Trudy’s eyes flickered with something painful.
“She existed,” she said. “Maybe she wasn’t all you thought she was. Maybe she was more broken than you knew. But the woman you loved existed. You don’t love someone for thirty years if there wasn’t something real there.”
My throat tightened.Fuck.
“You trying to make me feel better, darlin’?”
“No.” Her mouth tilted. “If I were trying to make you feel better, I’d tell you to eat the bear claw before I shove it down your throat.”
A laugh came out, rough and broken. It wasn’t much, but it loosened something in my chest.
“That’s more like you,” I said.
“Good. I was worried all this emotional maturity was damaging my reputation.”
