Page 33 of Lovewell Lane

I kept giving her words of encouragement until she was three steps away from the ground. I wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her into my arms to put her back on solid ground.

“You’re okay,” I reassured. “That was great. See? No one died.” She nodded, still looking a little pale. “Let’s go inside, okay? Sit down for a minute.”

Another nod. I kept my hand on her waist and led her back inside the diner to sit next to the window. Fetching her a bottle of water, I took a seat next to her and pushed the cold plastic bottle into her hands.

“I’m fine,” she finally spoke. “Sorry, that was embarrassing.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Are you afraid of anything?”

I blew out a breath. What a fucking question. “I’m afraid of plenty of things. Some of them are a lot stupider than heights.”

“Like what?”

The tactics I regularly used to get out of questions with Tessa likely wouldn’t work with Margo. She was too smart for that. And painfully perceptive.

“My mom died of breast cancer. I guess I’m pretty afraid of that,” I said. “People I love dying or leaving me.”

“That isn’t stupid.”

“It’s stupid to worry about it because it isn’t something you can fix.”

Margo nodded and took a sip of water. “What was she like?”

“Strong. Always had some smart-ass comment to say. She used to be a school teacher, back when Honeyfield still had its own elementary school. She was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known, she genuinely cared about people. Always went out of her way to help her neighbors.”

“She sounds like someone I know. She must have been great.”

“She was.” Then again, she wasn’t perfect. No one was. “She cheated on Slick. After she found out she was sick.”

That left Margo speechless. I saw her scrambling for something to say, so I stopped her before she said something stupid.

“Jack and Calli don’t even know. I think she just— broke. When she found out she wouldn’t be able to see all of us grow up.” I propped up a foot on my cooler and leaned back. “My dad is still trying to figure everything out, I think. Even twenty years later. That’s why he travels so much.”

“My dad cheated on my mom,” Margo said quietly. “He was the only man my mom ever stuck around for. She’s like me. Was like me. Always looking for the next great adventure. But she settled down for him, and he cheated on her.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay. People hurt the ones they love the most. That’s the risk you take when you love them. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a relationship that was worth it.”

I tried to remember if I had either.

“Slick would say it was worth it. Even if he knew she’d die young. Even if she cheated on him. He loved her with everything in his soul,” I said after thinking about it.

Margo nodded. “That sounds painful.”

“Love is.”

“Tessa’s mom. What, um, happened with her?”

I looked down at my hands. A few new callouses had formed since I’d started working on building her counters. “If that’s too much—”

“No, it’s fine.” I sat up straighter in my chair and stared out at my own shop through the window. “She cheated, too. Ran off with some rich asshole.”

“That’s horrible. She didn’t even care about what happened to Tessa?”

“She left when Tessa was just over one. There was never any indication that she wanted to be a mother, so I was doing most of the parental duties, anyway. It was probably my fault, too. I was kind of an asshole. She said I never made her feel loved or supported.”

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