Page 63 of Little Gray Dress

“Jack is an amazing man.” She turns to me quickly. “You know this. But, he is about to have some news that could make him or break him. It will be up to you whether you choose to overlook this news, and up to him whether he chooses to handle it with grace and forgiveness.” She takes a cup of coffee from the tray she carried in earlier and takes a sip. “But there is a new piece to the puzzle I didn’t see before, and the aura from this one is nothing I’ve ever experienced.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You will know when the time is right. Your head will be confused but your heart will straighten it out. You have a busy year ahead of you.”

“You know in high school when we’d get these vague messages it was exciting to find the clues leading up to events? But now… it’s really just pissing me off.” I grab three more cookies off the tray and glance around the room at all the memories.

“Don’t stress over this, Emi. You need to do nothing to find the ways of your heart. It will come to you this time.” She smiles before wrapping her arms around me in a huge hug. “Your mother is so proud of you. She just can’t wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“The outcome.”

“Which is?”

“For your heart to decide.” Maggie winks at me, knowing I hate this game. There is a reason I don’t spend a lot of time with Aunt Maggie. I adore her, but I don’t adore the cryptic messages she finds so fun to give out.

“You remember,” Maggie says as we walk to the car. “You call me with anything, understood?”

“Understood.”

“What was that about?” I ask Lily after a mostly silent ride back to Evan’s house. “The whole weird yes thing, what aren’t you telling me?”

“What? Nothing…” She finally comes out of the trance she’s been in since we got there and smiles at me. “I don’t know. You know Maggie… all mystery all the time. I guess we’ll find out later.”

“Who is here?” I ask, noticing three extra cars in the driveway when we pull in.

“I don’t know, maybe they’re having a honeymoon going away party.” Lily laughs as she says it. “I wouldn’t put it past Hannah. You know how she loves the spotlight all the time.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” I sigh.

When we walk in the front door, Evan, Josh and Hannah are sitting on the stairs together, all with confused looks on their faces.

“What’s going on?” As soon as the words come out of my mouth, I hear the screeching from a room upstairs.

“Greta,” they say at the same time.

“She’s here?”

“For the last hour. She brought Amelia and her father.”

“Why? Are they going to tie Jack down and make him take her back?” I laugh, knowing what I know about this morning.

“Um…” Hannah’s nervous smile through clenched teeth tells me that whatever it is, is bad. “I’m not sure yet.” She cranes her neck trying to get a better listen to the voices up the stairs.

“You guys are sitting here to eavesdrop?” Lily asks them

“Obviously.” Hannah rolls her eyes at me.

“Well… what are they saying?” I ask her, more than willing to participate.

“I… uh…” Hannah shrugs her shoulders. “I’m not quite sure yet. I’ve heard ‘Greta isn’t the person she once was’, ‘Jack owes it to her to as a man’, and—”

“That’s all so far.” Evan butts in, squeezing Hannah’s hand.

I can tell that’s not all.

“Josh… You should help me in the kitchen,” Lily says before wandering off towards the kitchen. We all watch them questioningly.

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