Page 45 of Greek’s Christmas Heir

She laughed merrily as if it was all a big joke, though the look in her eye suggested otherwise. And by the time Constance made it all the way into the main part of town, still and unchanged from the way she’d left it a couple of months back, she had similar conversations with three other townsfolk she’d once considered, if not friends, pleasant faces to interact with.

Not today, apparently.

This did not exactly put Constance in the holiday spirit.

She walked around in the cold for a while, but heractualfriends—who were obviously not expecting her today—were caught up in their usual holiday festivities, or the preparation required for said festivities. She didn’t quite feel up to a run-in with Brandt Goss, not if random neighbors on the street were so comfortable casting aspersions at a glance.

Even Natalia was fussing by the time they started home, though not because she felt judged harshly by the citizens of Halburg. It was far more likely that she, too, had gotten used to that Mediterranean weather.

The truth was, Constance thought a bit darkly as she trudged her way down the center of the snowy road, carrying a whiny Natalia, that she had somehow forgotten the truth about Iowa winters in a hurry. Maybe it was different when it was all you knew. Maybe it was different if you hadn’t just spent weeks swimming in outdoor pools, bemoaning the beautiful sameness of the lovely weather that allowed for summery clothes by day and fires by night.

Whatever it was, the cold and quickly falling dusk seemed more oppressive to her than she recalled. She was shocked—and more than a little upset—that the Iowa blood in her veins hadn’t kept the faith.

And, frankly, she was upset that her nostalgia wasn’t kicking in the way she’d thought it would. It wasn’t that she didn’t love it here. She did. She always would. When she closed her eyes and thought ofhome,it would always be Halburg.

But today it seemed clear to her that the limitations she’d always put up with to live here were choices she’d made. Not facts of life she needed to come to terms with.

That meant she could choosenotto put up with Cheryl Fox’s snide comments. She could choosenotto engage with Brandt Goss. She couldchoose.

It made her feel liberated, and very sad, all at once.

She made it back to the house, and that was where she felt that deep, inarguable surge of love and loss. That felt like the homecoming she wanted.

But the trouble was, she already knew that her grandparents wouldn’t be there when she walked through the door. She’d known for far too long that her parents were never coming back. And now she knew that it was possible to go away and be, if nothappy, necessarily,perfectly ableto live a whole different life.

It seemed to make her more nostalgic, in a way, for the life she’d dreamed about when she’d decided to start the IVF process two years ago.

Last December, all she’d wanted was to raise a child the way she’d been raised. But now she understood something critical. She could stay here. She could raise Natalia here, just as she’d planned, and it would be a good life. But it wouldn’t beherlife.

And her daughter wouldn’t get the same things out of it that she had.

The real truth was that Constance wasn’t that poor, orphaned Jones girl who everyone felt sorry for any longer. She’d stopped being the town’s favorite mascot right around the time she’d started showing. It had been obvious once the baby was born.

People had liked the girl they could pity. They weren’t at all sure about the single mother she’d become, much less the glamorous Cinderella they’d seen in glossy pictures. That had all been made clear to her today.

Now she was notorious, people would treat her differently because of that. Inevitably, they’d treat Natalia differently, too. In her years here, she had always been loved and cared for by public opinion. She hadn’t understood that that pendulum could swing for anyone.

She hadn’t understood that therewasa pendulum.

And besides, she’d been to Athens now. Vasiliki had taken her on a whirlwind tour the day of the ball. She’d seen as many wonders in the city itself as she had in that ballroom. Some faces she knew were renowned the world over. Scraps of intriguing conversations that had nothing to do with crops, yields, or the weather. All the practicalities she knew so well.

She remembered thinking to herself that it was funny how big the world really was. And how easy it was to forget that, living her whole life in a tiny farm town.

It was the kind of thing that now, having seen some of that bigness, she couldn’t unknow. It was like the tiny bit of traveling she’d done had unlocked something inside of her.

“The poor thing isn’t used to the cold,” Constance said as she made it inside the house. She sighed happily as the warmth enveloped her, handing the waiting Maria the baby as she struggled out of her many layers of cold-weather clothes. “Neither am I, apparently.”

“You are not Greek,” Maria said with a smile. “You have no excuse.”

Maria took the baby off, cooing to her as she went. That left Constance standing in the middle of the living room, feeling...harassed by her own expectations.

She sighed out a breath, and wondered what exactly she’d thought would happen if she made it back here the way she’d wanted to do. A parade? The ghosts of all her lost family members, lined up against the far wall?

Constance actually laughed at that image, and that felt better. Then she thought she might as well use Grandma Dorothy’s tried and true remedy for a bruised heart, and set off toward the kitchen at the back to rummage around until she found the hot chocolate. Because there was always hot chocolate.

But just as she started to look through the cabinets, the front door burst open with a terrific crash.

Constance jumped, then went to peer out into the hallway, not at all sure what she thought she might see.

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