Page 16 of Don't Regret Me
“Of course I can.” Jimmy sounded exasperated. “The man doesn’t know anyone here. We help people. That’s what we’ve always done, and that man needs more help than anyone I’ve ever met. He just doesn’t know it.”
“But Liz?—”
“Is a big girl.”
“Mom,” Evelyn whispered, “why are they talking about you?”
Liz put an arm on her back and guided her past the kitchen into the hall. She didn’t speak until they were in Evelyn’s bedroom.
“There are…” She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to explain it. She couldn’t tell her kids exactly who Nick was—or wasn’t—to her. They believed her story about the lake house and the movie star she’d met, but she wasn’t ready for that conversation.
“Mom?” Owen appeared in the doorway, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
Liz couldn’t keep the tear from escaping or her kids from noticing. She sat on Evelyn’s bed, hunched over. She didn’t know how to go back out there, how to face him.
Evelyn crawled up beside her, wrapping tiny arms around her. “It’s okay, Mom. I was upset Papa ordered pineapple on the pizza too.”
A laugh bubbled out of her. She couldn’t help it.
Owen plunked himself down on the end of the bed. “She’s not crying over pizza, Ev.” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be daft.”
“Don’t say daft.” I nudged him. “Who even taught you that word?”
He shrugged. “I know stuff.”
“Please don’t cry, Mom.” Evelyn rested her chin on Liz’s shoulder.
Liz wiped her eyes. “I’m okay. I promise. Mom just had a shock.”
A knock came from the door, and she looked up to see her dad and the hesitancy in his stance. He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes sad. “Kids, why don’t you crawl into bed? I need to talk to your mom.”
Evelyn was the first to stand. “It’s your fault for shocking her with pineapple.”
Normally, Liz would have laughed at Evelyn’s random and ridiculous outbursts, but this time, she stood woodenly, making her way to her father without looking at him.
She followed him to the living room, far enough from the porch so they could only hear the faint sound of chatter.
“I didn’t know he’d be here tonight,” her dad started.
Liz wasn’t mad, she realized. Only surprised. She’d had no time to prepare, to imagine how a reunion would go. “How is he here?”
“Jimmy. Apparently, Nick is in town doing his community service.”
“At the center.”
Jimmy loved his work there. It was his retirement passion.
“But…” She closed her eyes, trying to imagine how all of this had come about. “Pastor Drake and his forgiveness.”
She pushed a hand through her hair, letting more of it fall loose from her low bun. She still wore her work clothes, smelled of garlic and probably a million other things, and just wanted to go to sleep and pretend like this wasn’t happening.
She was never quite sure what her dad thought of the story she’d told about her time with Nick, if he truly believed it. He was a man of faith and believed in the miraculous, but it was different when the unexplainable happened right in front of you.
“Maybe this is good for you.” Her dad’s voice was low.
“Excuse me?” She couldn’t have heard him right.
“Meeting him again as strangers.”
