Page 51 of As They Are
“No. Yes. I’m not sure.”
She pulled out her phone and handed it over. “I’m only doing this because it’s nothing bad. And because you have a good friend.”
I scrolled through everything. Just like Mollie said, they were on my side. Tammy, inexplicably, seemed the angriest.
“Hypothetically,” I said slowly, “if I were to ... forgive him, what would they say then?”
Her voice was low. “If you were towhat?”
“Move on. Move forward.” My skin crawled just saying it. “With him.”
“Once a cheater, always a cheater.” Tammy shook her head. “You deserve better.”
I did. “Still . . .”
“I’ll tell you what I tell my daughter when she’s considering something dumb. It doesn’t matter what I think or what anyone else does. If you do this, in the end,youhave to live with it. Is that something you can do?”
“I think Ihaveto. For the show.”
“You know”—Tammy walked close and put a hand on my shoulder—“things might seem like they have to go a certain way, but nothing is ever set in stone. You’re a smart woman, Wren. Whatever you don’t wanna do, I bet you can find a way out of it.”
“I don’t know if I can this time. And I keep trying to figure out some way to move forward and get work done?—”
Her hand tightened. “You just got done fixing up a whole mansion. You keep busy. What you need is to fill up your cup andrelax.”
“I’m terrible at that.”
“Step one. Come inside the diner and get a drink and some food. I’ll make sure you get well fed. Step two. We figure it out.”
“I’m sure you’re busy. I’ll be?—”
“None of that.” Her hand squeezed again and she started pushing me toward the diner. “I’m not above giving you a coloring page if it means you sit still for a bit.”
“Does that ever work?”
“It does. I gave one to Jade until she was twenty. What a relief that was.”
The cool air of the diner hit me as we walked in, and Tammy gave me a table and a coloring page. I planned on working on the design for the library, but every time she caught me, she took away my crayons.
“What, am I in time-out?”
“That’s what you get when you don’t listen. Now you just have to sit and talk to me.”
“About what?”
“Oh, there are a lot of things. Let me tell you about the time Ron figured out about those internet trackers and tried to throw out my phone. That always gets people to laugh.”
She launched into a story about her husband. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy hearing about a man I’d never met, but Tammy was a good storyteller. I was laughing by the time she was done with her tale, and she immediately launched into another one about Kerry.
I didn’t get a chance to think about the show or the library the entire time.
And honestly, it was nice to be free of it for a bit. It felt like I was a part of something for once.
Even if it wouldn’t last forever.
11
HENRY
