Page 65 of Homecoming

“They expressed their displeasure with my long absence.”

“For real?”

“Yes. Renata says I shouldn’t take it personally. They’re taking out frustrations with their own lives on me, but it felt pretty freaking personal.”

“They know why you left—and why you stayed gone.”

“I think they felt it was unfair to punish them for what other people did.”

“But you talked to them all the time. Text, FaceTime, photos back and forth.”

“I guess there’s no substitute for friends who are physically present.”

“I’m so sorry they made you feel that way, hon. You don’t deserve that.”

“In a way, I do.”

“How so?”

“When things blew up with Kelly—and Matt—I disengaged from everything. I went to work, came home and stayed away from everyone—except Bertha. I still saw her regularly. But I stopped everything else because I couldn’t bear to see people looking at me like I was the most pathetic person they knew.”

“Aw, babe. You were never pathetic. Matt and Kelly were the pathetic ones.”

“Do you know what it’s like to live in a place like this, where everyone knows everyone, and the whole town is talking about the sisters feuding over a man?”

“I can’t say that I do.”

“It was brutal. Then they got engaged, and my parents stepped up to help them plan a wedding, and I had to get out of here. I couldn’t take it for another second. I left without even saying goodbye to the girls. I got in my car and drove out of town and never looked back.”

“You did what you needed to for yourself and your own sanity.”

“I was only thinking of myself. I didn’t give a thought to what my sudden departure would mean for them. They were my real family here, you know?”

“I do know that. You’ve always said that about them.”

“They deserved better from me.”

“You’re being super hard on yourself, when yourself doesn’t deserve that. They might’ve done the same thing if it’d happened to them.”

“They couldn’t have left like I did. They wouldn’t have been able to afford to just up and leave their whole life the way I did.”

“I’m sure you used your own money to pay for the move.”

“Nope. I made the company pay for it as part of my punishment of my parents. Not that I took a lot of stuff, but they paid for what I did take, and the girls know that because I told them I stuck it to my dad and made him pay for the move. They don’t have a Ballard Boat Works to turn to when times get hard.”

“I’ll bet that’s the only time you ever turned to the company or your parents for that kind of help.”

“It is, but they?—”

“Kara, you didn’t do anything wrong. Companies pay to relocate employees all the time.”

“I know it’s common practice, but the success of my father’s business had separated me from my friends long before this happened. I swear they never believed he wasn’t fully supporting me since I had a nice apartment in town and a car I bought new, but I paid for that myself while the three of them struggled financially much more than I ever did. Coming back here has reminded me of things I’d forgotten about while I was gone.”

“You made different choices for your life than they did. Ellery got married young and bought the inn. Jessie’s chosen to stick it out with Doug, for now anyway. Renata keeps working for Williams when she might’ve moved on to something that paid better. They own their choices just like you own your decision to leave here when it became impossible for you to stay.”

“I guess.”

“It’s true, love. You’re still the same person you were the day we met.”

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