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“That’s my fault. I never said you couldn’t tell her.”

“Why didn’t you?” She sat forward. “Why not warn me?”

“Because it felt too deceptive, like I was purposely keeping it from her.”

“But if I’d known, I wouldn’t have opened my big mouth.”

“She would’ve found out eventually,” he said.

“Not this way.”

“There was no easy way to tell her, Kelsey. That’s why I hadn’t done it yet.”

She rocked back and stretched out her legs, crossing them at the ankles. “So what do the next few weeks look like? You’ll just ignore each other through the festival and Christmas? Then you’ll leave?”

That wasn’t the way he wanted it to go, but now he couldn’t see it going any other way. “Probably.”

“That sucks. You two were good together.” When he didn’t say anything, she got up. “I’ll let you get some sleep.”

He called to her before she could open the door. “Kelsey?”

She turned.

“I’m sorry I’m disappointing you, too.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “A great job offer is a great job offer. I just can’t believe you’re willing to walk away from this place.”

“The only way I could feel good about taking any of the equity in the motel is if I added considerable value, and that takes time. Maybe that’s why your mother put the one-year stipulation in the will to begin with.”

“I don’t think she cared about that at all,” she said. “I think she was hoping it would give you a place to belong and feel at home—at last.”

“Maybe,” he conceded. It was very possible that by shutting out his father’s last wife, he’d done himself a disservice. But he couldn’t have risked Suzanne being another Heather. By then it’d felt like not giving her or anyone else a chance to hurt him was the only way to survive.

“I want you to know that I appreciate all you’ve done,” she said. “I wish I had the money to pay you for the work you’ve put in the past several weeks.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, waving her off. “I’m happy I could help. I enjoyed it.”

Her hand lingered on the doorknob. “I hope you’ll stay in touch with me, at least.”

He couldn’t go back and simply forget the relationships he’d formed here, he realized. They were some of the healthiest he’d ever known. Whether that was because he’d finally healed to the point where he could behave somewhat normally, or they were the people who were meant to be in his life, he couldn’t say, but his time in Hard Luck had changed him forever—this time for the better. “I’ll stay in touch,” he said.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Are you happy with how the festival turned out last night?”

Patience looked up from her computer. Jack had just walked into the office from taking Ari to school and put her overnight bag in the corner for Patience to take when she picked their daughter up this afternoon. “It seemed to go well.”

She hoped he’d leave it there, but he didn’t.

“Ari and I looked for you. We got you a big cinnamon roll, but we couldn’t find you anywhere. Where were you?”

She didn’t want to tell him she’d been at home. Then he’d guess something was wrong. But she wouldn’t lie just to save face, either. That seemed immature and pointless. “I wasn’t feeling that great, so I left.”

“When?”

“Before it really got started.”

He looked concerned. “What was wrong? I saw your father there, gathering toys and donations for underprivileged kids. He didn’t say anything to make you feel bad, did he?”